Does Soda Hurt your performance?

Then you need to ask yourself, how does it help your performance?

Soda Rots your bones.

Had a thread about this a couple of weeks ago. Still trying to weigh it out for myself. Part of the issue is that I think it IS small potatoes compared with simply training well. So, if you are not training as well as you could, might as well tackle that bigger problem before worrying about soft drinks. But clearly, soft drinks aren't beneficial.

Good luck. I only had 3 DP's yesterday.

Frank Shorter took de-carbonated coke along the way to his 1972 gold medal.

Simple wrote:

Soda Rots your bones.

EXAXTLY...

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Water or coke? Water / Coke: This is really an eye opener. We all know that water is important but I've never seen it written down like this before. Or if I have, it was such a long time ago that we may need a reminder.

WATER

75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated.

In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.

Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%.

One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a University of Washington study.

Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.

Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.

A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.

Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%,and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

And now for the properties of COKE:

In many states (in the USA) the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the truck to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.

You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and it will be gone in two days.

To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous China.

To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of aluminium foil dipped in Coca-Cola.

To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca- Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion. (***Note from Mike Dunlop... boiling water works better and doesn't leave a sticky mess!)

To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.

To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminium foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before the ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for sumptuous brown gravy.

To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.

For Your Info

The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its pH is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days. Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase in osteoporosis.

To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous material place cards reserved for Highly corrosive materials.

The distributors of coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years!

Now the question is, would you like a glass of water or coke?

-------- End of original article as passed on to me ----------

If you soak your socks and shorts in Mountain Dew the night before a marathon I hear that can really hurt your performance.

Paddytheirishman, take the link off the [link URL:] field to more effectively utilize the multiple handle technique.

Hoof Whammies to you my friend!

Ouch.

Yea I can see how you would think draining calcium from your bones is bull shit, but think next time you drink a coke, im pouring this drink in my mouth that clean shits of the toilette after you dropped a deuce in it. Yea, Ill take a coke.

Although the drink may have many uses, typically I avoid drinks that have already been used for one of these alternative purposes. But maybe this is just me.

I tend to avoide soda, not banish it, but when theres a alternate choice, water, juice ect. Ill take that.

Don't believe everthing you read on the internet.

Claim: The acids in Coca-Cola not only make it a handy household cleaning product, but harmful to drink as well.

Status: False.

Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2001]

1. In many states the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the truck to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.

2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and it will be gone in two days.

3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl . . . Let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean.

4. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china.

5. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a crumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.

6. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.

7. To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.

8. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan;rap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before the ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.

9. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, And run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze fromyour windshield.

FYI:

1. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. It's pH is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days.

2. To carry Coca Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous material place cards reserved for Highly Corrosive materials.

3. The distributors of coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years! Drink up! No joke. Think what coke and other soft drinks do to your teeth on a daily basis. A tooth will dissolve in a cup of coke in 24-48 hours

Origins: Many of the entries above are just simple household tips involving Coca-Cola. That you can cook and clean with Coke is relatively meaningless from a safety standpoint -- you can use a wide array of common household substances (including water) for the same purposes; that doesn't necessarily make them dangerous. The fact is that all carbonated soft drinks contain carbonic acid, which is moderately useful for tasks such as removing stains and dissolving rust deposits (although plain soda water is much better for such purposes than Coca-Cola or other soft drinks, as it doesn't leave a sticky sugar residue behind). Carbonic acid is relatively weak, however, and people have been drinking carbonated water for many years with no detrimental effects.

The rest of the claims offered here are, in a word, stupid. Coca-Cola does contain small amounts of citric acid (from the orange, lemon, and lime oils in its formula) and phosphoric acid. However, all the insinuations about the dangers these acids might pose to people who drink Coca-Cola ignore a simple concept familiar to any first-year chemistry student: concentration. Coca-Cola contains less citric acid than orange juice does, and the concentration of phosphoric acid in Coke is far too small (a mere 11 to 13 grams per gallon of syrup, or about 0.20 to 0.30 per cent of the total formula) to cause harm. The only people who proffer the ridiculous statements that Coca-Cola will dissolve a steak, a tooth, or a nail in a day or two are people who have never actually tried any of these things, because they just don't happen. (Anyone who conducts these experiments will find himself at the end of two days with a whole tooth, a whole nail, and one very soggy t-bone.)

The next time you're stopped by a highway patrolman, try asking him if he's ever cleaned blood stains off a highway with Coca-Cola. If you're lucky, by the time he stops laughing he'll have forgotten about the citation he was going to give you.

Claim: A tooth left in a glass of Coca-Cola will dissolve overnight.

Status: False.

