When I was reading an article about the death of Carrie Fisher, it mentioned that during one movie, she would open 20 Cokes a day and drink 16 of them.
It made me wonder if Coke is addictive.
For years, I didn’t drink any soft drinks – the influence of the 1960s and the healthy food movement. But, now that I’m older, I like to have a Coke now and then. These days, I’d like to have one daily, but limit Coke consumption to once a week.
After I got home from a trans-Atlantic flight Wednesday, I thought I’d drink my weekly Coke to stave off jet lag. It tasted good, so I also drank a 7.5-ounce can of Pepsi I also happened to have around.
That got me to thinking again about whether Coke is addictive.
On the trip over the Atlantic, I read a novel about a woman developing an addiction to prescription drugs. It described how she took a few pills daily to get through her stressful days as a blogger, mom to a sensitive five-year-old daughter, wife, daughter of a dad with Alzheimer’s disease, and caretaker of a huge house in the suburbs.
It described how she’d need a few more pills a day to get the same “help.”
It made me think about how I have to fight every day to keep from eating sweets, and now, thinking about how good Coke tastes and wouldn’t it be good to drink some.
Sugar is addictive, and caffeine is addictive. That makes Coke addictive.
These two cases describe people with serious Coke addictions:
- A 41-year-old woman in England drinks six liters of Coke a day – containing 163 teaspoons of sugar – and has severe withdrawal symptoms when she tries to quit.
- A New Zealand coroner ruled a woman died from drinking too much Coke.
For more information on how Coke affects the body, see the article “What Happens One Hour After Drinking a Can of Coke.”
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