Woman Dies After Drinking Gallons Of Coca-Cola

slimvictor

slimvictor

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A woman's two gallons (10 litre) a day Coca-Cola habit may have contributed to her death, an inquest has heard.

Natasha Harris, a 30-year-old mother of eight from Invercargill in southern New Zealand, died of a heart attack in February 2010.

Pathologist Dan Mornin testified that she probably suffered from hypokalemia, or low potassium, which was caused by excessive consumption of Coke and overall poor nutrition.

He told the inquest he believed Ms Harris died from cardiac arrhythmia and was also suffering from caffeine toxicity.

Ms Harris' partner, Christopher Hodgkinson, described how she would drink up to two gallons of regular Coke every day.

"The first thing she would do in the morning was to have a drink of Coke beside her bed and the last thing she would do at night was to have a drink of Coke... she was addicted to Coke," he said.

Ms Harris' mother-in-law, Vivien Hodgkinson, said her daughter in law would "go crazy if she ran out... she would get shakes, withdrawal symptoms, be angry, on edge and snappy".

She added: "We never knew it was any harm because it was soft drink with no warning labels, I've never seen her drink anything else the fridge was always full of Coke.

"Maybe it needs warning signs."

cont at
http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16213117
 
That's nuts, I drink like a 2 liter of Mountain Dew a day and that seems like a problem to me. Mainly cause its screwing my teeth, she must have had none.
 
Hypoalkemia: potassium deficiency.

Soft drinks don't usually contain appreciable amounts of the element. Combined with the dehydration brought on by 1050mg of caffeine and the 2 gallons of liquid intake, it's a wonder she didn't die sooner. She'd be pissing out all of her electrolytes, potassium especially.

Somebody should have turned her onto coffee.
 
brimmy said:
1050mg of caffeine a day!
Click to expand...

That is a ludicrous amount of caffeine, yet from a brief internet search I found that it "is estimated that the average daily caffeine consumption among Americans is about 280 mg/day, while 20%-30% consume more than 600 mg daily." And, "in North America, 90% of adults consume caffeine daily."

So she was using less than double the 600 mg per day that nearly 1/3rd of North Americans use. There's a large segment of the population that is arguably physically addicted to caffeine -- in that they experience withdrawal symptoms when deprived. Hell, I've read that some samples of Starbuck Grande Coffees were measured to contain up to 550 mg in just one serving (with the average being more around 350 mg). In my thinking Starbucks is successful in part because they intentionally brew coffee with higher caffeine content to addict their customers (I'm not saying I have a moral issue with that -- people can feel caffeine for themselves and know what they're doing -- just sayin cause it's funny to think about).

Also, who drinks 10 liters of anything a day? I agree that she died of general malnutrition with a heavy Coke contribution, but it was her bizarre compulsion that killed her.
 
Odd_nonposter said:
Hypoalkemia: potassium deficiency.

Soft drinks don't usually contain appreciable amounts of the element. Combined with the dehydration brought on by 1050mg of caffeine and the 2 gallons of liquid intake, it's a wonder she didn't die sooner. She'd be pissing out all of her electrolytes, potassium especially.

Somebody should have turned her onto coffee.
Click to expand...

Indeed. Coca-Cola isn't exactly a multivitamin and its not hydrating. Over a gram of caffeine a day is a lot for somebody (although I'm sure she had a respectable tolerance) to do daily for years as well, and I'm sure it wasn't helping her dehydration.

I'm surprised she lived as long as she did, to be honest.

Warning labels? Didn't they just read the regular label?

Idiots.
 
yikes, tons of fluid plus a diuretic = hypokalemia and hyponatremia (low potassium and sodium), but 10 liters of coke is an assload of sugar!

It's more than one kilogram of sugar per day.
 
Yikes, it almost seems unreal.
Article brought to you & paid for by Pepsi Co.?
Can you really blame the death solely on the Coke? What must her food intake have been like then if that's how much Coke she was polishing off per day?
Is this article proof of the family attempting to sue Coke, much like when fat people sue MacDonalds for making them fat?
30 years old and that surely is a lot of caffeine to take per day, but I wouldn't have thought a deadly amount, she coulda at least made it to 50? I woulda thought.
I see you guys mention the sugar levels & such, good points.

Can't point the finger & blame just at Coke, really..
Can we?


Sincerely,
Coca-Cola's attorney of defense
:P
 
slimvictor said:
She added: "We never knew it was any harm because it was soft drink with no warning labels, I've never seen her drink anything else the fridge was always full of Coke.

"Maybe it needs warning signs."
Click to expand...

some fucking people, would you like us to hold your hand as you cross the street? education, go get one.
 
^Hey I agree. "Warning signs" is a bit drastic. Don't most food products & drink products have that?
Now we need to reduce the phrase "nutrition facts" down to "WARNING!"

What would come after that?
 
i just don't understand how they thought this was ok. i mean, if you're drinking 10 liters of anything per day you should know that something is wrong. i also don't really understand caffeine addiction, it's caffeine?
 
coke is acidic as shit.. i have a huge bleeding ulcer cant fuck with the shit i use to love it.. i wonder if this contributed to my gmas death she was the same way
 
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