Origins: I don't know of anyone who hasn't heard the rumor that too much Coca-Cola rots your innards, and the proof of this can be determined by dropping a baby tooth into a glass of it, then going back the next morning to find most of it eaten away. If Coca-Cola can dissolve a tooth overnight, imagine what it must be doing to your teeth, not to mention your stomach and digestive tract!

All such claims ignore a few salient points:

Coca-Cola will not dissolve a tooth (or a nail, or a penny, or a piece of meat) overnight. Anyone who says it does hasn't actually tried such an experiment.

Coca-Cola contains acids (such as citric acid and phosphoric acid) which will eventually dissolve items such as teeth (given enough time), but so do plenty of other substances we commonly ingest (such as orange juice). The concentration of acid in these products is so low that our digestive systems are easily capable of coping with it with no harm to us.

The idea that any substance which can dissolve teeth must therefore damage our teeth if we drink it is nonsensical. We don't hold drinks in our mouths for days at a time -- any liquids we drink simply wash over our teeth very briefly, and our teeth are further protected by their enamel coating and the ameliorating effects of saliva.

Vince Staten describes the legendary version of this tale:

Perhaps you've heard the story. It goes something like this: At Harvard they left a fly in a Coke overnight and the next morning, the fly had been completely dissolved. The name of the university changes and so does the item to be soaked overnight, but the result is always the same: Coke eats it. The lesson is that if it does that to a fly, just think of what it does to your stomach.

To test this theory I swatted two flies: a test fly and a control fly. I put the test fly in a cup of Coke and let it soak for twenty-four hours. I put the control fly in a cup of Roto-Rooter drain cleaner and let it soak an equal length of time.

When I returned to the Coke fly the next day, I discovered, to my surprise, the fly floating around, unscathed. The Roto-Rooter fly, on the other hand, was dissolved down to a couple of tiny fly bits. The Roto-Rooter had also eaten through the bottom of the plastic cup.

Frederick Allen discusses the origins of this rumor in his book on Coca-Cola:

In the fall of 1950, a Cornell University professor named Clive M. McCay testified before a select committee in the U.S. House of Representatives that the sugar in Coke caused cavities. And, he said, the phosphoric acid was a dangerous additive. Giving a vivid account that instantly became part of the national folklore, Dr. McCay described how a tooth left in a glass of Coca-Cola would soften and begin to dissolve in a period of two days.

Coca-Cola's top chemist, Orville May, explained to Hobbs [then president of Coca-Cola] and the company's other executives that anything containing sugar and phosphoric acid -- fresh orange juice, for example -- would dissolve teeth over a period of time. The point was people did not hold food and beverages in their mouths for days on end. They swallowed, and their saliva washed away the sugar and acid before lasting damage was done. Otherwise the whole country would be toothless.

Mark Pendergrast tackles the same subject:

McCay made headlines with his allegations that Coke would eat away the marble steps of the Capitol Building and soften teeth placed in a glass of the beverage. "The molar teeth of rats were dissolved down to the gum line," McCay told the politicians, when "given nothing to drink except cola beverages for a period of six months."

In response, Coca-Cola's head chemist, Orville May, testified that McCay offered a "distorted picture" intended to frighten unsuspecting consumers. May pointed out that the .055 percent level of phosphoric acid was far below the 1.09 percent acid content of an orange and that McCay's studies ignored the neutralizing effect of saliva. Finally, he noted that orange juice or lemonade would also dissolve ten-penny nails and eat holes in the Capitol steps.

We have to agree with Vince Staten's conclusion:

I think there are two lessons here: Don't believe all those Coke stories you hear. And don't, for any reason, let a fly drink Roto-Rooter.

Coke makes you fat.

Go to any fast food outlet and you'll find all the fattest people have the biggest cokes.

Quid pro quo.

When I was running all of my P.R.'s in 1996/1997 I was probably downing at least two cases of Pepsi a week.Granted, I probably only drink a case a week now, maybe that's why I'm not as fast?

What to do? What.... to.... DO????

Arthur Lydiard said that Peter Snell drank "gallons" of Coke.

I don't see what all the fuss is about with Coke. It makes me a little gassy, but as far as I can tell I can still perform just fine. My girlfriend has never complained when I drink Coke before performing.

Do the bubbles in sparkling water like Calistoga or Pelligrino.... cause your bones to rot also?

water:

1. if you shit in it, it helps smother the smell

2. if you use at high enough pressure it eats dirt right off the your car.

3. if you drink too much you die

4. if you put a peice of paper in it, it will eat it alive making it soggy and then breaking it apart, and then in a final intimadating tactic, making it dissolve.

5. If you put it on a stain it will make disapper, magic

in other words the coke myths are bullshit. don't let the media distort your own personal knowledge.