6 ms·

It's really tough seeing the amount of sugar that this recipe has. Really puts things into perspective, compared to simply drinking the end product from a can.

by mngdtt 3y ago

jihadjihad 3y ago
That's the recipe for the syrup [0], not the final beverage. The final beverage would obviously be diluted, to the given ratio of 7:1 in favor of carbonated water. The water/sugar ratio for the OpenCola syrup is nearly 1:1, which is the same ratio as simple syrup [1]. 0: https://github.com/cognitom/OpenCola/blob/master/recipe.markdown#opencola-syrup https://github.com/cognitom/OpenCola/blob/master/recipe.mark... 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrup#Inverted_sugar_syrup https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrup#Inverted_sugar_syrup
- Der_Einzige 3y ago
  Coke is still ~40 grams of sugar per 12oz can. That's insanity and a quick way to give yourself diabeetus. No matter how bad you think artificial zero calorie sweeteners are, they are nothing compared to the damage that too much sugar does to your body.
  - safety1st 3y ago
    I'm gonna poke at this only because some people take the anti-sugar message too far and use it to rationalize away the stuff that's really killing them. Refined sugar is certainly not good for you, but a 12oz can of Coke - is 140 calories. That's about 6% of the recommended daily caloric intake. Calories RDI is about 2000-2500 for most people. But most Americans eat more like 3000-3500 and don't exercise. You can drink a 12 oz can of Coke every day and it's not even a blip on the radar. (A 64 oz tub of it, of course, is a different story.) What people need to do to be healthy is not overeat by 1,000 calories a day while never exercising. That combo will send you to an early grave, the can of Coke in a diet that otherwise hits the right macros, will not.
    - 3523582908 3y ago
      For me, the issue with Coke isn't that one Can can kill you. It's that I never seem to be able to drink only one can. When I drink Coke, it becomes the primary way I hydrate. So five, six cans a day is not uncommon. I can't speak for everyone, but I've known plenty of other people who end each workday with 5+ cans of Coke on their desk. Personally, when I was drinking coke regularly, I was >30% body fat. Now that I've cut Coke completely from my diet, I am ~15%. Honestly though, I would love for these facts to not be true for me. I miss Coke dearly. It's my favorite drink.
      - safety1st 3y ago
        Yes, I would indeed expect that drinking around 700 fewer calories per day would lead to weight loss, because once again, despite endless protestations against the principle, calories in, calories out is the largest predictor of weight gain or loss. It's great to hear!
    - fzeindl 3y ago
      > You can drink a 12 oz can of Coke every day and it's not even a blip on the radar. Only that blood sugar levels also affect hunger, psyche etc. So no, you cannot just sum up calories in that case.
    - billyzs 3y ago
      RDI for added sugar itself is 24-36 grams which a single 12oz can of Coke exceeds. Measuring in Calories, it's recommended to limit daily intake from added sugar to below 100-150 Calorie. [0] % of Caloric RDI isn't the whole story. A can of Coke is less of a blip on the radar as you suggested. [0] https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/carbohydrates/added-sugar-in-the-diet/ https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/carbohydrates/a...
  - throwup238 3y ago
    12oz is about 355 milliliters or 355 grams of liquid, meaning that 12oz can is more than 11% sugar by mass.
    - unwind 3y ago
      Standard in Sweden (Europe?) is 10.6% sugar. This is printed on the can, in the standard nutrition info table that is on all packaged foods. I'm surprised this is not common knowledge, but I guess people in general don't read labels.
Bluecobra 3y ago
A can of coke has almost 10 sugar cubes, it's pretty silly. The only winning move is not to play. https://www.zmescience.com/other/sugar-26072011/ https://www.zmescience.com/other/sugar-26072011/
- mngdtt 3y ago
  Yes, I agree. I feel sick at the thought of eating 10 sugar cubes but I can happily drink a can. Silly is an appropriate word.
- nickthegreek 3y ago
  Luckily for me I only drink the small 7.5oz cans... so I only ingest 6 cubes of sugar... oof. Still an improvement over my younger years. I don't have many 'addictions' in my life, but this vice has been with me for a long long time.
- nataliste 3y ago
