Wow, this is very bad news considering my complete and utter addiction to Coke. But Dr. Chi-Tang Ho, professor of food science at Rutgers University has uncovered evidence that our addiction to canned drinks is directly linked to diabetes because of the high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

HFCS is a sweetener found in many foods and beverages, including non-diet soda pop, baked goods, and condiments. It is has become the sweetener of choice for many food manufacturers because it is considered more economical, sweeter and more easy to blend into beverages than table sugar. Some researchers have suggested that high-fructose corn syrup may contribute to an increased risk of diabetes as well as obesity, a claim which the food industry disputes. Until now, little laboratory evidence has been available on the topic.

In the current study, Chi-Tang Ho, Ph.D., conducted chemical tests among 11 different carbonated soft drinks containing HFCS. He found ‘astonishingly high’ levels of reactive carbonyls in those beverages. These undesirable and highly-reactive compounds associated with “unbound” fructose and glucose molecules are believed to cause tissue damage, says Ho, a professor of food science at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. By contrast, reactive carbonyls are not present in table sugar, whose fructose and glucose components are “bound” and chemically stable, the researcher notes.

So, I went shopping after I read this article with a renewed interest in avoiding products with high fructose corn syrup in them, and I could not believe how many of my every day items are on the list…
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Below is an excellent little video that shows exactly how much sugar is in a can of coke. And before you watch it, if you do a little math, here are some staggering figures:

• There are 12 ounces (340 grams) in a can of coke.
• There are 39 grams (1.38 ounces) of sugar in a can.
• 340 grams / 39 grams = Coke is over 10% pure sugar!
• If you typically drink the equivalent of 6 cans a day you are consuming over 8 ounces or 1/2 pound of pure sugar per day.
• 24 oz. at lunch
• 2 cans during the day
• 24 oz. at dinner
• That level of sugar consumption equates to about 15 pounds of raw sugar per month, or 182.5 pounds per year. (This happens to be about my body weight.)
• Don’t drink that much Coke? Well, 3 cans a day still equals 7.5 pounds per month or 91.25 pounds per year that your body has to either burn off or store as fat.
• Sweet Tea has almost the same amount of sugar
• Sweetened Coffee counts too. A heaping tablespoon of sugar is about 20 grams.

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With all the bad news about Coke making people fat and generally being bad for you, finally some good news!

Researchers at the University of Maryland did a little test by dropping teeth into 12 different beverages for 2 weeks to see what happens to enamel over roughly the period of a decade in your mouth.

Surprisingly, Coke was the least harmful of all the drinks tested!
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