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The blog of a Cuban who became an Eastern Orthodox priest.

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Orthocuban has moved

5 October 2025 · by  Fr. Ernesto Leave a Comment

I should have noted this sooner; I apologize. I am no longer blogging on this website. The website has moved to orthocuban.substack.com. Please come by and make comments.

This website will remain active for some time to enable users to access previous posts and to prevent it from being purchased and converted into a spam site.

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On that infamous school Coca-Cola experiment

17 July 2025 · by  Fr. Ernesto Leave a Comment

“In the fall of 1950, a Cornell University professor named Clive McCay, a nutritionist, testified in the U.S. House of Representatives that the sugar in Coke caused cavities. He gave a vivid account that instantly became part of folklore — a tooth left in a glass of Coca-Cola would soften and begin to dissolve in a period of two days.”1

Note that this testimony had nothing to do with nails but with teeth. And it had to do with letting them soak in a glass of Coca-Cola for two days. There were many things wrong with this experiment. First, it gave rise to folklore that it would dissolve a steel nail. People completely forgot that teeth were involved and that nails were not part of the experiment. Second, it overlooked the fact that teeth in human mouths do not remain submerged in Coke. The Coke flows past the teeth, and the teeth are essentially rinsed by the mouth’s saliva. Third, it failed to explain why Coke was any worse than the hundreds of years that human beings in various cultures had been eating spicy, acidic food without their cultures demonstrating a higher rate of caries than cultures that ate bland food (like the English).

The experiment was replicated in 2003.2 Note that the person replicating the experiment used both metal nails and shavings of keratin from human nails and claws. The author did not use teeth, but even after multiple days, he was unable to show the dissolving power of Coke in any of the various varieties found in 2003.

Whether the original experiment was ever performed is an intriguing question. Certainly, I saw no evidence that it was successfully replicated, if it had ever been performed. Experimenters have found out that Coke can be used to remove rust from nails, but it is a slow process, and there are better cleaning compounds. Teeth also appear to be basically safe from Coke. Moreover, the experiment makes little theoretical sense. “Under normal physiological conditions, the pH value from the stomach to the intestine basically showed an increasing trend, specifically, acidic stomach (pH 1.5 to 3.5), duodenum (pH 6), terminal ileum (pH 7.4), terminal cecum (pH 6), and colon (pH 6.7).”3 The pH of Coke is around 2.8, well within the pH of the stomach.4

It does appear that prolonged use of Coke may help demineralize the enamel of teeth. However, the conclusion of many of the anti-Coke crusaders of yore was that it was the acidic nature of Coke and its sugary content that did the damage. Conveniently, the same crusaders ignored that orange juice is also acidic and sugary. I wonder whether lemonade, which is made from acidic lemons and sugar, is also harmful for your teeth and for metal nails. I suspect that the argument would have been, “Uhm, well, orange juice and lemons are natural, so they could not be harmful.” I express this opinion because I believe it marks the start of many flawed arguments that attempt to conclude that only natural foods are safe.5

As for me, a great-grandfather with all my natural teeth in place after years of drinking Coke, I will continue to drink my Coke while sighing at all the natural food people who keep pushing not simply unproven but disproven claims.

  1. https://www.wytv.com/news/daybreak/nugget-of-knowledge-cola-cola-urban-legend/#:~:text=In%20the%20fall%20of%201950,.Rome@wytv.com. [↩]
  2. https://joshmadison.com/2003/12/14/will-coke-dissolve-a-nail-experiment/#:~:text=The%20active%20ingredient%20in%20Coke,nail%20in%20about%204%20days. [↩]
  3. Chambin et al., 2006 [↩]
  4. I mention this only because there were those that also said that Coke will damage the stomach. [↩]
  5. I again suspect that all those Florida fresh orange juice drinkers will not show an increased rate of caries compared to their northern non-orange-juice-drinking fellow citizens. [↩]

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Filed Under: uncategorized

Were the Dark Ages really dark?

18 June 2025 · by  Fr. Ernesto Leave a Comment

A quite interesting article from 2022. It makes some strong points, including the point that to claim that the entire period of the 500s to 1500s is the Dark Ages is not only inaccurate but also deliberately ignores the many advances in scholarship, … [Continue reading]

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When partisanship is more important than unity

8 June 2025 · by  Fr. Ernesto Leave a Comment

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/how-justice-clarence-thomas-led-scotus-kill-dei Unfortunately, I could not embed the article. Please follow the link above to see what I am discussing. Here is a little article whose only purpose appears to be to … [Continue reading]

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A frustrating four days

26 May 2025 · by  Fr. Ernesto Leave a Comment

I believed my website had adequate protection against attacks. I had JetPack enabled, and it was supposedly monitoring my website for security issues. However, recently I noticed that Jetpack was now asking for an annual fee for previously free … [Continue reading]

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We are our own worst enemy

25 February 2025 · by  Fr. Ernesto Leave a Comment

Walt Kelly had the right idea in 1971. Let us remember that in 1971, Vietnam was still a very active conflict. A year later, in December of 1972, Nixon unleashed a carpet bombing campaign on Hanoi, which did not deter what was then North Vietnam in … [Continue reading]

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Musings on our divisions and failing unity as a country

12 September 2024 · by  Fr. Ernesto Leave a Comment

The USA is a country divided between two extremes. Both extremes do not hide their intention to silence or neuter their ideological opponents. Both sides accuse the other side of violence, symbolic or actual, against their side. In the middle is a … [Continue reading]

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El Salvador and freedom from murder

12 September 2024 · by  Fr. Ernesto Leave a Comment

CNN just published a story titled, "Critics denounce their government as a dictatorship. But these people say they’ve never felt so free." I recommend following the link to read the story, as my comments are based on it. Here is a good and … [Continue reading]

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On immediate blame and post-incident analyses, or post-Trump assassination attempt blame

20 July 2024 · by  Fr. Ernesto Leave a Comment

An acquaintance of mine was reasonably upset at the failed assassination attempt on ex-President Trump. He commented, "We're seeing an absolute failure of people who should know how to do their jobs. Absolutely anybody (except, apparently, Secret … [Continue reading]

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Supreme Court’s latest on religious vaccination exemptions

26 June 2024 · by  Fr. Ernesto 2 Comments

I agree with this decision. ((https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-vaccine-exemptions-connecticut-29927533dfb5bc82ee47668c630bc875)) Being "religious" does not give one the right to endanger the children of other parents. Being "religious" does … [Continue reading]

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