It turns out that soda can help if you have a bezoar (a hardened ball of undigested food in your stomach). They form when you eat too much indigestible stuff like cellulose and plants, or when diabetes causes your stomach to malfunction. Bezoars can usually be taken out using an endoscopy, but sometimes they’re too difficult to break up and would require surgery to remove. To avoid the knife, you can soften up the bezoar by drinking Coke. To be clear, that can of pop is only one step in getting rid of the mass in your stomach; a doctor still needs to remove the bezoar pieces with forceps and an endoscopy, but the soda helps a lot. Likely, this is because it makes our stomachs more acidic and erodes the outer surface of the bezoar, which is why your doctor may prescribe a 2 liter drink as directed by medical professionals.