After tobacco, the world’s biggest health problem is excess sugar intake. This isn’t news—but there is a growing chorus of alarm from concerned people like you and me.
Because the primary source of added sugar is soft drinks, our first Healthy Change said, “If you consume sodas (or other sugary drinks), limit yourself to one (12 oz.) serving per week.” It’s a change you can live with.
Well the Goliath of the soda world is Coca-Cola and for over a century they’ve ignored their critics, not deigning to acknowledge the issues . . . until now. The other day Goliath blinked. Coca-Cola, the most valuable brand in the world, announced a new strategy: They’d like to join the dialogue on unhealthy sugar intake.
It’s not usually a good thing when Goliath wants to play with you. To revise an old warning, “’Everyman for himself’, cried Goliath as he danced among the chickens.” So I didn’t expect anything noble of Coca-Cola.
Goliath’s Big Lies
Coca-Cola hasn’t quite been brought to its knees, but it is feeling the pain of “negative public sentiment” regarding their obesity-causing sugary products. They’re fully aware that US (per capita) soda consumption has been declining since 1998 due to public concern, per the Beverage Digest. So now they want to make nice.
A new advertising campaign will attempt to make two points in Coca-Cola’s defense. Both, in the view of WOWL, are a form of lying.
First, Coca-Cola will claim that all sources of calories cause weight gain. This is based on a common error often repeated by people who should know better: “A calories is a calorie.” What they mean is that a calorie from an apple will have the same effect as a calorie from a sugary Coke. This is patently false and ignores human biology and a mountain of research. There is no evidence that anyone has become obese eating apples, or benefited from fewer apples.
The second lie is that Coca-Cola has a history of providing drinks with fewer calories. If they are referring to Diet Coke or Coke Zero this is less than an outright lie but not quite the truth either. There is no evidence that diet drinks prevent or reduce our epidemic of obesity—they’re part of the problem.
Diet drinks are believed to reinforce the infantile desire for the sugary foods marketed by Food Inc. So while they appear to provide fewer calories, sweet cravings are reinforced and those addicted simply consume calories from other sugary products.
There’s also no evidence that the new vitamin-added drinks improve health—time will reveal what new ills they present. Frankly, water is the best drink, and vitamins are best consumed in their natural habitat—real food.
Exercise Can’t Solve Obesity
One more lie: A Coca-Cola ad slated to run before the Super Bowl shows people exercising, as though you could walk or run and simply erase the toxic effects of sugary drinks. You can’t. Exercise is good for lots of reasons but it’s best to exercise and limit soft drinks, we suggest, to one (12-oz) serving a week, or if you prefer, none at all.
The beauty of the once-a-week Healthy Change is that you’ll find yourself skipping the drink some weeks and that’s real progress against our most unhealthy addiction: excess sugar. Once one pushes sugar off the center of our diet, we can rediscover traditional flavors. Now that’s progress worth talking about . . . but what does Coca-Cola have to offer?