Why Does Coke Give Me Cold-Like Symptoms?
Serious question, actually, and I mean Coke the soda, not any other type of "coke".
I have five cans of Pepsi a week (one a day at work during lunch). Pepsi has never given me any problems.
But if I have Coke, I feel like I have a cold for several hours. This has been going on for about nine months now. I have tried changing a large number of other possible variables, but I have determined it's the Coke. (Prior to about nine months ago, it wasn't a problem.)
In fact, I haven't had Coke for about two weeks, but I had one yesterday, and BAM, it felt like I had a cold for the next several hours.
When I drink it, I get a runny nose, my nose itches/stings a quite a bit, I start coughing, my voice sounds nasally, and I get a mild sinus headache.
(As a side note, I started getting really bad headaches when I would drink any type of Root Beer, so I assumed I was allergic to an ingredient--this also started about nine months ago.) Maybe I have become allergic to an ingredient in Coke/[Root Beer]?
Of course the easy answer is to stop drinking it, and I have, generally, except for the one-time yesterday, but since I got the symptoms when I drank a bottle yesterday, it made me extremely curious.
FOOughts?