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?

Sounds to me like either you are snorting instead of drinking it... :eek:

...or you are allergic to something in the ingredients

In addition to seeing your doctor instead of depending on us BF schmucks, you might compare the ingredients in the drink that f's you up to one that doesn't. ;)

What the heck kind of fun would that be? :D

Regular or Diet?

Turn the dial in your fridge towards the red numbers and your Coke should make you experience the cold like symptoms as badly.

Regular

The Cokes I have had in the past hundred years have all been from soda machines. :)

Yellow cap or red cap? Different formulas are out there. Yellow is the cane sugar coke, red is the HFCS coke.

You should have said so earlier. I blame SkyNet. :eek:

Sounds like you are having a mild allergic reaction to something in the Coke. You need to check the lists of ingrediants to figure out what is causing this reaction, compare Pepsi and Coke. If you can't figure out what the substance is that is causing this reaction from Coke then it is in all probability one of the secret ingrediants. So you should then lay a suit against Coca-Cola for the formula so you can learn what it is and stay away from that substance in future to prevent a life threatening anaphalatic reaction. It may be in other foods. Good Luck.

Coke tastes better. You are allergic to taste. Problem solved.

There are only a few ingredients listed: Crab water; HFCS; Caramel color; Phos acid, natural flavors, caffeine.

Same as Pepsi.

There has to be some other stuff in there that falls into the "less than x% so they don't have to list it" category, eh?

Uhmmm......I think I see your problem here. :eek: You're allergic to shellfish.

crab water. yum

let's do an experiment.

try every Coke ever made.
coke in the can. coke in the plastic bottle. coke from the soda machine. coke from the glass bottle.
lol

The llist of secret ingedients is available on the internet, apparently. A news article about two months stated such. A google search should find it for you. Evidenty, there are supposed to be only two people in the Coke organisation that know the secret formula.

TAL did a bit on the recipe in February.

Homer Simpson: Now, what do you have to wash that awful taste out of my mouth?

Khlav Kalash Vendor: Mountain Dew or Crab Juice.

Homer Simpson: Blecch! Ew! Sheesh! I'll take a crab juice.
[Homer drinks the can of crab juice, then several more]

See, the only reason I included that typo is so that the thread would have a reason to stick around for a while.

take an anti-histimine before drinking a Coke - if nothing happens, or your reaction is less severe, you're definately allergic to one of the secret ingredients.

What is up with the crab water?

I would just stop drinking sugar water and switch to something better-- what happens when you drink a Yoo-Hoo?

If crabs are the problem, you could shift to clamato for your invertebrate-based beverage needs

Coke
 

Coke got in trouble a long time ago for putting cocaine in products. Maybe they're sneaking it back in the products.