Want to gain 12kg in a month? Try drinking 10 cans of Coca-Cola a day

Remember Super Size Me, where a documentary maker called Morgan Spurlock showed how unhealthy a diet of 100% junk food from McDonalds could be?

Well, a 50-year-old man living in Los Angeles has carried out a similar experiment, drinking 10 cans of Coca-Cola a day for a month in order to show just how unhealthy daily sugar consumption can be on the body.

George Prior, a barbecue accessory entrepreneur and father of two, is a regular gym goer with a muscular physique. He noticed that after 30 days of the "Coke diet", where he was consuming an additional 1,400 calories per day, he gained 12kg (2 stone) in weight, his stomach began to protrude and his blood pressure soared from 129/77 to 145/96.

As the ideal blood pressure level should be 120/80, at 145/96, Prior's risk of heart disease or stroke has now become greatly increased.

He carried out the experiment to highlight that even if people do not drink 10 cans of Coke a day, if you were to add up the sugar content in all the drinks you have in a 24-hour period, the total amount of sugar would be very high.

On his website, Prior lists the calories in many popular drinks, including fresh orange juice, Nesquik chocolate milk, Gatorade, Red Bull, a grande mocha from Starbucks and Vitaminwater.

"I was joking around with one of my brothers. We saw an article that Jude Law had been drinking ten Cokes a day to gain weight for a movie role. And I thought that's probably a diet for some people and we looked into it and it turns out it is a diet for some people," Prior told LA Weekly.

"Here's why I chose it: the amount of sugar that's in ten Cokes is actually less than what most Americans are eating in added sugar every day. And that doesn't even count the amount of sugar you have in fruit and the sugars you get from regular food."

Prior writes on his blog that he was asked by his niece, a business partner and colleague in his office to stop his experiment as they were worried that he was going to die.

"Well, I'm not going to die. Not today. Maybe after 300 days on Coke, or a couple years - but that's what so many people are doing to themselves right now. Look at your own sugar intake, and include fruits and juices," he wrote.

"Do you have a friend or family member who is suffering from insulin resistance, diabetes, heart disease?

"I am eating a lot of sugar, and it is bad for me - but I'm not eating that much more sugar than most of the people we love and spend our lives with. We should also be asking them to quit the crazy diet."

Prior is looking forward to losing weight now and has thrown the last remaining Cokes in the box into the bin.

He said: "If I have to drink another Coke in a thousand years, it will be one Coke too soon."

Coca-Cola said in statement: "When it comes to obesity, calories from all foods and beverages count. Balancing those calories with physical activity and exercise is the only proven way to maintain a healthy weight. Obesity is a complex issue that cannot be solved by singling out any one food or beverage."