Fifty-year-old LA local George Prior has spent the last 30 days drinking 10 cokes a day.
I am really interested and concerned about the huge health issues Americans are suffering because of obesity, overweight, and diabetes. I got the idea when I read that Jude Law drank 10 Cokes a day to gain weight for his Dom Hemingway role, and I joked with my brother that 10 Cokes is probably a diet for some people - but then I went online and found that it actually isn't much more than the average American actually consumes in added sugar daily - and then I thought that if I drank 10 Cokes a day for a month it might be an interesting enough experiment to get people thinking and talking about sugar and diet. Seemed fun and also like it might help people.
Prior started the experiment at 174 pounds. He follows a paleo diet - high in fat and protein but low in sugar and carbs - which he maintained through the experiment.
For the first day, things weren't that bad for Prior - who reported feeling fine, if not a little hyped up by the high levels of sugar.
A week later, things changed - with Prior stacking on six pounds.
I didn't expect to gain nearly as much weight as I did: 23 pounds. That was pretty surprising. But I typically don't eat much sugar, or grains, at all, so I expected that the same thing would happen to me as happens to all the Americans who eat this much added sugar on a daily basis: I'd gain weight, increase insulin resistance, and maybe see some other mild health changes.
Prior also faced some criticism for his experiment, as the pile of cans in his house grew larger and larger.
It's funny that the comment sections in the online news articles are fairly critical...the basic criticism[is that] it's a dumb experiment because everyone knows drinking ten Cokes a day would be bad for you.
But the messages on my website contact page are just the opposite: mainly from people who are grateful for the attempt to raise awareness about the problem, people who recognize that they eat this much sugar and feel both unhealthy and also addicted. Plus, a surprising number of people claim that they drink MORE than 10 Cokes a day. I'm drinking ten Cokes because it gets people's attention, but once they pay attention, they realize that message is powerful; most Americans actually eat this much sugar and that's why they can't lose weight.
At the end of the whole thing George weighed 189 pounds, gaining 23 pounds in four weeks.
I've simply gone back to my normal low-carb diet. I've lost 9 pounds in the last 11 days, and I expect to lose the entire 23 pounds before Christmas. If the weight doesn't come off fast enough, I'll stop carbs altogether for a couple days and let the fat just melt off. But my basic diet, and the one I recommend, is not eating carbs for the first part of day, focusing on proteins and fats, and then eating whatever you want from dinner on.
George isn't planning on drinking cokes for a while.
