How Much Sugar Is There In Coke?

Most of us are probably tempted by a can of Coke every now and again, though we all know it’s not exactly good for our bodies. But do you know how much sugar there actually is inside that can? Hint: it’s enough to give you diabetes.
A recent study by Public Health Liverpool noted that there is around 54g of sugar in a 500ml bottle of coke, or to put it another way, that’s a whopping 13.5 sugar cubes. With numbers like that it’s no wonder the fizzy stuff is bad for us, and researchers at Cambridge University confirmed that Coke, as well as other sugar drinks, significantly increase our risk of developing type 2 diabetes. In fact, the study found that cutting out just one such sugary drink each day can reduce your risk of developing the disease by 25%.

With around 3 million people suffering from type 2 diabetes in Britain alone, with that figure estimated to rise to 5 million by 2025, it’s safe to say it is a problem in need of attention. Earlier this year George Osborne announced that the UK government will be introducing a new sugar tax on the soft drink industry, which should be in effect by April 2018. This tax will raise around £520 million a year, and aims to address experts’ concerns that over half of all boys and 70% of girls could soon be obese.

A man from Macedonia recently took to Youtube in an attempt to warn people about the shocking amount of sugar in the drink. In the video, he boils down a bottle of Coca Cola on the hob at his home in Skopje, where the drink turns into a thick tar-like substance after 30 minutes. He says to viewers “When you drink one bottle of coke, it’s like eating all this [sugar]”.

Someone else who took it upon himself to warn others of excessive coke consumption was George Prior, who in 2014 embarked on a mission to show the negative effects of the drink by knocking back 10 355ml cans of the stuff every day for a month. As you’d expect, the self-imposed challenge took its toll on Prior’s health; he put on two stone in weight and his blood pressure rose to an unhealthy 145/96. He also noted that, despite already drinking 350g of sugar each day, his body began to strongly crave even more.

A spokesperson for Coca Cola Great Britain said in a statement to Mirror Online: “Every one of our drinks has a no sugar alternative and since 2005 we’ve reformulated 27 drinks to reduce their sugar content.”

“On the front of our bottles and cans we clearly display the sugar content and are one of a handful of food and drink manufacturers to have adopted the government’s voluntary colour-coded labelling scheme to make it even easier for people to make informed choices.
“Our actions are helping make a difference – the latest data shows that sugar taken home from soft drinks is down 13.6 per cent in the last four years.”