Coca Cola disappointment
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I'm not actually disapponted at all. I hope none of you are. This is
commentary on that same list of coke-uses and abuses:
http://www.snopes2.com/cokelore/acid.htm
Origins: Many of the entries above are just simple household tips involving
Coca-Cola. That you can cook and clean with Coke is relatively meaningless
from a safety standpoint -- you can use a wide array of common household
substances (including water) for the same purposes; that doesn't necessarily
make them dangerous. The fact is that all carbonated soft drinks contain
carbonic acid, which is moderately useful for tasks such as removing stains
and dissolving rust deposits (although plain soda water is much better for
such purposes than Coca-Cola or other soft drinks, as it doesn't leave a
sticky sugar residue behind). Carbonic acid is relatively weak, however, and
people have been drinking carbonated water for many years with no detrimental
effects.
The rest of the claims offered here are, in a word, stupid. Coca-Cola does
contain small amounts of citric acid (from the orange, lemon, and lime oils
in its formula) and phosphoric acid. However, all the insinuations about the
dangers these acids might pose to people who drink Coca-Cola ignore a simple
concept familiar to any first-year chemistry student: concentration.
Coca-Cola contains less citric acid than orange juice does, and the
concentration of phosphoric acid in Coke is far too small (a mere 11 to 13
grams per gallon of syrup, or about 0.20 to 0.30 per cent of the total
formula) to harm anyone, no matter how much Coke he guzzles. The only people
who proffer the ridiculous statements that Coca-Cola will dissolve a steak, a
tooth, or a nail in a matter of days are people who have never actually tried
any of these things, because they just don't happen. (Anyone who conducts
these experiments will find himself at the end of two days with a whole
tooth, a whole nail, and one very soggy t-bone.)
The next time you're stopped by a highway patrolman, try asking him if he's
ever cleaned blood stains off a highway with Coca-Cola. If you're lucky, by
the time he stops laughing he'll have forgotten about the citation he was
going to give you.
commentary on that same list of coke-uses and abuses:
http://www.snopes2.com/cokelore/acid.htm
Origins: Many of the entries above are just simple household tips involving
Coca-Cola. That you can cook and clean with Coke is relatively meaningless
from a safety standpoint -- you can use a wide array of common household
substances (including water) for the same purposes; that doesn't necessarily
make them dangerous. The fact is that all carbonated soft drinks contain
carbonic acid, which is moderately useful for tasks such as removing stains
and dissolving rust deposits (although plain soda water is much better for
such purposes than Coca-Cola or other soft drinks, as it doesn't leave a
sticky sugar residue behind). Carbonic acid is relatively weak, however, and
people have been drinking carbonated water for many years with no detrimental
effects.
The rest of the claims offered here are, in a word, stupid. Coca-Cola does
contain small amounts of citric acid (from the orange, lemon, and lime oils
in its formula) and phosphoric acid. However, all the insinuations about the
dangers these acids might pose to people who drink Coca-Cola ignore a simple
concept familiar to any first-year chemistry student: concentration.
Coca-Cola contains less citric acid than orange juice does, and the
concentration of phosphoric acid in Coke is far too small (a mere 11 to 13
grams per gallon of syrup, or about 0.20 to 0.30 per cent of the total
formula) to harm anyone, no matter how much Coke he guzzles. The only people
who proffer the ridiculous statements that Coca-Cola will dissolve a steak, a
tooth, or a nail in a matter of days are people who have never actually tried
any of these things, because they just don't happen. (Anyone who conducts
these experiments will find himself at the end of two days with a whole
tooth, a whole nail, and one very soggy t-bone.)
The next time you're stopped by a highway patrolman, try asking him if he's
ever cleaned blood stains off a highway with Coca-Cola. If you're lucky, by
the time he stops laughing he'll have forgotten about the citation he was
going to give you.
Elizabeth Hill
>and theI've seen news reports of some English medical studies that do show
>concentration of phosphoric acid in Coke is far too small (a mere 11 to 13
>grams per gallon of syrup, or about 0.20 to 0.30 per cent of the total
>formula) to harm anyone, no matter how much Coke he guzzles.
corelation (not necessarily causation) between Cola consumption and bone
fractures in teenage girls. The suggested mechanism is the phosphoric acid
having some effect on calcium in bones.
Betsy