Simulation shows exactly what happens to your body after drinking 'liquid death' as warning issued
Thomas Bamford
Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock
A cardiologist has already warned about the long-term damage of drinking too many soft drinks, but a new video breaking down what happens inside your body the moment you crack open a can is as equally eye-opening.
You've might have heard soda described recently as 'liquid death', and if that nickname alone isn't enough to put you off cracking open a cold one, a viral simulation laying out exactly what it does to your body in real time might do the trick.
The term was coined by Dr Jeremy London, a board-certified vascular, thoracic and general surgeon, who has been vocal about the damage fizzy drinks, particularly diet varieties, can cause over time.
Speaking to TODAY, he called soft drinks "a scourge in our society," warning that the sugar content alone means people are consuming far more calories than they realise.
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And even if you've switched to diet soda thinking you're making the smarter call, experts aren't so sure, research has linked regular diet soda consumption to lower intake of milk, calcium and other key nutrients, and raised the risk of conditions including diabetes.
The clip breaks down the chain reaction that kicks off the second soda hits your system. It enters the stomach first, releasing carbon dioxide gas before passing into the small intestine, where a huge load of sugar and caffeine floods into the bloodstream almost instantly.
That triggers your pancreas to fire out a spike of insulin to deal with the sugar shock, while your liver simultaneously goes into overdrive processing both the caffeine and fructose.
Your heart starts beating faster as both substances hit your circulation.
Up in the brain, caffeine crosses the blood-brain barrier and blocks the adenosine receptors responsible for making you feel sleepy, while also triggering a dopamine release that creates that brief buzz of alertness and euphoria you get from a cold can. It feels good in the moment, but the come-down isn't far behind.
Your kidneys are also taking a hit, working harder to filter out the excess sugar and caffeine, which ramps up urine production and leaves you mildly dehydrated. On top of that, the high acidity and sugar content begin attacking your tooth enamel from the moment the drink hits your mouth.
Experts at gut health platform Zoe warn that habitual soda consumption, even the diet kind, comes with a laundry list of red flags worth knowing about.
On the digestive side, carbonation can trap gas in your system and leave you bloated and uncomfortable for hours, while caffeine can trigger contractions in the digestive tract that cause diarrhea in people with sensitive guts.
There's also the sleep angle. Caffeine has a half-life of around six hours, so the general advice is to cut it off at least six to eight hours before bed. And a study published in the Nutrition Journal found that artificial sweeteners may mess with sleep-wake cycles in animal models, something researchers are still unpacking in humans.
Regular diet soda drinkers have also reported more frequent headaches, particularly those prone to them already, with artificial sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose flagged as likely culprits in multiple studies.
And if you find yourself raiding the fridge more after a diet soda, that's not a coincidence, a 2021 study found that diet soda appeared to increase activation in the brain's reward system while dialling down the regions linked to self-control.
If you're looking to ditch it altogether, the alternatives are pretty straightforward: water, unsweetened tea, coffee, or infused water with fresh fruit.
Kombucha and homemade iced tea are also worth a go if you need something with a bit more going on.