[pheonikai]

Coke is used to clean a toilet and not flush it. To clean a toilet, generally some acid or detergent is needed. Effectiveness of Coke being used for this purpose shows its acidic nature and its ability to dissolve the material on which it is applied.

[Broken_Hippo]

It can also be used to clean battery terminals among other things.

But then again, vinegar is a fairly common cleaning agent: Baking soda and salt are fairly effective as well. I've used salt and lemon juice to clean tarnish off of copper: Toothpaste to clean the tarnish off of silver jewelry or shine up gold. None of these are viewed as bad or unhealthy in the doses we tend to consume them in. Vegetable oils and waxes are used in industrial applications: Soy can be used as a base for ink and lipstick.

Stomach acid itself is about as strong as battery acid, actually. And this is something your body produces and is necessary.

Basically: There are a great many chemicals that have multiple uses, and are only dangerous when used in sufficient amounts or on specific surfaces.

[lmm]

> But then again, vinegar is a fairly common cleaning agent: Baking soda and salt are fairly effective as well. I've used salt and lemon juice to clean tarnish off of copper: Toothpaste to clean the tarnish off of silver jewelry or shine up gold. None of these are viewed as bad or unhealthy in the doses we tend to consume them in.

Absolutely, but I'd be worried about someone who chugged any of those things in the same quantity peopole tend to drink coke.

[coldtea]

Coke is 89% water (from the other % most is sugar).

Not really comparable to consuming 2 cans of salt, baking soda, toothpaste, etc.

And would you really be worried for people drinking several cans of lemon juice per day?

[Broken_Hippo]

Straight lemon juice in those quantities is actually bad for the teeth. As in, my sister used to eat lemons like oranges and quit because of that.

The most apt comparison with lemon juice to coke would be lemonade, though. And some folks do drink quite a bit of that.

[lmm]

> And would you really be worried for people drinking several cans of lemon juice per day?

Yes, absolutely. It's pretty damaging to teeth if consumed regularly, AIUI.

(Personal experience: I once started drinking a few glasses of orange juice (weaker than lemon) daily, within a year I needed four fillings. Stopped drinking it immediately afterwards, haven't needed fillings before or since).

[eloff]

That likely had more to do with the sugar than the acid in the juice.

[lmm]

I'd been drinking apple juice in similar quantities before and since for years (when I say "started" I really mean I switched from apple to orange), which I believe has similar sugar content.

[Broken_Hippo]

Quantities matter, naturally. I'd worry about them as well, honestly. Especially if they were eating tubes of fluoride toothpaste. Luckily they are usually just ingredients in stuff, just like the chemicals in coke.

Vinegar might be somewhat of an exception - especially apple cider vinegar. Folks use it for a natural cure, some folks drinking a glass multiple times a day. I'm personally suspicious and it seems in these sorts of amounts it isn't the safest thing for folks [1]. Again, quantities, preparation, and dosages matter.

[1] http://www.livestrong.com/article/494866-recommended-amount-...

[otempomores]

It always astonnished me that cellular chemistr ca produce this without selfdestruction.

[ekianjo]

Its not because something is acid that it eats everything just like in Aliens.

[teekert]

Still does not mean it is bad for you. Same holds for vinegar (it's acidic). Vinegar is not bad for you, at least when pored over your salad. In fact, only the dose determines the toxicity, it makes no sense to talk about toxicity with out discussing dose (or LD50 value or something.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dose_makes_the_poison

[saiya-jin]

yeah, please drink half a litre, or even better 2 litre of vinegar and report back to us how that went.

or to reverse it - do you know anybody drinking coke in same amounts as usage of vinegar when pouring over salad?

[RankingMember]

I actually drank a little more than .5 liter of white vinegar as part of some experimentation with those "miracle fruit" tablets (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synsepalum_dulcificum). Other than a few minutes of burping, I experienced no ill effects.

Edit: Ok, wanted to make a correction after thinking more about that day: My consumed amount was likely around half that. I was consuming various other oddities during this time as well (drinking hot sauce for example) and there couldn't have been room for 16oz of just vinegar. If you've not played around with those tablets, I recommend it even if you get some stomach upset from the things you consume.

