Should Latter-day Saints Drink Coca-Cola?

Should Latter-day Saints Drink Coca-Cola?

By Dr. Frederick J. Pack

At noon recess of a recent general conference of the Church,

while waiting by appointment for a friend at one of the city's

principal drug stores, the writer became very much astonished to

witness a large number of brethren and sisters step up to the

soda water counter, drink a class of coca-cola, and then 'valk

away as if it were a regular practice.

Subsequent investigation has convinced the writer that great

numbers of Latter-day Saints, who devotedly abstain from the

use of tea and coffee, are persistent drinkers of coca-cola. It

is quite generally known that this popular beverage is being

extensively used by young people ; the surprise, however, comes

in the information that older and more experienced people are

using it. Recent inquiry seems to indicate that the "Mormon"

people in general are quite unfamiliar with the chemical com-

position of this drink and that its physiological effect is very

much the same as that of tea or coffee.

The purpose in writing this article is to place before the

Latter-day Saints a simple, frank and unbiased statement of the

nature of coca-cola and its effect upon those who use it.

Some few years ago the United States government chemists

brought suit under the Pure Food and Drugs law against the

Coca-Cola Company, charging that this drink is deleterious to

health. A long and hard-fought suit followed. The judge ruled

that the Pure Food and Drugs law does not cover such a case as

presented and dismissed the matter. Since that time much has

appeared in certain newspapers and privately published pamph-

lets to the effect that the harmless nature of coca-cola has been

vindicated. It should be noted, however, that the judge reported

nothing of the kind ; his ruling simply shows that the Pure Food

and Drugs law needs amending.

During the court proceedings just alluded to,, government

and other chemists proved beyond question that the beverage

coca-cola contains a high percentage of the alkaloid caffeine.

The Coca-Cola Company itself is very frank in its admission of

the existence of this drug as witness the following statement

taken from an advertisement recently appearing in the Medical

Times: "Coca-cola belongs to the same class of food products

SHOULD LATTER-DAY SAINTS DRINK COCA-COLA? 433

as tea and coffee, viz., the caffeine-beverages. Though they differ

in flavor they are similar in effect, for caffeine is their common

and only active principle."

We quote from a little pamphlet, distributed gratis by the

Coca-Cola Company, entitled The Truth, the Whole Truth and

Nothing But the Truth About Coca-Cola: "What we want you

to understand, however, is the very important fact that there

is caffeine in Coca-Cola and that it is of actual benefit to you. It

is there with a purpose — not by accident and never to be apolo-

gized for, explained, or even criticized."

The similarity of the action of coca-cola to that of tea and

coffee is further admitted in the following quotation taken from

the pamphlet just mentioned: "Let us come out flat-footed and

tell you people who think — who use your brains to make your

living — that Coca-Cola helps. It helps you just as tea and coffee

help. It takes away from the tired brain that which produces

its fatigue; thereby ease of thought is produced by the caffeine

in tea, coffee and Coca-Cola that anyone who makes his living by

brainwork will appreciate.

"As a drinker of the other beverages you will fully under-

stand what we mean. When you have tasted Coca-Cola and re-

ceived its benefits you will understand fully and completely what

we mean when we tell you that this delicious beverage is your

'between-meals cup of tea and coffee'."

For the Latter-day Saints who believe that tea and coffee are

detrimental, there can be but one attitude toward the use of

coca-cola, for, according to the testimony of the company itself,

its action is precisely similar to that of tea and coffee.

Some idea of the relative harmfulness of coca-cola and tea

and coffee can be obtained from a comparison of the respective

amounts of caffeine that each carries. Authorities agree that

caffeine is present in tea and coffee, as they are ordinarily served

at restaurant tables, to the extent of about 1.5 to 2.5 grains per

cup. The coca-cola people admit that an equal amount of their

beverage contains about 1.25 grains of caffeine. It will be ob-

served that coca-cola contains slightly less caffeine than does an

equal amount of either tea or coffee. It should be understood,

however, that an ordinary glass of coca-cola is much larger than

a cup of the other beverages. It is fair to say, therefore, that

the caffeine content of a glass of coca-cola is just about equal to

that contained in a cup of tea or coffee.

But just here another point should be kept in mind. Caf-

feine is naturally present in tea and coffee while it is artificially

present in coca-cola; to the latter the drug is added during the

process of manufacture. According to the belief of certain

noted scientists, caffeine, when artificially added is much more

harmful than when naturally present. Of this matter Dr. Harvey

134 IMPROVEMENT ERA

W. Wiley says: "When caffeine is separated from tea and coffee,

and used as a separate drag, it exerts a very much more spe-

cific action upon the system than when in natural combination."