  Acid-sugar taste-hacking is something that has bothered me for quite a while. We know that sodium consumption can be drastically reduced by adding salt at table rather than adding it directly to food. Why doesn't this happen with sugar? Why not make desserts that take advantage of the fact that surface sugar will make it seem to be sweeter than it actually is and just have table sugar?
  - zozbot234 3y ago
    You can make fine powdered sugar at home with a coffee-grinder, but it will absorb moisture over time so the industrially-made variety has additives to prevent that.
    - JohnFen 3y ago
      I actually do this instead of buying powdered sugar. I make my own brown sugar instead of buying it as well. Both are very easy to do, so I just make it on an as-needed basis. That way, I don't have to worry about storage and the considerations that come with it.
macinjosh 3y ago
I had the same reaction. Makes one realize how cooking for yourself can greatly impact calorie intake. If I made my own soda instead of grabbing one from a machine I'd certainly balk at the amount of sugar I see, but the number on the side of the can tells me the same info but with less psychological impact.
syntheticnature 3y ago
When I was younger and drank more soda, I discovered I could grab a can of coke, pour it into a 24oz cup I had, then fill the can with water and pour that in and it tasted the same to me. If I focused on the flavor it was very subtly different, in a way that felt more refreshing -- but most of the time I was just drinking it without full focus and couldn't tell the difference. Back then I was also packing lunches for my wife, and she wanted a bottle of commercial fruit juice to have with lunch. We'd buy a large bottle to save money and pour some into a smaller bottle for transport. I mentioned my experiment and she said "I'd like it if you had me try it with the juice" -- so I started doing it. A few days later she brought it up again, "Can we start diluting my juice I'm taking in?" and I told her she'd already been having diluted juice. These days I fall into "water is the real adult beverage" but I always keep in mind just how sweet things are commonly made.
- bityard 3y ago
  To my taste buds, North American candy, soda, and other sugary snacks have gotten twice to three times sweeter since I was a kid. To the point that in most cases, all you can actually taste is the sugar and nothing else. It would be interesting if someone were able to dig up a 30-year-old can of Coke or whatever and compare its carbohydrate content to modern Coke. (You can't just use the Nutrition Facts label, because that is not only a recent invention, but also companies free use it to lie about their products.) We have a 1st-gen Coke freestyle machine in my workplace. On the rare occasion I go for it, I pick a zero-sugar variant, and I dilute it with 50% sparkling water otherwise every single flavor is way, WAY too sweet for me.
  - jowdones 3y ago
    That's exactly what I wanted to say. Both Cola and Pepsi are too damn sweet. On the rare occasion at the right temperature and amount of thirst on my side I can drink a 330ml bottle and actually enjoy the taste. But most of the times it feels like too sugary so either I drink just a small glass and lots of water afterwards or just mix it with carbonated water directly. Bottom line: usually feels too sweet for me. Like coffee: I like a hint of sweet in my espresso, but Cola is like dumping 4-5 spoons in a small cup of coffee. Becomes sugar syrup and that's all one can taste anymore.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
AdmiralAsshat 3y ago
This is true, but the thing is, you don't have to follow the recipe. When I made a batch of this, I just bought the 7x concentrate from Cuba-Cola (https://cube-cola.org/index.php?route=product/category&path=20 https://cube-cola.org/index.php?route=product/category&path=...) and then added like half the amount of sugar it called for when making the concentrate, so that it was more like a 1:1 sugar:water ratio ("simple syrup") rather than a 2:1 ("rich syrup"). It didn't taste as sweet as commercial Coke, but it tasted fine.
JohnFen 3y ago
I stopped drinking soda many years ago because it's all just far, far too sweet for me. But a couple of years back, I started making my own (real) root beer because making my own means that I can control how sweet it is. I prefer mine with about 1/3 the sugar that is in most soda.
andsoitis 3y ago
Similar when you bake a cake. Sugar galore. Inflammation galore.

