Tuesday, 19 May 2009

Do you drink cola?

A recent study shows that excessive consumption of 'cola' can lead to mild muscle fatigue and worse! This, says the report, is because the caffeine, fructose and glucose found in these 'cola' drinks can cause hypokalemia or low blood potassium levels.

The author of the report points her finger mostly at the caffeine content though: "...in most of the cases we looked at for our review, caffeine intoxication was thought to play the most important role."

What I'm surprised at is not so much that caffeine or the consumption of lots of fizzy cola can have an adverse effect on your body's performance, but is Dr Clifford Parker's comment that he feels that it's, "tens of millions of people in industrialised countries drink at least 2-3 litres of cola per day."

TWO to THREE litres of the stuff a day! I'm not surprised one would feel impeded after that. Maybe two to three litres of sugary coffee would have the same effect. 

In fact the British Soft Drinks Association countered that the cases used in the research were "extreme" and that "moderate consumption...is safe".

Either way I'm gonna stick to my potassium rich bananas thank you very much... 






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3 comments:

  1. Sue C19 May 2009 at 06:09

    A banana a day keeps muscle fatigue away! Perhaps we should chant that when training.

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  2. Ikigai20 May 2009 at 17:13

    cripes that's a lot of cola! I thought you were going to say 2-3 glasses.

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  3. Michele21 May 2009 at 06:10

    Two to three litres per day! That is hard to imagine.

    ReplyDelete