I tried snorting coke once, but the ice cubes got stuck in my nose. -- CategoryJoke ''You got it all wrong, you're supposed to crush those. See CreditCardUncommonUses. '' -- AnonymousJunkie Seriously, CocaCola (and any other caffeinated sugar water) can be quite addictive. See CarbohydrateAddiction. Withdrawal symptoms include: * Headaches * Tremors * "Freaking out" * Dry mouth * Short temper * Antsy Could these be the same reasons some people are AddictedToCoffee? See CaffeineLag. I used to think so (that I was A''''''ddictedToCaffeine), but I tried to switch to coffee and still got the headaches. On the other hand, simple sugared-water wasn't enough. Root beer didn't cut it. There is a deadly one-two combo of caffeine and sugar that Coke provides that few other drinks do. BTW: "Barq's has bite" took on new meaning for me when I found out that Barq's Root Beer has caffeine in it. Coca-Cola is the only thing that keeps me from being caffeine-free. I can go without caffeine for ages and not miss it, but I miss the taste of Classic Coke. One of life's true joys. Pepsi's increasing dominance keeps me awake at night. Or, is it caffeine? I used to be AddictedToCoke. Until last August, I drank over a gallon of Coke a day, and had done so for several years. Then my doctor pointed out that my blood glucose level was nearly 500 and maybe I should quit. Surprisingly, I found it relatively easy to do. 150? Gah! Normal blood glucose levels are 80-120 mg/dl. Hope the change has helped you. I'm trying to cut down on sugar. Like many people in our cluster of occupations, I live on Coke. How do I do this without a) consigning myself to drinking nothing but water, and b) without drinking heinously evil-tasting diet sodas? Today I had my first Diet Coke in, well, a loooong time, and I remember why I could never get into diet soda the last time I tried - yeecch! What's out there that tastes OK, and at least has less sugar than Coke et al. (or uses some non-nutritive sweetener besides the dreaded aspartame)? --MikeSmith Not sure if you will like them, but when I switched over to diet soda only, I drank only Diet Dr. Pepper, Diet Sprite, and Diet Sunkist. Since then I have started to drink Diet Mountain Dew Code Red and actually, Diet Coke, so long as I squirt some lime juice in it. --BrianRobinson My beverage of choice these days is iced tea, slightly sweetened. I figure about 30 calories in 12 ounces of tea vs. 140 in 12 ounces of Coke. Of course, it helps that I'm from Oklahoma and was raised on iced tea. This probably doesn't do anything about the caffeine level, but I'm not really worried about that. --CurtisBartley This is where I ended up, only with hot tea instead of iced. I try to stick to two teaspoons of sugar (in a 16-ounce mug), but sometimes I find myself slipping in another half of one. -- MikeSmith I've never understood the attraction of Coke, but then the dominant soft drink where I grew up was Ale81 (http://www.ale81.com), a ginger ale. Even now I primarily drink ginger ales, coffee, milk, lemonade, or beer. (I switch around, but Bass Ale is a consistent favorite.) --DavidWall As if you didn't have enough reasons to stop drinking Coke, keep in mind that it's extremely acidic stuff. Friends of mine, while working summer jobs as country club caddies, used to clean dirty golf clubs (irons, not woods) by swishing them around in a pitcher of the stuff. It's murder on your teeth. Me, I quit this year after having my first root canal. -- francis In the U.S., it's a standard grade school science experiment to take eggshells and place them in various household liquids for several days to see what the liquids do to them. Eggshells dissolve in cola more quickly than any of the other substances used (probably because the only other acid in the test is weak acetic acid (vinegar)). Then they sneak in a quick finger-wag about dental hygiene. No, it's not the most robust scientific educational experience, but I suppose they reason that the ends justify the means. * We did this too, but with real teeth! We were of the age when we were all losing our baby teeth, so one of us was persuaded to stiff the ToothFairy and plop a tooth into a glass of Coke. Every day we'd come to class to see the tooth was a little smaller. The tooth was completely gone within a week. Mountain Dew has more caffeine than Coke (and is thus the late-night programmer's drink of choice). And, unlike Jolt, it is readily available. AmericanCulturalAssumption: In Canada for instance, there is no caffeine in MountainDew because Canadian law prohibits caffeine in soft drinks which aren't cola. [Mountain Dew lacks caffeine in Utah as well, which allegedly is in the United States.] Coca-Cola addicts' hell: at my office, during a SprintToTheDeadline, the vending machine was demanding 95 cents exact change for a Coke. And now, you can be AddictedToCoke but only get half of the carbs... with "C2". Ward, is there something you're not telling us? http://money.cnn.com/2004/05/25/news/fortune500/coke_c2/ my partner Nik drinks 6 or 7 cans a day, he says that diet just doesn't taste right (he says that about a glass of coke and coke from a plastic bottle too) - but the interesting thing is he say's that because he drinks so much