How safe is a can of Coke?
The world is addicted to
Coca-Cola. Each day, 1.6 billion cans and bottles of the sickly brown liquid
are gulped down, making it the globe’s most recognized brand.
But
ever since it was first concocted as a brain tonic in 1886 (designed to treat
‘sick headaches, neuralgia, hysteria and melancholy’), the makers of Coca-Cola
have been secretive about what goes into their drink.
American
pharmacist and Coke founder As a Chandler was so concerned that the recipe
could fall into the wrong hands he reportedly never wrote it down.
That
secrecy lives on today. Coca-Cola insists only two people alive know the
formula, that they never travel on the same plane in case it crashes and that
the list of ingredients is locked in a bank vault.
But
while the recipe for Coke is surrounded by the kind of mystique that marketing
men dream of, the company found its formula under less welcome scrutiny this
week.
For
it has emerged that Coca-Cola in the U.S. has reduced levels of one of its
ingredients following fears that it could cause cancer.
The
chemical — 4-methylimidazole (4-MI) — helps to give the drink its color, but is
listed by Californian health officials as a potential carcinogen.
While
European regulators do not believe it poses any health risks, the company has
also pledged to reduce its levels in Coke sold in Britain and the rest of the
world, although it hasn’t given a timescale.
Pepsi,
meanwhile, has reduced the chemical in its American formula, but refused to
change it anywhere else — meaning if the Californian health officials are
right, the Pepsi sold in Britain and most of the rest of the world is
potentially more carcinogenic than the stuff swigged in America.
Coca-Cola
and Pepsi this week insisted that all of their beverages are completely safe,
with Coca-Cola claiming it made the change in the U.S. only in response to a
‘scientifically unfounded’ food law in California.
In
a statement yesterday, Coca-Cola Great Britain said: ‘Coca-Cola has an
uncompromising commitment to product safety and quality. All of the ingredients
in our products are safe.’
But
the changes to the recipes have raised the inevitable question: just how safe
are the ingredients that go into every can of cola? And what does that brown
stuff really do to our insides?
And
just because you drink sugar-free, diet cola, don’t think you’re off the hook.
For there is a growing body of research which suggests that low-calorie
and sugar-free drinks are bad for us, too.
Studies
have shown that people who have at least one low-calorie fizzy drink a day are
at greater risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes.
And
some experts also believe that sugar-free drinks confuse the brain, leaving it
unable to distinguish between sweeteners, such as aspartame and saccharine, and
regular sugar.
In
that case, a person may be tricked into overeating, as the brain
can no longer calculate the body’s calorific intake.
So
while diet colas may make you feel virtuous, they could be doing you more harm
than good.
COLOURING LINKED TO CANCER
Cola’s
color comes in part from 4-methylimidazole (4-MI), a chemical that forms in the
production of caramel food coloring.
Coca-Cola,
Pepsi and other manufacturers insist it is safe at the low doses found in
drinks.
But
in California they disagree. After studies showed that long-term exposure to
the chemical causes lung cancer in rats, health officials ruled that products
with more than 29mcg must carry a health warning.
And
when research by the Centre for Science in the Public Interest, a campaign
group, found cans contained nearly 140mcg, all cola companies across the U.S.
were forced to cut levels.
Food
campaigners say daily consumption of 4-MI at 30mcg would cause cancer
(pictured) in one in 100,000 people over their lifetimes.
The
U.S. Food and Drug Administration says that someone would need to drink more
than 1,000 cans of cola every day to reach the levels that caused cancer in lab
rats.
And
the British Food Standards Agency agrees. It says the chemical is ‘not a food
safety concern’.
CAFFEINE
A
can of cola contains 40mg of caffeine — half the caffeine in a mug of tea and a
third of the amount in a mug of filter coffee (pictured).
Caffeine
is a stimulant that works on the central nervous system. It can trigger a
dramatic, short-lived increase in blood pressure and increases the heart rate.
But
there is little evidence that it causes long-term high blood pressure, or that
it is bad for healthy hearts. Many regular coffee or cola drinkers simply
develop a tolerance to the stimulant.
In
the UK, pregnant women are advised to have less than 200mg a day. Those with
high blood pressure are also warned to steer away from coffee, tea and
cola drinks.
Caffeine
can also stop the body from absorbing iron from food — so people with a big
cola habit may be at greater risk of iron deficiency.
SUGAR
Doctors
are in no doubt — the biggest danger from cola doesn’t come from the hidden
additives, flavourings or colourings, but from sugar.
Too
much sugar leads to obesity, the major cause of cancer in the western world.
It
also increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, causes heart disease and increases
the risk of stroke.
The
over-consumption of sugar (pictured) has been linked to depression, poor memory
formation and learning disorders in animal experiments. And it rots teeth.
Each
regular can of cola contains eight teaspoons of sugar. When you drink
that much sugar so quickly, the body experiences an intense sugar rush.
The
cane and beet sugar used in Coca-Cola is used up quickly by the
body, which soon experiences a rapid drop in energy, leading
to cravings for more sugar.
PHOSPHORIC ACID
Phosphoric
acid is a clear, odourless chemical that gives cola its tangy flavour and helps
cut through the sickly sweetness of all that sugar.
It
is also an effective rust remover — the reason that a glass of Coke can restore
the lustre to coins and old metal.
But
it can also disrupt our bodies.
Research
at the U.S. National Institutes of Health in Maryland found that drinking two
or more colas a day doubled the risk of kidney stones (pictured) and the
phosphoric acid in it was blamed.
Another
U.S. study found that women who regularly drink cola — three or
or more times a day had a
four per
cent lower bone mineral density in their hips than women who didn’t drink cola.
Again,
phosphoric acid is thought to be the cause. No one is entirely sure why it
leads to weaker bones, although some researchers argue it prevents calcium from
food being used to renew bones.
GENDER-BENDING CHEMICAL
The
‘gender bending’ chemical BPA, or bisphenol A, has been linked to heart
disease, cancer and birth defects.
It
is found in baby bottles, plastic forks, CD cases and in the lining of
aluminium fizzy drinks cans, including those of Coca-Cola.
Because
it mimics the female sex hormone oestrogen, and thus disrupts the natural
balance of the body, some believe it could be dangerous — particularly to
foetuses (pictured).
Some
animal studies have indicated it is safe. Others have linked BPA to breast
cancer, liver damage, obesity, diabetes and fertility problems.
Despite
the uncertainty, it has been banned in baby bottles across the European Union
and in Canada in case it leaches from plastic into formula milk or juice
drinks.
The
Food Standards Agency in the UK says it is safe in food packaging and poses no
risk in fizzy drinks.
CITRIC ACID
Citric
acid gives lemons (pictured), oranges and grapefruit their kick and cola its
bite, helping to make the drink nearly as corrosive as battery acid when it
comes to teeth.
Prolonged
exposure to cola and other fizzy drinks strips tooth enamel causing pain, ugly
smiles and — in extreme cases — turning teeth to stumps.
A
study in the journal General Dentistry found that cola is ten times as
corrosive as fruit juices in the first three minutes of drinking.
The
researchers took slices of freshly extracted teeth and immersed them in 20 soft
drinks. Teeth dunked for 48 hours in cola and lemonade lost more than five per
cent of their weight.
A
study in the British Dental Journal found that just one can of fizzy drink a
day increased the risk of tooth erosion. While four cans increased the erosion
risk by 252 per cent.
