Cola Drinks and Rehydration in Acute Diarrhea

To the Editor: Cola drinks are often recommended as rehydration solutions for acute diarrhea. Although several other commercial solutions are available, cola drinks are still very popular worldwide. I have analyzed the electrolyte content and osmolality of Coca-Cola in Israel and have taken the opportunity to review all reported data in this regard in the literature. Like data reported from other countries, my results demonstrated that cola drinks are not suitable for use as rehydration solutions, since they have a very low electrolyte content and an extremely high osmolality (Table 1). Thus, adequate electrolyte replacement is not possible, and induction…, No extract is available for articles shorter than 400 words.