This article popped on my screen today and I just had to share it. I don’t know that I would be willing to do this test on myself, but I was not surprised by the result of this man’s outcome. What I think is very telling is that all our food choices have an impact on us and so we want to make indulgences a bump on our road to good health, not road blocks! Let’s just not even think about the money spent on this little trial out of his own pocket (upwards of $450 in one month).
It all started in an effort to raise awareness about sugar content in beverages. Los Angeles resident George Prior chugged 300 sodas in one month to see if it would have any effect..and guess what..it did!
(Photo: Facebook)
Staff Writer Liz Dwyer has written about race, parenting, and social justice for several national publications. She was previously education editor at Good.
Just drinking 12 ounces of soda a day can boost your chance of dying from heart diseaseby one-third, but what would happen to your body if you downed 10 sugar-filled cans of Coca-Cola every day for 30 days? Fortunately you don’t have to go to such extreme lengths because 50-year-old Los Angeles resident George Prior has done it for you.
Prior, who follows the Paleo diet and works out regularly, wrote on his blog that he decided to do the Super Size Me-style project because he wanted to raise awareness about how easy it is to ingest hundreds of grams of hidden sugar through beverages. Downing 10 cans of Coca-Cola (sometimes he added in a few cans of Cherry Coke for variety) put an extra 350 grams of sugar into Prior’s body every day.
“ ‘But,’ you’re probably thinking, ‘Everyone knows it wouldn’t be healthy to drink ten cokes a day, and, besides, I only drink four Cokes a day,’ ” Prior wrote on his blog.
“That’s true, perhaps you’re only drinking four Cokes, but if you add in the two glasses of orange juice, the two sweetened coffee drinks from Starbucks, the 16 ounce Odwalla drink, the two ‘healthy’ brand ice teas, and the $9 fruit smoothie you waited ten minutes in line for, you’ve made my ten Cokes look like child’s play. Maybe it’s not all Coke, but they’re all sugar drinks, and a big percentage of Americans drink at least the sugar equivalent of my ten Cokes,” he explained.
Prior got a complete physical prior to starting his experiment on Oct. 24. He weighed 168 pounds, was 9.4 percent body fat, and his blood pressure was 129/77. Even though Prior followed his normal exercise and diet plan, by the thirtieth day of the program, Nov. 22, he tipped the scales at 191 pounds—an increase of 23 pounds in 30 days. His body fat had also increased to 15.3 percent and his blood pressure was a much less healthy 143/96. Prior also experienced increased cravings for other sugary treats. Here’s what happened to his body:
(Photo courtesy 10 Cokes a Day)
“The actual drinking of the ten Cokes got to be an irritating chore every day,” Prior toldExpress. “There were a lot of visits to the restroom, a feeling of constant fullness, and a clutter of cans everywhere.”
But Prior is clear that Coke isn’t the only sugar drink we need to worry about, particularly in regard to the health of children.
“Kids shouldn’t drink Cokes,” Prior told the paper. Given the sugar content of other beverages, “kids shouldn’t drink juices, either, and that’s going to be a very hard sell to parent who believe that juice is ‘natural’, or even ‘organic’,” he added.
In the video below, which was taken on Prior’s first Coca-Cola-free day, you can see how he feels mentally and physically now that the experiment is over—he’s certainly eager to get all those added pounds off. You can also check out what he does with all the leftover soda that he didn’t drink. (Hint: he doesn’t pass them along to a friend.)
eatlivefit.net 
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