[saiya-jin]

wow OK, I stand corrected. I always, wrongly assumed that more than tiny amount would make digestive system go crazy and probably cause vomit or other unpleasant consequences

[vkou]

To be fair, from my recollection of freshmen challenges, a cup of vinegar, a large raw onion, and a head of garlic is sufficient to either induce vomiting, or to compel the 'winner' to self-induce vomiting.

[RankingMember]

The advent of both these kind of challenges as well as Youtube have brought to light a level of durability of the human digestive tract I wouldn't have previously expected. One only needs to watch someone like skippy62able (L.A. Beast) to have their eyes opened (and possibly their gag reflex triggered). For example, witness him consuming baking soda and then drinking a glass of vinegar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ke1el2TsDs

[rezashirazian]

Vinegar has nothing on the natural stomach acid already present in your digestive system. People don't give enough credit to how resilient the human body actually is.

[ch4s3]

nah, you stomach is already full of a way stronger acid.

[cthalupa]

I drink a lot of sour beers. The agent of souring is generally lactobacillus or pediococcus bacteria producing lactic acid. The pH of these is generally around 3, which is a little bit higher than vinegar. I've made some homebrew that is a bit lower - though it ended up being ab it too sour for my personal tastes. There have been plenty of days where I have had more than 2 liters of sour beer - many commercial bottles are sold as 750mL, and sour beers are generally relatively low alcohol %, so it's easily possible to drink plenty of these if you've decided you want to make a day of it.

About the only ill effect would be some heartburn. Tums to the rescue

[kodt]

The other ill effect of sour beers is your wallet.

Now a new experiment: Will Upland Sours dissolve a nail in 4 days?

[teekert]

I was addressing the toilet cleaning statement. How much do you need to use for that?

But ok, to make break your point I need to provide you with an example of a liquid that cleans the toilet just as well as coke but is healthy while drinking similar amounts. How about lemon juice, diluted to be drinkable without any direct adverse effects on your health and with the same pH as the coke. I'm just guessing but I think it is possible to do that.

[coldtea]

>yeah, please drink half a litre, or even better 2 litre of vinegar and report back to us how that went.

And what is that supposed to prove?

People regularly drink "half a litre" or 2lt of Coke and report back just fine.

The main reason not to drink half a littre of vinegar is its taste and extra acidity.

If it had the same acidity as Coke AND better taste it would be fine to drink.

[Broken_Hippo]

Most folks couldn't get it down due to the taste.

What folks use over a salad is much more paletable - a sweet tasting weak vinegar + oil, and sometimes a touch of sugar. This doesn't make it any better or worse than sodas, simply different. There are many things we eat that aren't something we can do in really large quantities or things that can also have industrial or cleaning purposes. This doesn't make these dangerous, simply multipurpose depending on amount and strength.

Hell, you can get very sick by drinking too much water - or get too dehydrated - and can die if you try to breath it. Yet, water is pretty necessary and healthy to have.

[aninhumer]

But do you need half a litre of vinegar to clean a toilet?

[hiddenkrypt]

Well, since you're asking for anecdotal evidence...

Lemon juice has a pH of about 2, while most colas are more Alkaline at around 2.5. My mom eats lemons raw nearly every day. Sometimes limes (pH ~2.2).

[wruza]

>shows its acidic nature

Generally, yes.

>and its ability to dissolve the material on which it is applied

(Bio)chemistry is a bit more complicated than that. But anyway, if you have calcium or similar waterproof stalagmites in your intestines, you'd better get rid of those asap.

[ekianjo]

You know your stomach has pH 1 right ?

[coldtea]

>Effectiveness of Coke being used for this purpose shows its acidic nature and its ability to dissolve the material on which it is applied.

What effectiveness? Who even does that? And from those who do it, who measured the effectiveness compared to plain water?

[celticninja]

Water did the most damage to the nail in the test.

[gravypod]

Then why not just check PH to prove acidity?