And What Is It Doing To Your Body?
by Susana Vuong
 

November is national diabetes awareness month. Though with 8.3% of Americans affected by it, you might think awareness is already pretty high.  Still, sugary drinks are among the largest contributors to diabetes, and people drink them in abundance.  So the Youth Radio Eats team decided we wanted to learn more about soda's effects.

We couldn't run an experiment on the relationship between soda consumption and diabetes, or a full investigation into the long-term impacts of soda on the human body. So we thought we'd try something more available: a penny.  Our experiment is pretty simple. We have one cup of brown soda (Coca-Cola) and one cup of clear soda (7-UP) and dropped a penny in each.  Everyday we will take pictures and record changes to each penny. At the end of the month, we will know the long-term effects of dark and clear soda on a penny.

Why 7-UP and Coke? Most of us think that dark soda is worse for you.  That's why some of my peers expect the Coke will deform the penny more.  Others say both pennies will become shinier, while the rest say neither penny will change at all.

But a penny's one thing. What does all of this mean for the human body? At the end of the month, we’ll ask a nutritionist, and share what we find out.

What do you think will happen? Check back at the end of the month to find out!