Is cola healthy? Well what do you think?
If you have googled this question and ended up here, I’m guessing you have concerns.
And if you are concerned about it, read on because I also include beer and wine in this post.
Even before 2020, I was seeing degenerative health issues developing in my boomer aquaintances.
Especially amongst the ‘social’ drinkers I know.
Gradually, as we all crept into our 50s, 60s and 70s, people I knew where starting to get chronic diseases.
I noticed many of them were people who ate a lot of sugar and regularly drank socially.
So in looking at the question of, ‘is cola healthy?’, I did an experiment that included alcohol.
You might like to see the results of the ‘is cola healthy’ experiment I did.
I used a bunch of ordinary supermarket Roses to get a graphic visual result.
It might help you make up your mind about the health benefits, or lack thereof, of beer, wine and cola.
Further down this post, I explain the background on why I did the experiment.
But first, the experiment.
In 2021, after years of drinkers telling me that their alcoholic grannies lived to be 110, I started to wonder if in fact alcohol is a health drink😂
So I hit on the idea of taking a bunch of white roses and immersing some of them in popular drinks.
I retained five which I kept in plain water.
I put two in a very popular British brown ale, two in white wine and two in some popular cola.
Then I photographed the rest of their lives as they drank either water, wine, beer or cola.
This is the series of pictures I took demonstrating how the roses got on.
The picture above was taken on the day I bought the roses – April 27th 2021.
Six days later on May 3rd 2021, I photographed them all again.
This is what had happened.
It is clear as day that the five roses in water had opened up normally while the other three pairs had not.
Being in beer, wine and cola had very obviously stunted the normal process of a rose’s life cycle.
In six days, the ones in fresh water had really come to life.
Like most supermarket flowers, they hadn’t looked that vibrant when I bought them.
But over six days they came to life in water and bloomed.
On May 11th, 14 days after my, ‘Is cola healthy’ experiment began, I took more pictures.
Not only did the roses heads react differently in each drink, but the stems did too.
The white wine stems had remained green but their leaves were limp with no life.
The heads were dry and brownish and they hadn’t opened up much.
Moving on to the brown ale soaked stems, they had shrunk, were almost black and very dry.
Some leaves had fallen off.
Those stems soaked in cola lost the green colour of the stem but hadn’t shrunk like the brown ale ones.
The roses in fresh water had very green stems and soft, moist petals.
Their leaves were moist and healthy too.
The final picture for my experiment was taken on May 21st 2021.
It had been 24 days since I bought the roses.
This is what they all looked like by then.
It is crystal clear that beer, cola and wine do not support life.
The roses left in fresh water were still moist and thriving after 24 days.
The three pairs left in beer, wine and cola were dead.
The roses nurtured in water went on for another 10 days before they lost their life spark.
So is cola healthy?
Are beer and wine healthy?
Do any of them cause life to flourish?
Draw you own conclusions.
So, why did I do this experiment?
Well just out of interest to see what would happen really.
And also to have clear graphic images of how toxins stunt life on a simple level.
Even before I did this rose experiment, Cola was something I wouldn’t touch with a bargepole.
I also wouldn’t touch beer or wine either.
It’s been 30 plus years since I last tasted alcohol and even longer since I touched cola.
Way back in the UK in the 50s/60s we didn’t have supermarkets full of soft drinks.
That was back when parents were still in charge and cola was just an occasional treat.
Was it because cola was known to be bad for us?
At that point in time, I don’t think so.
I think it was probably because many parents just couldn’t afford an endless supply of soft drinks.
And my memory says cola was mainly served in cafes, which we hardly ever went in.
We mostly drank water or cheap squash in those days.
Soft drinks like cola were a very occasional treat.
But no one was actively asking themselves, is cola healthy?
I don’t think it crossed people’s minds back then.
The two famous brands were so enticing though, the bottles themselves were like works of art and oh, that taste!
I can still recall being on holiday in Wales, going to our favourite cafe for Cola.
No one was asking, ‘is cola healthy?’ because because we were on a carefree holiday.
And although it had been invented in the 1800s, cola was a newish thing in the UK in the 60s.
The cafe was called Davey Jones Locker – I’m sure it is still there, 60 years later.
My sister and I used to sit there, eagerly watching the server put paper straws into our glasses.
We received the straw laden glasses with the kind of reverence normally only seen at holy communion.
The straws always ended up soggy and flat at the drinking end before we were finished.
But that cola taste exploding on our taste buds – what bliss it was! It was special because it was a rare treat.
And thank God it was!
Once I grew up, I realised that cola is an empty, addictive, substance with no nutrient value.
So I was grateful it had been so heavily rationed in my childhood.
The question of ‘is cola healthy’ was settled in my mind a long time ago.
It was when someone when suggested cola was great for cleaning the toilet.
But why did I ditch alcohol as well?
Basically, I like my liver the size and shape it is.
And, I hate feeling as if I have mistaken the tumble dryer for my bed after a night out.
Alcohol was something I was introduced to quite young – not a great admission, I know.
Sybil, my irresponsible but loveable Aunt was a party animal.
Whichever relative’s house we were at for Christmas, they learned to hide their saucepan/pot lids.
