What happens to your body after you drink a can of Coke
With recent studies linking sugary beverages to fatty liver disease, type 2 diabetes and heart disease, here’s why experts are concerned
An amusing tale which regularly does the rounds on social media is that every time you consume a can of Coke, you lose 12 minutes of your life.
While not entirely accurate – it’s an approximation based on Coke’s sugar content and how sugar consumption affects life expectancy, and doesn’t account for the other genetic and lifestyle factors which influence your lifespan – it has raised awareness of the health concerns relating to Coke. This has been newly highlighted by a number of recent studies.
Last month, a paper examining the dietary patterns of more than 123,000 people in the UK over 10 years revealed that consuming a single sugary beverage such as Coke on a daily basis is sufficient to raise your risk of fatty liver disease by 50 per cent.
This follows another study, published in January in the prestigious journal Nature Medicine, which linked such sugary drinks to millions of new cases of type 2 diabetes and heart disease around the world. The study authors described how one of the major issues is that people typically consume drinks such as Coke as part of a generally poor dietary pattern, low in the fruit- and fibre-rich foods that could have helped the body deal with the sugar load.
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“As the authors themselves admit, this study is observational and cannot prove cause. All soft drinks are safe to consume as part of a healthy and balanced diet. As of September 2025, soft drinks’ share of total take-home sugar in the overall food and drink category in Great Britain is just 6 per cent,” says a British Soft Drinks Association spokesman.
Yet some Swedish scientists have gone even further, placing the blame for many cases of cardiovascular disease firmly at the foot of the sugary drinks industry. In their study, published late last year, they concluded that such drinks are worse for your health than any other sweet treat, significantly increasing risk of stroke, heart failure, and the heart rhythm disorder atrial fibrillation.
So what’s actually in Coke which gives nutrition experts cause for concern, and what makes it quite so hard to stop drinking?
What’s actually in a can of Coke?
In the UK, the classic original version of Coca-Cola has changed its formulation over the years. Unlike in the United States, for example, this means there is no longer any salt in a can of Coke, which has allowed the company to sell the product with three green traffic lights under the UK’s existing food labelling system intending to warn consumers about unhealthy products.
The ultra-processed foods expert Chris van Tulleken cites this as one of the prime examples of why the labelling system needs to be changed. “What is going on?” Van Tulleken asked The Telegraph. “How have we got a labelling system where Coke gets three green traffic lights?”
Calories: 140
Calorie-wise, a can of Coke is relatively modest, but as Robert Lustig, an endocrinologist at the University of California, San Francisco, says, “The calories are not the problem.” He has been sounding the alarm about the sugary drinks industry for many years. He says that many people ultimately end up consuming these drinks to excess because they are formulated to be addictive.
Sugar: 35g
The reason for Van Tulleken’s concern is that a single regular can of Coke will see you max out the NHS recommendations for added sugars (adults are supposed to have no more than 30g per day), something which almost everyone agrees is a problem. “There’s no doubt that the intake of sugar far exceeds the guidelines,” says John Gallagher, an academic researcher at Creighton University Medical Centre in Nebraska.
According to specialist registered dietitian Nichola Ludlam-Raine, the author of the book How Not to Eat Ultra-Processed, such an onslaught of added sugar can increase the risk of tooth decay over time. “Coke is just through the roof [for sugar],” she says. “In my opinion, it shouldn’t be allowed to be sold. What we know is that sugar feeds the bacteria in your mouth that produce acid, and the acid weakens the tooth enamel, leading to cavities.”
Caffeine: 33mg
As well as the sugar content, both Lustig and Van Tulleken point out that we end up craving Coke because it also contains caffeine, a known addictive substance.
While the caffeine content in a can is significantly less than in a cup of coffee, Ludlam-Raine says that not everyone is aware that Coke contains caffeine. In particular, doctors at Columbia University Irving Medical Centre have warned parents that under-11s shouldn’t be consuming drinks such as Coke, as there is no known safe amount of caffeine for this age group, while 12- to 17-year-olds should have less than 100mg of caffeine per day.
