[Vampiero]

Coca Cola has phosphoric acid in it so you don't puke from the fact that it contains unnatural amounts of sugar.

Sugar itself, in its processed form, is quite unnatural and causes cravings and addiction.

Our hunter-gatherer ancestors didn't get much sugar aside from fructose.

Conclusion: sugar is mostly used by the industry because it's addictive.

[pvaldes]

Processed sugar is glucose. Glucose is all except "quite unnatural" in our metabolism. Physiology in animals is based on energy provided by any stuff that can be converted into sugar. Our brains will die in a few minutes without glucose. This reminds me the lemon juice panic when used as additive.

We can talk about if this sugar has pesticides or other substances mixed with it in the post process that are toxic, but this trend of people saying that glucose is addictive is ludicrous. Unlike real drugs, we really need it to live. Would you trust somebody saying that oxygen is a drug and people should stop consuming it?

[inglor_cz]

Processed sugar is sucrose, also half-glucose, half-fructose.

Even though both are found separately in nature, it doesn't necessarily follow that their combination is just fine, especially in the volumes consumed in a typical Western diet.

If sugar isn't addictive at all, why do so many people have cravings for sweets? Cravings are a major hallmark of addiction.

[YetAnotherNick]

What do you think processed sugar is? It's literally just natural sugar purified. Almost everything in nature which contain sugar contains both fructose and glucose combined.

[inglor_cz]

The list of problematic substances that are "just" purified natural matter is quite long. We aren't built to consume purified products endlessly.

[YetAnotherNick]

Did I claim sugar is not problematic?

[pvaldes]

> We aren't built to consume purified products endlessly

At cell level this is just what we do.

[otisv]

I think the parent is pointing out that supernatural amounts of refined sugar in food products is unnatural and that it is added in such high amounts because it is addictive (even going as far as to add other substances to reduce the symptoms of such supernatural sugar doses, p.s. I'm unsure if this is true or not just regurgitating his argument) and thus companies are adding as much refined sugar as possible to increase the sales of said products.

While you seem to be arguing against a strawman that the existence of glucose in our metabolic systems is unnatural, thus sugar is addictive? I think your counter points are a tad tangential compared to the actual points made by the parent comment.

[sabbaticaldev]

our brain won’t die a few minutes without sugar, not even days. You should learn about ketones (which i’m sure you already know, why some ppl are addicted to spread misinformation?)

[everforward]

You would be incorrect https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroglycopenia if your blood glucose levels dropped to 0, you would die pretty rapidly. It’s analogous to unmanaged Type 1 diabetes in a vague sense.

There is no physiological requirement for dietary carbohydrates. There is a requirement for glucose, but your body can create it from non-carbohydrate sources including the acetone produced by ketones. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluconeogenesis

[addicted]

Our hunter gatherer ancestors didn’t wear clothes, live in housing, use technology, or anything like we do today.

This is literally the worst justification for anything.

Even the “unprocessed” food we eat today, including plants or dead animal flesh is nothing like what the hunter gatherer ancestors ate.

[SoftTalker]

The point is our internal metabolic processes are largely unchanged and were developed over many millennia of evolutionary adaptation, despite vast external changes in how we live in the past few centuries.

[scotty79]

I don't think there's anything sinister about using acid to make sugar taste better.

You can put ungodly amount of sugar in your tea if you squeeze half a lemon into it and it's delicious.

[bamboozled]

tired of it already , feel like all this food bashing is the new “wokeness”. I enjoyed coca-cola in moderation for decades, so what ?

[sabbaticaldev]

i have a friend literally dying because he can’t stop being addicted to coke. Even with his kidneys and liver stopping working, he’ll still drink it. So what, you ask?

[alphan0n]

So what, we asked.

If coke stopped existing this very second, your friend would find something else to destroy their body with, because the cause of their problem isn’t coke and the prohibition of it isn’t a solution.

[mensetmanusman]

People with survivor bias don’t understand the occasional self sacrifice required for the good of the larger set of humanity.

[FooBarBizBazz]

Nah, wokeness was zero-sum, interested in domination/submission and Power, and it sought to control others, particularly their speech. This is positive-sum -- your health comes at no-one else's expense, and indeed your example can quietly help others (and vice versa) -- and the only person you're really worried about controlling is yourself.

[Mumps]

The phosphoric acid - vomit thing is a factoid. Trivially, consider that you can just eat pure sugar and not vomit.

Also, a glass of orange juice is about 1tbsp of sugar away from coke.