Because my errant Aunt would have a few drinks and then tie saucepan lids to her knees and dance the funky chicken.
All of my mum’s saucepan lids were bent because of her.
Anyway, her other favourite but unpopular-with-my-mother trick was to sneak glasses of Egg Flip to me and my sister.
My mum used to get really mad and glare at my tipsy Aunt across the room.
But I don’t recall her ever taking the drinks away.
So I developed quite a taste for Egg Flip, Sherry, Babycham and Port.
I went on to do my fair share of drinking – mainly in my late teens into my early 40s.
But I eventually woke up to the usefulness of a healthy liver in later life and stopped.
I can honestly say I have never missed alcohol for a single second.
But it wasn’t just cola and alcohol that I decided not to take into the second act of my life.
Once I reached 45, it became very clear to me that most things sold in supermarkets did very little to support my physical and mental health.
To be clear here – I’m talking about my health.
What affects your health and well-being can only be determined by you.
Maybe you thrive on processed foods, alcohol, soda, cigarettes and cakes.
Maybe you never have to see a doctor – which is just as well in 2024!
And maybe you can easily run up 10 flights of stairs with a belly full of shite.
There are people like that… but I’m not one of them.
From 45 onwards I was eating a healthy diet.
It was certainly healthier for me than the diet I had eaten for much of my life.
And it turned out to be the best thing I ever did.
But I’m not going to talk about that here, I’m going to concentrate on my roses experiment (eventually!😍).
So, on with the background to the experiment!
The biggest issue with not drinking is the reaction of drinkers.
Especially dedicated social drinkers – they are the worst in my experience.
And the biggest issue with shunning ‘conventional’ diets is also the reaction of other people.
People who have no idea how food and drink affects body and mind.
I’m talking about people who would happily eat cardboard if it was coated in sugar.
Or perhaps soaked in Proseco or Gin.
Back when I stopped drinking but was still going to pubs with ‘friends’, I was shocked at their reaction.
When asked, “what would you like to drink?”, I would say “water please.”
And their heads would whip round in horror. “Water! You want water?
Then they’d laugh as I stood there saying nothing. “No, come on what do you want? White wine spritzer?”
I don’t think Proseco had reared its chav head at that point in time.
“No, I want water please.”
Then would come the frown. “I can’t go up to the bar and ask for water!”
“Ok, would you like me to show you how? Or I could just get it myself if it’s against your religion.”
These are the kind of interactions that started to develop.
And then when I eventually got my water, the ‘friendly’ jibes around the group would start.
Many drinkers, in my experience, hate being around people who don’t need to drink to have a good night.
It’s almost as if there is an unspoken pact that drinkers will stick together until the bitter end.
United in wrecking their organs and losing brain cells while laughing at people who want to preserve theirs.
They certainly don’t want anyone letting the side down!
They make it known with the ‘jokes’ aimed at the glass of water in your hand.
It’s no accident that I am longer friends with many of the people I knew back in those days.
And it’s possibly no accident that many of those people have succumbed to degenerative diseases over the past 30 years.
The alcohol may not be the cause but it definitely, in my humble opinion, will not have helped.
It really saddens me to hear the main topics of conversation now in people of my age.
It’s often all about comparing medications and experiences with hospital appointments, something else I don’t have in common with them.
Medication dosen’t feature in my life at all. I haven’t seen a doctor in well over four years.
Living things do not thrive on alcohol. They do not thrive on white wine or cola either.
Which is why I did my experiment.
It could be argued that people and flowers have different life support systems.
Of course, that is true.
A flower obviously does not have a liver or kidneys to filter out the toxins in unsuitable liquids.
But just because we do, it doesn’t mean we should constantly bombard them with toxins to deal with.
When organs designed to deal with the occasional challenge are overworked, they will surely eventually fail.
Scientifically, my ‘is Cola healthy?’ experiment is worth nothing.
Because of course ‘science’ depends very much on who wants to prove what.
It also depends on who is doing it and why – ‘scientific’ results can be very skewed.
For me, the failure of roses to thrive in water that also contains ‘food’ toxins is a huge red flag.
Life is a gift – we are the lucky ones who got to spend time on planet earth.
And those of us that were given fully functioning bodies and minds are even luckier.
When you think of all the possible combinations of sperm and egg – each one of us is an absolute miracle.
And when you think of all the possible partners our parents could have chosen…
That goes way back into time for all our ancestors.
Read this in the Huffington Post if you don’t believe me.
The reason I don’t drink any kind of soda or alcohol, or eat empty, harmful food is because I am grateful.
I am eternally grateful for my life and my body with all it’s miraculous organs.
Why would I abuse that gift life has given me?
I absolutely love every healthy organ and cell I have – I truly appreciate them.
I also know I need them to enjoy a long life and stay away from doctors for as long as possible.
That could be next week, next year or next decade – I am not invincible – I know that.
So if you ever ask me what I want to drink and I say water – just get me water and shut TF up.
Because regardless of the fact I think people are fools to drink – I will never push my opinion on anyone personally.
This is the closest I will get to making my thoughts known.
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Thank you for reading 🙏.