Monday, June 18, 2007

WHO KNEW SOFT DRINKS COULD BE HYDRATING?

file under "ridiculous"

this is some copy from a Coca-Cola® 12-pack carton:

Who knew soft drinks could be hydrating?
It's true. All beverages hydrate, including soft drinks. So if you are looking for hydration, but want the delicious and refreshing taste you get from Coca-Cola, don't compromise - go for it! You'll be hydrating your body with each and every sip.

They then provide this link, which leads here, which is a corporate site about hydration, and how Coca-Cola® and its assorted products might meet your hydrating needs, going so far as to suggest that if you had a yen for coffee or tea, that's fine too.

Of course, it is okay to drink those things, but let's be reasonable here-- caffeine acts as a diuretic, which ends up dehydrating you.

I just find this sort of spin very interesting. The idea that all liquids hydrate, while not off the mark, is a bit misleading. Following this logic, one might reach for heavy cream or buttermilk in order to replace one's lost moisture--which might be a godsend if one was in, oh I don't know, DEATH VALLEY or the GOBI DESERT, but when one has other choices, like good old H2O, or an electrolyte-balanced sports drink, fizzy caffeinated drinks just seem to pale a bit in comparison.

Reminds me of the old Saturday Night Live "Cookie Dough Sport" commercial wherein people are chugging cookie-dough ice cream on hot summer days whilst performing strenuous activities.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

For the amount of caffeine in a soft drink, the diuretic effect is very very minimal. Certainly not enough to displace anywhere near the 12/20 ounces of liquid you get from it. Net liquid gain = hydrating.

jrs said...

Wow. After doing some brief research, I've changed my stance on caffeine's diuretic action. Seems that it really is minimal, and here I thought it really did something. I still maintain that the copy for the soft drink is misleading and ridiculous though.

Anonymous said...

cola has high amounts of sugar which can dehydrate you just like salt does. just because a liquid is a liquid, even with a base of water, doesn't mean it's hydrating. just research the effects of drinking ocean water. if every drink could be hydrating, there wouldn't be so many claims of how little drinking water their is on our planet.

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