
A Morning Cola Instead of Coffee? (1988) - amelius
https://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/20/business/a-morning-cola-instead-of-coffee.html
======
ams6110
When I was in my 20s I would often drink a Coke first thing in the morning.
But when I learned how bad it is to consume that much sugar, I switched to
black coffee or occasionally tea.

~~~
Fnoord
The article is from 1988 but nowadays there is coca cola zero which -as the
name implies- contains no sugar.

The problem with cola though, is its acidity and Co2. These are bad for the
teeth.

~~~
chewz
Coca-cola zero - even more harmful [1] [2]

[1]:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23088901](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23088901)

[2]: [https://diabetesmealplans.com/10509/coke-zero-and-
diabetes/](https://diabetesmealplans.com/10509/coke-zero-and-diabetes/)

[3]: [http://americannutritionassociation.org/newsletter/review-
ex...](http://americannutritionassociation.org/newsletter/review-excitotoxins-
taste-kills)

~~~
Fnoord
That doesn't prove more harmful, that suggests harmful. There's no comparison
being made.

I read your second source and its a whole lot of text about nothing until they
start ranting about artificial sweeteners which are E-numbers deemed safe in
the EU.

As for your first source, I've heard about those studies. There's no
definitive proof on it though. There are some rat strains which are known to
be more vulnerable to diseases than others [1] though I'm not sure which
strains. I'd like to see it reproduced on a species closer to humans.

[1]
[https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jcb.24050122...](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jcb.240501220)

------
jrockway
> Meanwhile, some in the coffee industry are clearly worried. ''The fact that
> Coke is promoting cola in the morning will only serve to boost its position
> in that segment and take away from the coffee market.'' said Steven L.
> Gregg, program coordinator for the Coffee Development Group, a Washington-
> based organization that promotes coffee consumption in the United States.

I guess that's true, but it looks like the coffee industry managed to convince
people to pay a lot more for coffee ($5 latte vs. $0.20 can of coke), so I
guess the shift worked out for them.

~~~
lostlogin
It’s intersting to see what happened since too. Coffee consumption in the US
has gone up a lot. [http://www.scanews.coffee/2017/11/29/2017-u-s-specialty-
coff...](http://www.scanews.coffee/2017/11/29/2017-u-s-specialty-coffee-
consumption-trends/)

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poster123
I love Coke. I wonder if someone could _quantify_ how bad it is for you. If
drinking a Coke a day for a year reduces my life expectancy by one day, or
maybe even a week, I'd accept that.

~~~
Doxin
That'd still be ignoring quality of life issues though. But then I suppose QOL
increase/decrease from not drinking coke would be pretty easy to test by
yourself.

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Bahamut
I thought the quote about not attacking oneself interesting - now there is a
realization that sometimes you do have to attack your own position in order to
beat any other potential disruptors to doing so and taking out your whole
business/industry in the process.

Obviously that does not hold true for every scenario, but it seems like it was
spoken as a truism back then.

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Pengy7
I grew up Mormon and didn't realize a morning coke was weird until I was 25.
It's pretty common out here in Utah.

~~~
nso95
I thought Mormons weren’t supposed to drink caffeine?

~~~
mwnivek
Mormons are not supposed to drink "hot drinks" (i.e., tea and coffee), but
some have interpreted this ban to extend to their shared ingredient, caffeine.
In 2012, the church explicitly stated that caffeinated soda is allowed, but
many Mormons still avoid caffeine.

[https://www.npr.org/2016/01/03/461843938/can-mormons-
drink-c...](https://www.npr.org/2016/01/03/461843938/can-mormons-drink-coca-
cola)

~~~
rorykoehler
What is the reasoning given for the ban on hot drinks?

~~~
cup-of-tea
Reason? We're talking about religion.

~~~
johannes1234321
There are often historic reasons for rules in religions. Some come out of
self-interest (there's only one God -- don't fall for other religions and
their habits), some out ofsome form of ethics which derive out of cultural
background of the time (don't kill, have only one wife) and practical issues
(don't eat pig -- without having a fridge and when being in Messopotamian heat
pig meat goes bad quite quickly, leading to health problems, which can be put
on God's will due to limited medical understanding)

The question is: Do the reasons still apply today?

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Xophmeister
I never acquired the taste for coffee and, while I’ll drink tea in a pinch,
I’m not a huge fan of hot drinks in general; I don’t want to have to wait and
if you leave it too long, that’s worse. I have a sweet tooth and I like the
acidity of ice-cold Coke, but it felt a bit weird having this in the morning.
As such, I started making iced tea, with lemon, added caffeine and zero-
calorie sweeteners. It took a bit of experimentation to get the recipe right
(iced tea isn’t hugely popular in the UK), but it works great as a morning
drink for me.

~~~
dangerbird2
Cold brew coffee is awesome too. It has the added bonuses in that it’s lower
acidity than hot coffee, and you don’t need very expensive roast to get a good
result

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pinoyathletics
Thats why Ice Coffee was invented maybe.