of it now it's tastes like water to him. I think he's become accustom to the taste so much he's desensitised his taste buds to it, and has a big tummy because of it too :) -- SusannahWilliams ''Sounds like the man who drinks only (and I mean ''only'') Pepsi. http://www.sirpepsi.com/pepsi10.htm'' For those of you switching to "diet" drinks, be aware that most of them contain Aspartame (NutraSweet), which is a registered poison (everything is toxic in the right amount). ''(registered where? -- DustinAleksiuk)'' It is far more harmful than the sugar in Coke --- it can make you infertile and give you cancer, amongst other things. Besides, the Real Thing (TM) tastes far better than any diet substitute (or Pepsi). Actually, I agree with Susannah's partner --- Coke tastes best in a can, though I can drink it from glasses and bottles too. What I ''really'' hate drinking Coke from is those plastic-lined paper cups you get in fast-food outlets. -- AnthonyWilliams (A reformed Coke addict, now down to one or two a week, rather than 6 cans a day; these days I drink mostly organic fruit juice and organic blackcurrant squash --- plenty of sugar, but no caffeine) ''(registered where? -- DustinAleksiuk)'' I can't remember where I read that. Read the NutraSweet page, or follow the links at http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/ and http://presidiotex.com/aspartame/Facts/facts.html and http://www.321recipes.com/aspartame.html for some info. -- AW A coworker of my wife's is A''''''ddictedToDrPepper. Four liters a day. I've found the cherry diet Coke to be the best Zero-Calorie alternative. The extra flavor helps mask the absence of sugar. Now I hardly drink sodas during the week--especially at work--having switched to water. So far, the it hasn't affected any of my skills and hopefully will keep in good health for many more years of hacking. I've also been eating peanut butter sandwiches for lunch 3 or 4 days a week, but that's a discussion for another page.... -- WillGray ---- I live on CocaCola and Coffee. Waking up late is painful, because I get terrible headaches. Outlasting the headaches is not a choice. ---- I used to drink Coke like it was water. One day I decided 250lbs was too much, so I lost 70lbs, and now my drink is "Coffee. Black. Like my soul." I cut almost all the sugar out of my diet, now my major craving is red meat.. and when I have even a tiny sip of soda, I'm lit up like xmas lights. Yow. ---- I for one have been addicted to coke for a long... Oh, you're talking about the drink. Hmm, Nevermind. If I may provide a small off-topic rant, sometimes it gets on my nerves that people are comforted about being addicted to things like coke and coffee, having incredible amounts of it everyday and thinking ''it's okay since it's only a drink'', but are pragmatically against any drug that is not legal in their society. Just think about how once alcohol was prohibited in the US, and where that went. In my experience all illegal substances I've ever (cientifically) tried just do what we try with these coke/caffeine crap a lot more effective, minus all the side-effects we are bound to suffer since you're not taking 2 litres a day. Just an observer thought, I heard this once from a very smart (and not so clean) geek, and really, once you know your chemistry, it does make a lot of sense. Legal drugs / prescribed medicine is overrated. There's an overal sense of paranoia on stuff that is considered ''wrong'', more often than not simply for being illegal. Please mod this down if I'm not making any sense :) --LeoBighetti, hungover and feeling slightly miserable. I've done more than enough blow in my life (well, whenever you do blow, no matter what you intend, you tend to do more than enough :P). I'm still in the process of detoxing from Coca-Cola. It has made me completely re-invent my pain scale (1-10). Coca-cola detox - 10. And that's being generous to 10. The time I self-detoxed from alcohol with knowing what I was doing - 2? Never happened to me, but I imagine getting shot point blank in the face with a gun and surviving... probably a 3. Not sure quitting cocaine even registers. My god. I strongly suspect there's a genetic link. My father has it. I have it. My sister has it. (I love that that's both true and one of my favorite quotes (:). They might as well just put cocaine back in it. I figured it out accidentally. Really pissed me off. Coca-cola? It hadn't even occurred to me. God, it was so hard to type "coca-cola withdrawal" into Google (Due to the violent shakes from the DTs). I said out loud, "You have GOT to be shitting me." With no one here. What the hell? Still a bit of shaking, but it's subsiding. I no longer trust a single medical professional on the face of the Earth (including my own mother). I'm starting into research (now that the shakes have subsided enough to manage to type, again). Going to be collecting it on www.helotrix.com (currently just points to my domain). I'm intending now to get a PhD in Psychology for the reason most people go into Psychology - to figure out what's wrong with themselves. Sigh. God damn Coca-Cola. ---- Ah, so THAT'S the reason why my aunts are such big Coke drinkers! ---- CategoryWorkEnvironment CategoryFoodAndDrink