Dr. William J. Schieffelin, president of the National Wholesale

Druggists' Association, says practically the same thing in the fol-

lowing excerpt: "When you take caffeine in tea and coffee you

take it accompanied by caffe-tannic acid, which goes in with

the infusion. After you have had two or three cups your stom-

ach does not crave any more. If you extract the caffeine and

mix it with syrup, and flavor it, you can drink six or eight glasses

of it, and there is no warning from your stomach, and you be-

come a nervous wreck. That is the danger of the drinks that

have caffeine added to them."

It is not the purpose of the present article to describe even

briefly the effects of caffeine upon the human system ; this would

require far more space than is at present available. The Latter-

day Saints are already more or less familiar with this matter.

The coca-cola habit has made rapid inroads into the lives

of an unsuspecting people. Especially during summer months

it is not an unusual matter for business men and office girls to

drink as high as five or more glasses of this beverage daily. The

Coca-Cola Company claims that as much as seven to fourteen

glasses of their beverage taken daily will not be injurious to

health. This amount would contain 8 to 16 grains of caffeine.

The truthfulness of their claim can be judged from the results

of the experiment outlined below, in which the greatest quan-

tity of caffeine administered was 6 grains.

Some six or seven years ago the Coca-Cola Company fur-

nished the money with which Professor H. L. Hollingworth of

Columbia University made an extensive series of experiments

dealing with the effect of caffeine upon human beings. Profes-

sor Hollingworth had previously acted as an expert for the Coca-

Cola Company in the suit to which reference has been made,

and, therefore, was likely not prejudiced against the use of caf-

feine at least in small quantities. After the completion of the

experiments the results were published in book form, but no one

seems to have heard of the Coca-Cola Company heralding its

findings. We may surmise that they were not just what the

company had expected.

Throughout the experiment great care was exercised to

reduce all disturbing influences to a minimum, so that the re-

sults would be the more reliable. The subjects, consisting of

six men and ten women, were engaged for a period of forty days,

and during this time each individual was required strictlv to

conform to certain stipulated conditions relating to diet and

general activity. None was permitted to use tea, coffee, choco-

late, cocoa, tobacco, soda fountain drinks containing patent

SHOULD LATTER-DAY SAINTS DRINK COCA-COLA? 435

syrups, alcoholic drinks or any drug except as instructed by the

director in charge.

In order further to avoid any probability of error, the sub-

jects were not permitted to know when the caffeine was admin-

istered. This was accomplished by prescribing at stated inter-

vals, capsules part of which contained caffeine and part of

which did not.

Eight of the subjects were regular users of caffeine-bearing

beverages; three were moderate users; three were occasional

users; and three were abstainers.

At times throughout the forty days of this experiment the

subjects were given varying quantities (1-6 grains) of caf-

feine, and at other times not any. They were also carried through

a great variety of tests designed to determine the effect of the

drug on various phases of human activity.

The following is the present writer's summary of Profes-

sor Hollingworth's investigation. It should be kept in mind

that the greatest amount of caffeine administered for any one

day was 6 grains; this amount is contained in three to five

glasses of coca-cola as ordinarily served at soda water fountains.

1. All doses of caffeine (1-6 grains) increase the rapidity

with which simple muscular tasks are performed.

2. All doses of caffeine (1-6 grains) increase the rate at

which simple mental activities are performed.

3. Small doses of caffeine (1-3 grains) cause greater stim-

ulation in the two preceding than do larger doses, the simula-

tion being inversely proportional to the size of the dose.

4. Even the smaller doses of caffeine increase nervousness

to a marked degree. The nerves are very badly affected by the

larger doses.

5. Both the quality and quantity of sleep are badly im-

paired by the average (1-6 grains) and seriously impaired by

the larger doses.

6. Large doses of caffeine cause a greater impairment of

sleep and increase of nervousness than small ones, the. effect

proportional to the size of the dose.

7. The deleterious effect of the average caffeine dose (1-6

grains) is readily noticeable in the general health, while the six-

grain doses cause serious impairment.

Thus, at the hands of the people who are attempting to

defend it, caffeine is shown to be a true stimulant (literally a

whip) goading the system on to abnormal activity, which is paid

for by general impairment of health.

Should the Latter-day Saints or, for that matter, anyone

else, drink coca-cola?