“Pregnant ladies might think, ‘Oh I’m not allowed to drink tea and coffee, but I can have a Coke,’” says Ludlam-Raine. “And in fact it does contain caffeine.”
Phosphoric acid
To mask the sheer amount of sugar in Coke – which equates to around eight teaspoons – the drink also contains small amounts of an additive called phosphoric acid. Ludlam-Raine says that for people who regularly sip on Coke throughout the day, having this constant presence of acid in their mouth probably isn’t good for dental health. Over the long term, Lustig believes that it could also be bad for bone health, as phosphoric acid binds to any calcium you’ve consumed through your diet, leading to it being excreted in urine rather than going to your bones.
Caramel colouring
An additive used to help create Coke’s distinctive colour. Scientists have long been concerned about the possible long-term effects of consuming this ingredient, although concrete links have been difficult to prove.
What happens to you one hour after drinking a can of Coke?
After 10 minutes: liquid sugars hit your bloodstream
Because the added sugar within Coke and all sugary drinks is so easily absorbed, it strikes your system rapidly, within just 10 minutes of taking a sip. Normally, consuming so much sugar – a single can contains eight teaspoons – in one go would probably make you feel sick, but it’s masked by the phosphoric acid so you barely notice it.
After 20 minutes: your blood sugar spikes
In Lustig’s eyes, the biggest issue with the added sugar within Coke is that it contains fructose, a simple sugar which causes rapid spikes in blood sugar levels and a corresponding insulin surge.
Lustig explains that the major issue with this is it sends fructose straight to the liver, where it gets soaked up and turned into fat. Over time, this leads to the development of the chronic condition fatty liver disease.
After 45 minutes: your body has absorbed all the caffeine
Within three quarters of an hour of finishing the can, your body has absorbed all the caffeine content. The combination of excess sugar and caffeine ramps up the brain’s reward system, activating a key hub called the nucleus accumbens, often known as the “pleasure centre”.
As Ludlam-Raine points out, this same pathway is triggered by many recreational drugs, although in the case of Coke, the magnitude of the effect is much milder and, crucially, temporary. “It doesn’t cause neurochemical dependence in the same way that drugs do,” she says. “People aren’t breaking into houses trying to get Coke.”
However, over time, people who consume significant volumes of Coke can develop a degree of dependence. As a clinical dietitian, Ludlam-Raine says she often sees patients who are consuming one or two litres of Coke per day, and find that they need to wean themselves off it gradually to lessen the effects of the caffeine and sugar withdrawal.
After 60 minutes: the sugar crash kicks in along with irritability
You might not realise it, but because Coke quickly sends your blood sugar levels soaring, after about an hour, you are likely to experience a sugar crash, often characterised by feelings of irritability, sluggishness, and sleepiness.
“When you consume a sugary drink, it causes this temporary burst of energy and focus, but then your body responds by releasing insulin to bring the blood sugar back down, and sometimes it overshoots,” says Ludlam-Raine. “One of the ways you can avoid this is to at least have sugary drinks with a meal, because then it’s going to be alongside fibre and protein to help slow down the release of the sugar.”
Four healthier cola drinks
Of course, the ideal option instead of a can of Coke is probably fizzy water or a slimline tonic, but what if you’re really craving that distinctive cola flavour?
Fortunately, there are a growing range of other colas which have entered the market in recent years. While Ludlam-Raine cautions that none of them would count as a “health drink” by any margin, given that they are all very much ultra-processed, they are likely to be less addictive and problematic for the body than Coke.
“In my opinion, if you simply lower the sugar you’re ingesting, that is advantageous,” she says. “It’s going to have less of a physical effect on the body.”
So how do some of the other leading cola options match up? Ludlam-Raine says she would give Coke itself a rating of 1/5 among the colas, due to the sheer amount of sugar and other additives, but the following four options are likely to be slightly better
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