It's really tough seeing the amount of sugar that this recipe has. Really puts things into perspective, compared to simply drinking the end product from a can.

by mngdtt 3y ago

It's really tough seeing the amount of sugar that this recipe has. Really puts things into perspective, compared to simply drinking the end product from a can.

jihadjihad 3y ago

That's the recipe for the syrup [0], not the final beverage. The final beverage would obviously be diluted, to the given ratio of 7:1 in favor of carbonated water. The water/sugar ratio for the OpenCola syrup is nearly 1:1, which is the same ratio as simple syrup [1]. 0: https://github.com/cognitom/OpenCola/blob/master/recipe.markdown#opencola-syrup https://github.com/cognitom/OpenCola/blob/master/recipe.mark... 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrup#Inverted_sugar_syrup https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrup#Inverted_sugar_syrup

Der_Einzige 3y ago
Coke is still ~40 grams of sugar per 12oz can. That's insanity and a quick way to give yourself diabeetus. No matter how bad you think artificial zero calorie sweeteners are, they are nothing compared to the damage that too much sugar does to your body.
- safety1st 3y ago
  I'm gonna poke at this only because some people take the anti-sugar message too far and use it to rationalize away the stuff that's really killing them. Refined sugar is certainly not good for you, but a 12oz can of Coke - is 140 calories. That's about 6% of the recommended daily caloric intake. Calories RDI is about 2000-2500 for most people. But most Americans eat more like 3000-3500 and don't exercise. You can drink a 12 oz can of Coke every day and it's not even a blip on the radar. (A 64 oz tub of it, of course, is a different story.) What people need to do to be healthy is not overeat by 1,000 calories a day while never exercising. That combo will send you to an early grave, the can of Coke in a diet that otherwise hits the right macros, will not.
  - 3523582908 3y ago
    For me, the issue with Coke isn't that one Can can kill you. It's that I never seem to be able to drink only one can. When I drink Coke, it becomes the primary way I hydrate. So five, six cans a day is not uncommon. I can't speak for everyone, but I've known plenty of other people who end each workday with 5+ cans of Coke on their desk. Personally, when I was drinking coke regularly, I was >30% body fat. Now that I've cut Coke completely from my diet, I am ~15%. Honestly though, I would love for these facts to not be true for me. I miss Coke dearly. It's my favorite drink.
    - safety1st 3y ago
      Yes, I would indeed expect that drinking around 700 fewer calories per day would lead to weight loss, because once again, despite endless protestations against the principle, calories in, calories out is the largest predictor of weight gain or loss. It's great to hear!
  - fzeindl 3y ago
    > You can drink a 12 oz can of Coke every day and it's not even a blip on the radar. Only that blood sugar levels also affect hunger, psyche etc. So no, you cannot just sum up calories in that case.
  - billyzs 3y ago
    RDI for added sugar itself is 24-36 grams which a single 12oz can of Coke exceeds. Measuring in Calories, it's recommended to limit daily intake from added sugar to below 100-150 Calorie. [0] % of Caloric RDI isn't the whole story. A can of Coke is less of a blip on the radar as you suggested. [0] https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/carbohydrates/added-sugar-in-the-diet/ https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/carbohydrates/a...
- throwup238 3y ago
  12oz is about 355 milliliters or 355 grams of liquid, meaning that 12oz can is more than 11% sugar by mass.
  - unwind 3y ago
    Standard in Sweden (Europe?) is 10.6% sugar. This is printed on the can, in the standard nutrition info table that is on all packaged foods. I'm surprised this is not common knowledge, but I guess people in general don't read labels.

