Why is drinking coke bad for preganant women?

Question

Everyone tells my pregnant friend to stop driking cokes, but no one gives her a true expanation as to why it's bad to drink soft drinks.

Answer 1

Any type of caffeine is a diuretic... in other words, it makes you urinate more, therefore you can lose water when you are supposed to be gaining weight. Caffeine doesn't count as the recommended daily fluid intake during pregnancy.
Coffee contains far more caffeine that any soda including coke. A five ounce cup of coffee contains 60-180 mg of caffeine where a 12 ounce can of soda contains 40-59 mg of caffeine.
It is fine to have caffeine in moderation. I allow myself one can of Pepsi every 2-3 days.
Studies suggest that over 300 mg of caffeine a day (this includes chocolate and anything containing caffeine) increases the risk of miscarriage. It can also confuse the babies sleep pattern in the womb and that babies of heavy caffeine comsumption by mother while pregnant suffer withdrawl symptoms after being born.

Answer 2

Honestly, drinking soda is bad for everybody.

Most sodas, especially Coke, contain caffeine. Caffeine dehydrates. A little caffeine may be okay, but a moderate to large amount of caffeine has been linked w/ miscarriage. Also, the half-life (measure of how long a drug stays in the body) is greatly extended in a pregnant woman. So, the caffeine she consumes stays in her body much, much longer than a nonpregnant woman.

Second, most sodas if not all contain phosphoric acid (a preservative). This, to my knowledge, causes the body to excrete calcium. Calcium is not only important to the woman's bones, but is needed by the growing baby too.

Then there's the sugar content. Sodas are a way too easy way of consuming calories. It's easy to drink a far excess of daily calories. They are also empty calories. They provide NO nutrition for a woman and her growing baby.

Artificial sweenters. Even if a woman drinks diet soda to avoid the sugar, artificial sweetners are not good for anybody. We don't know how they might affect the baby, especially w/ long term exposure.

Drinking soda often replaces the water that everybody needs, especially a pregnant woman. Fluids are very important to health.Dehydration can cause many problems for the unborn baby (including low amniotic fluid which can lead to preterm labor, etc). Clean, healthy water SHOULD be the PRIMARY drink for everybody, but especially pregnant woman. The calcluation I heard was .5 an ounce per lb of body weight. That would be 60 oz (or 7.5 8oz glasses) for a 120lb person and 75oz (about 9.5 8oz glasses) for a 150lb person.

While an occassional soda is probably not a big deal, daily or frequent soda intake could be very harmful to anybody's health.

Answer 3

It's not just coke, it's the caffeine in the coke. Caffeine dehydrates, which can cause problems for baby. They say 1 or 2 a day is fine, but you still want to drink lots of water (8 glasses per day), and beyond that I believe you should have 2 glasses for every caffeinated beverage you drink. The sugar is also bad. Having too much can cause weight gain and that may lead to diabetes. Your friends doctor should be able to explain everything better. I'm surprised they never said anything in the first place.

Answer 4

It depends....does your friend drink more than 2 per day?

If so, she should probably cut down to one or 2 per day maximum.

1. It has very high sugar. A 20 oz bottle of coke has the same amount of sugar as 5 krispy kreme donuts. She should be getting her carbs a better way....fruit, bread?

2. It has caffiene. More than 2-3 caffiene drinks a day can be bad.

I actually never drank coke until I GOT pregnant! However, I drank one a day, and drank one cup of coffee per day. My daughter was born last year and is perfect.

My doc recommended that 1-3 caffiene drinks a day won't do any harm, but I will tell you that I did quit caffiene altogether during my first month of pregnancy.....

Make sure your friend takes prenatal vitamins every day! That is the #1 way to prevent birth defects!

Answer 5

People CONSTANTLY would tell me negative things about the amount of cokes that I'd drink. These being coffee drinkers. They'd try to argue that Coke has more caffeine than coffee but could NEVER give statistics. I'd ask, "Would it make you feel better if I poured it into a coffee mug?" Anyway, over-caffinating your body will result in adversely affecting the baby's nervous system that is forming. You don't want to do that. Limiting to one caffeinated drink a day is alright.

Answer 6

It's the caffeine in the Coke that is bad. Here is why:

* increases the risk of miscarriage

* increases the risk of low birth weight and premature birth

* contains compounds called phenols that make it harder for your body to absorb iron which is important during pregnancy

* causes your bones to lose calcium

* increases both blood pressure and heart rate

* stimulates urination and thus reduces body fluid levels – an effect considered undesirable during pregnancy, when adequate hydration is important

You should also avoid all of these caffeinated drinks:

* coffee

* tea

* chocolate

* soft drinks and energy drinks

* some over the counter medications, including some headache, cold, and allergy remedies.

**If you read the article I have linked below you can read more on how caffeine can affect you.

Answer 7

I used to drink diet coke all the time. I think I got addicted to it. Eventually I decided that I was better off avoiding artificial sweeteners as much as possible. It is really hard to determine whether news reports about studies of harmful effects of food additives, or even certain classes of foods have any merit or not. The problem is that the news media are not out there to educate us.... they are out there to make money. The way they make money is by grabbing the largest audience they can. Scare tactics are very effective. What do they care if something that has not been proven scientifically gets banned because of their scare tactics? They got their advertising rates increased! There is a long list of things that have been removed from the marked or companies that have been bankrupted due to the greed of news media and also trial lawyers. Silicone Breast implants, Fen-Phen, to name a couple have never been shown by REAL research to have any dangerous side effects. Instead, media hype, scare tactics, half-truths and anectdotal stories have been foolishly used to sway juries and the public opinion. Whether aspartame is dangerous or not... I have no clue. My advice is to do your best to look at the raw data upon which the scaremonger type reporting was derived. Make up your own informed mind. This is a big deal to me. As Fox Mulder says, "Trust No One!" Except for Scully...... and only then because she's hot. Best of luck..... the truth is out there.

Answer 8

caffenine and sugar are really high in cola products which are both something you need to limit while pregnant. Some say a little caffefine is ok but you have to worry about all the sugar. . And don't drink anything diet. The artifical sweetners aren't good for pregnant women either. Its all about the developing baby. The best thing to drink is skim milk. Less calories, no sugar, and lots of calcium.

Answer 9

She can have 2 a day, just because you are pregant does not mean you have to completly stop caffeine. All the calories may make her gain alot of extra weight though, my doctor said diet coke is best. They even make diet coke with splenda that taste akot more like the real thing.

Answer 10

Congratulations! Well first of all.. ppl told me the same thing. Caffiene isnt good for the baby, but when i talked to my dr about it he said that the equiv to 2 cups of coffee is okay. which is no more than 4-5 cokes.. drink on lil mama.. just dont over do it.