Dr Pepper Side Effects: What Too Much Actually Does to You

How does one can of Dr Pepper compare with the daily limits?

Per 12 fl oz can, Keurig Dr Pepper lists 39 g of added sugar and about 41 mg of caffeine. Here is how that stacks up against the American Heart Association’s added-sugar limits and the FDA’s 400 mg caffeine figure for most adults. The sugar limit arrives at can one. The caffeine figure takes about ten.

The World Health Organization’s looser line, free sugars under 10% of daily energy, works out to about 50 g on a 2,000-calorie diet, so one can uses 78% of that too. Bigger sizes and every flavor are broken down in how much sugar is in Dr Pepper and how much caffeine is in Dr Pepper.

What does Dr Pepper do to your body?

The short version, organ by organ, before the longer one. None of these are unique to Dr Pepper; they are what sugary, acidic, caffeinated soda does in general, and the studies behind them mostly looked at sugary soda in general. The two exceptions name it outright: the dental study tested Dr Pepper itself, and the kidney charity lists it by name.

Is Dr Pepper bad for your teeth?

Yes, more than most people expect. A 2016 study in the Journal of the American Dental Association tested the pH of 380 drinks bought in US stores. Regular Dr Pepper came in at 2.88, which puts it in the band the researchers call extremely erosive, meaning acidic enough to dissolve tooth enamel without any help from bacteria. Diet Dr Pepper was 3.20, still erosive, so the zero-sugar swap fixes the sugar but not the acid. My dentist has stopped asking and started sighing.

Does Dr Pepper cause weight gain and diabetes?

Drinking it daily is linked to both. Harvard’s review of the research puts the weight effect plainly: one 150-calorie sugary drink a day, which is exactly one can of Dr Pepper, can add up to 5 pounds a year if nothing else changes. People drinking 1 to 2 cans of sugary drinks a day have a 26% greater risk of type 2 diabetes than people who rarely have them. In my experience the sneaky part is that a can has never once made me feel like I ate something.

Is Dr Pepper bad for your heart?

A long-term sugary-drink habit is associated with higher heart risk. Harvard cites a 20-year study of 40,000 men in which those averaging one sugary drink a day had a 20% higher risk of having or dying from a heart attack, and a study of nearly 90,000 women in which more than two a day meant a 40% higher risk of heart attack or death from heart disease. In the short term, the caffeine can raise your heart rate if you overdo it.

Is Dr Pepper bad for your kidneys?

For healthy kidneys the concern is stones. A study of 194,095 people across three large cohorts found that people in the highest-intake group for sugar-sweetened cola had a 23% higher risk of kidney stones, and for sugar-sweetened non-cola soda it was 33% higher. Coffee and tea went the other way. (Whether Dr Pepper counts as a cola is a whole argument of its own; either way it is in one of those two rows.)

If you already have chronic kidney disease it is a different conversation. Healthy kidneys clear extra phosphorus; damaged ones struggle to. The National Kidney Foundation lists dark colas and “pepper type soda (Dr Pepper)” among the high-phosphorus drinks to limit or avoid, so that one is a question for your nephrologist, not a fan site.

Can Dr Pepper keep you up at night?

About 41 mg of caffeine per can is modest (a cup of coffee laughs at it), but one late in the afternoon can still have you studying the ceiling at 1am. The FDA’s list of signs of too much caffeine starts with a fast heart rate and palpitations and runs through insomnia, jitters, anxiety, upset stomach, nausea and headache. If caffeine is your issue, Caffeine Free Dr Pepper keeps the ritual without the buzz.

The side effect nobody studies: the habit

The sneakiest one is how quietly it goes from treat to reflex, until one day you are holding a can with no memory of opening it. If you want to know how far along you are, take the Am I addicted to Dr Pepper? quiz or run through the signs of a Dr Pepper addict (I score embarrassingly high on both).

What happens if you drink Dr Pepper every day?

Nothing dramatic on any single day, which is exactly the problem. The side effects above are what a daily sugary-drink habit is linked to over years, not what one can does to you on a Tuesday. A can a day spends your whole added-sugar budget before breakfast has shown up, and the research lines up behind that: the 5 pounds a year, the 26% diabetes risk, the 20% heart attack risk in men and the 75% gout risk in women all come from people drinking roughly a can or two a day. The caffeine, at about 41 mg a can, is the smaller worry for most adults.

For the overall “should I be drinking this at all” verdict, see is Dr Pepper bad for you. The cheapest fix I know is the swap: Dr Pepper Zero Sugar or Diet Dr Pepper keep the 23 flavors and drop all 39 g of sugar (though not the acid, see the teeth bit).

Can Dr Pepper kill you?

Not in the way the question imagines, though that is not the same as saying any amount is safe. The FDA estimates that toxic effects such as seizures can show up with rapid consumption of around 1,200 mg of caffeine. At about 41 mg a can, that is roughly 29 cans drunk in a short window, well over two and a half gallons of soda, far past the point of enjoying a single sip of it. The real risk is not dramatic or sudden. It is the slow drip of a lot of sugar, every day, for years. If you get any of the too-much-caffeine symptoms above, the FDA’s advice is to talk with your health care professional, and so is mine.

Who should be more careful with Dr Pepper?

Can you drink Dr Pepper while pregnant?

That one is for your own doctor or midwife, and the FDA says the same: talk to your health care provider about caffeine if you are pregnant, trying to become pregnant or breastfeeding. For context, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says moderate caffeine, under 200 mg a day, does not appear to be a major factor in miscarriage or preterm birth. A can of Dr Pepper has about 41 mg, and caffeine from coffee, tea and everything else counts toward the same total.

Is Dr Pepper OK for kids?

The FDA, citing the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, says caffeinated drinks should be avoided for children under 2, and that drinks with no added sugars should be the main choice for children and teens. One can is also more added sugar than an adult woman’s whole daily limit. Beyond that, it is a question for your pediatrician, not me.

Diabetes, kidney disease, caffeine sensitivity

If you manage your blood sugar, the 39 g in a regular can is the number to know, and the zero-sugar versions exist for a reason. If you have chronic kidney disease, see the phosphorus note above. And the FDA notes that some conditions and medications make people more sensitive to caffeine. In all three cases, your doctor beats my enthusiasm.

Want fewer side effects? Drink less of it (I know)

Drinking less lowers your exposure to all of the above going forward (lost enamel does not grow back, so earlier is better). How much is too much for you, and how I actually cut back without being miserable about it, lives on its own page: how to cut back on Dr Pepper. If you stop suddenly and get the headache, that is caffeine withdrawal, and the same page has what Dr Pepper withdrawal feels like, day by day.

The risk I actually lose sleep over: running out

Health aside, the genuinely scariest Dr Pepper risk in my house is the empty fridge on a Sunday night with every store closed. No study covers that particular kind of suffering. The only known cure is keeping a case on hand.