Bluecobra 3y ago

A can of coke has almost 10 sugar cubes, it's pretty silly. The only winning move is not to play. https://www.zmescience.com/other/sugar-26072011/ https://www.zmescience.com/other/sugar-26072011/

mngdtt 3y ago
Yes, I agree. I feel sick at the thought of eating 10 sugar cubes but I can happily drink a can. Silly is an appropriate word.
nickthegreek 3y ago
Luckily for me I only drink the small 7.5oz cans... so I only ingest 6 cubes of sugar... oof. Still an improvement over my younger years. I don't have many 'addictions' in my life, but this vice has been with me for a long long time.
nataliste 3y ago
Acid-sugar taste-hacking is something that has bothered me for quite a while. We know that sodium consumption can be drastically reduced by adding salt at table rather than adding it directly to food. Why doesn't this happen with sugar? Why not make desserts that take advantage of the fact that surface sugar will make it seem to be sweeter than it actually is and just have table sugar?
- zozbot234 3y ago
  You can make fine powdered sugar at home with a coffee-grinder, but it will absorb moisture over time so the industrially-made variety has additives to prevent that.
  - JohnFen 3y ago
    I actually do this instead of buying powdered sugar. I make my own brown sugar instead of buying it as well. Both are very easy to do, so I just make it on an as-needed basis. That way, I don't have to worry about storage and the considerations that come with it.

macinjosh 3y ago

I had the same reaction. Makes one realize how cooking for yourself can greatly impact calorie intake. If I made my own soda instead of grabbing one from a machine I'd certainly balk at the amount of sugar I see, but the number on the side of the can tells me the same info but with less psychological impact.

syntheticnature 3y ago

When I was younger and drank more soda, I discovered I could grab a can of coke, pour it into a 24oz cup I had, then fill the can with water and pour that in and it tasted the same to me. If I focused on the flavor it was very subtly different, in a way that felt more refreshing -- but most of the time I was just drinking it without full focus and couldn't tell the difference. Back then I was also packing lunches for my wife, and she wanted a bottle of commercial fruit juice to have with lunch. We'd buy a large bottle to save money and pour some into a smaller bottle for transport. I mentioned my experiment and she said "I'd like it if you had me try it with the juice" -- so I started doing it. A few days later she brought it up again, "Can we start diluting my juice I'm taking in?" and I told her she'd already been having diluted juice. These days I fall into "water is the real adult beverage" but I always keep in mind just how sweet things are commonly made.

bityard 3y ago
To my taste buds, North American candy, soda, and other sugary snacks have gotten twice to three times sweeter since I was a kid. To the point that in most cases, all you can actually taste is the sugar and nothing else. It would be interesting if someone were able to dig up a 30-year-old can of Coke or whatever and compare its carbohydrate content to modern Coke. (You can't just use the Nutrition Facts label, because that is not only a recent invention, but also companies free use it to lie about their products.) We have a 1st-gen Coke freestyle machine in my workplace. On the rare occasion I go for it, I pick a zero-sugar variant, and I dilute it with 50% sparkling water otherwise every single flavor is way, WAY too sweet for me.
- jowdones 3y ago
  That's exactly what I wanted to say. Both Cola and Pepsi are too damn sweet. On the rare occasion at the right temperature and amount of thirst on my side I can drink a 330ml bottle and actually enjoy the taste. But most of the times it feels like too sugary so either I drink just a small glass and lots of water afterwards or just mix it with carbonated water directly. Bottom line: usually feels too sweet for me. Like coffee: I like a hint of sweet in my espresso, but Cola is like dumping 4-5 spoons in a small cup of coffee. Becomes sugar syrup and that's all one can taste anymore.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

AdmiralAsshat 3y ago

This is true, but the thing is, you don't have to follow the recipe. When I made a batch of this, I just bought the 7x concentrate from Cuba-Cola (https://cube-cola.org/index.php?route=product/category&path=20 https://cube-cola.org/index.php?route=product/category&path=...) and then added like half the amount of sugar it called for when making the concentrate, so that it was more like a 1:1 sugar:water ratio ("simple syrup") rather than a 2:1 ("rich syrup"). It didn't taste as sweet as commercial Coke, but it tasted fine.

JohnFen 3y ago

I stopped drinking soda many years ago because it's all just far, far too sweet for me. But a couple of years back, I started making my own (real) root beer because making my own means that I can control how sweet it is. I prefer mine with about 1/3 the sugar that is in most soda.

andsoitis 3y ago

Similar when you bake a cake. Sugar galore. Inflammation galore.