time for a coke you might think, but after reading this you may choose water;

In a new study, a team of researchers found that feeding rats soft drinks like Coke and Pepsi caused enough damage to the unfortunate critters’ brains to trigger memory issues, cognitive impairment, and cellular distress.

Of course, soda isn’t exactly considered health food. It’s absolutely packed with sweeteners, real and fake, and studies far and wide have confirmed that sugars like those found in soft drinks lead to health conditions including diabetes, heart disease, tooth decay, and liver complications, to name a few.

But according to the new research, consistent, long-term consumption of sugary, cola-based soft drinks specifically may also be directly linked to brain health and behavioral issues — and, apparently, the inability to make one’s way through a maze. (If you’re a rat, that is.)

In order to study how cola-based sodas — which were chosen for study due to their prevalence in many modern human diets — might impact the rats’ brains, the scientists first separated the rats into three age groups: 2-month, 8-month, and 14-month olds. Each of those age groups were then split into water-drinking and cola-and-water-drinking cohorts.

After 57 days, the scientists ran the rodents through some maze-based behavior testing, and ten days after that, the rats were euthanized so that the scientists could then examine any differences in their brains.........more.......