A USA TODAY reporter gave up Coca-Cola’s cold turkey. It turned out like this.
USA TODAY reporter Julia Gomez used to consume about two to three sodas a day, but after quitting Coca-Cola, she noticed a big change.
Ken Frondorf is known as “Diet Coke Guy” by his friends and family.
The 68-year-old Cincinnati, Ohio, resident drinks about 10 16.9-ounce plastic Diet Coke bottles every day. Other than the occasional glass of water once or twice a week, this is the only fluid he consumes.
He takes his medicine in the morning with a Diet Coke, puts the bottle on his nightstand, and goes to sleep. He has a refrigerator in his garage to store the cases he stockes up on each month, and he also built shelves for “overflow” to scoop up any bargains at the grocery store.
When Frondorf was diagnosed with diabetes about 20 years ago, he became addicted to Diet Coke and was forced to replace sugary drinks with other alternatives.
“My soda of choice was regular Coke, but that wasn’t the only thing I drank,” he said. “I settled on Diet Coke, and as the years went on, it increased more and more, to the point where it’s all I drink now.”
Mr. Frondorff tried several times to reduce or quit his workload. However, it only lasts a few days before he collapses again.
he is not alone. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 60% of American adults report drinking sugar-sweetened beverages at least once a day. Recently, some USA TODAY journalists also learned firsthand how difficult it is to break a soda habit when they tried to quit cold turkey.
Many people in America love carbonated drinks, and some find it hard to stop drinking them. And that’s by design, medical experts say.
Food and nutrition experts say these drinks can hijack the brain’s reward and motivation systems and rewire the body’s metabolism, leaving consumers wanting more. Thanks to decades of intense product marketing by beverage companies, soda drinkers have been trained to associate these products with specific events and moments, says Ashley Gearhart, a psychology professor who heads the Food and Addiction Science and Treatment Laboratory at the University of Michigan.
“They’re trying to flood every area of your life,” she says. “Just like a chain smoker is getting nicotine all day long, you’re giving yourself a natural sweet taste every day, because whenever that’s not there, some part of you gets a little depressed or a little dissatisfied.”
“It’s just a taste.”
According to Gearhart, humans are born with a sweet tooth. The innate sweet taste was an evolutionary necessity for newborns to desire breast milk and ultimately obtain nourishment.
“It’s one of those flavors that we don’t have to learn to like,” she explained.
Sweet tastes flood the brain with dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved in reward, pleasure, and motivation. Carbonated drinks “overactivate” the dopamine system, causing the brain to crave it “in a way that becomes difficult to resist,” Gearhart said.
“This is something that serves us and has been biologically beneficial for most of human and animal history,” she said. “It is now used to sell sugar water loaded with flavor additives that create brand loyalty.”
Frondorf can attest to this. He refuses to drink Pepsi products and quickly realizes if he is accidentally offered regular cola instead of diet. When asked why he likes Diet Coke so much, his answer is very simple. “It’s just a taste.”
Soda also contains caffeine, a central nervous system stimulant known to be mildly addictive, said Vivica Clark, an associate professor in the Department of Human Nutrition, Food and Exercise at Virginia Tech. This can contribute to withdrawal symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, and irritability.
Decades of industry research and development have also created a unique blend of appealing flavor enhancers that trigger other sensory responses in our brains, making us want to eat more.
“Insulin roller coaster”
Gearhart said it’s not just how these chemical components interact with our brains that matters. It also has to do with how they are delivered into our bodies.
“The whole delivery vehicle thing creates an addiction,” she said.
For example, bananas contain sugar, but most people don’t munch on them, she said. That’s because fruit is a plant matrix that also contains fiber, water, and other components that require energy to break down and nourish the body for a long time. A can of soda contains sugar.
But Dr. David Ludwig, an endocrinologist and researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital, said the sweet tooth is only secondary to what’s actually going on here.
Food reward and desire can occur with any food, not just soda or ultra-processed foods, he said.
“They’re there to guide us into doing actions that are actually helpful to us if done in the right balance and in the right context,” he said. “If you haven’t eaten for three days, you’ll want to eat. It’s natural.”
Ludwig, a professor of nutrition at Harvard Public Schools and an adviser to the Metabolic Health Coalition, said sodas are addictive, but not because they’re palatable.
His research suggests the answer may lie in the body’s metabolism.
Ludwig says that when you consume soda, the quickly digested carbohydrates and sugars cause your blood sugar levels to rise quickly. This causes the pancreas to rapidly release the hormone insulin to lower blood sugar levels and pump sugar into the liver, muscles, and fatty tissues throughout the body.
These calories accumulate so quickly that they are not present long enough to nourish the body and the metabolism begins to crash, which triggers the body’s desire to bring blood sugar levels back up.
“It’s a double whammy because the calories accumulate and you’re immediately hungry again,” Ludwig says. “It’s not that these foods taste amazing, it’s that they change our metabolism…The fundamental problem is that processed carbohydrates are putting us on a blood sugar and insulin roller coaster.”
Coca-Cola and PepsiCo did not respond to USA TODAY’s requests for comment, but American Beverage Association spokesman William Dermody said the makers of the popular soda brands support people’s efforts to live healthy lifestyles. They offer alternatives such as sparkling water, sugar-free sports drinks and probiotic soda, so “families can make the choices that are right for them,” he said.
“Currently, 63% of drinks purchased by consumers are sugar-free,” he said. However, this number also includes Diet Coke.
Soda as the “default drink”
Many soda drinkers can pinpoint the exact time in their lives when they first became addicted to soda.
That’s by design, says Virginia Tech’s Clark. Soda manufacturers invest billions of dollars in marketing dollars each year.
They cross-market with certain foods, fast food chains, college campuses, events, sports, and alcoholic beverages. Their campaign ensures that soda drinks are connected to every aspect of life.
“They socially normalized sugary drinks as the default drink,” Clark says.
Frondorf agrees and says he has no plans to give up soda anytime soon.
“I have a lot of health problems and I know drinking water would help, but it’s not worth the effort,” he said. “I just keep drinking Diet Coke.”
Adriana Rodriguez can be reached at adrodriguez@usatoday.com.
