Coca-Cola's Anniversary: Why I'm Not Celebrating

Cue the music; the gauzy, soft-focus ads; and the focus-grouped fridge magnets: Coca-Cola turns 125 this week.

Coke has something of a 10-Year Plan, first floated in a chilly manifesto called "2020 Vision and Roadmap for Winning Together" -- a doubling of Coca-Cola's global revenue by 2020, which says, "We are creating new strategies that are winning over a massive new generation of teens to drive growth of Trademark Coca-Cola."

I think what that means is: "We want to sell more Coke to more kids more often everywhere in the world." And that would be a public health disaster.

Besides carbonated water, Coca-Cola's main ingredient is high-fructose corn syrup. While no better or worse than regular sugar, that ingredient promotes weight gain and weight gain's offspring: obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Soda's next ingredient is caramel coloring, which despite the name has little to do with caramel as you know it. Produced with ammonia and sulfites, industrial "caramel coloring" is contaminated with two carcinogens, 4-methylimidazole and 2-methylimidazole. Phosphoric acid erodes tooth enamel. Caffeine is a mildly addictive drug, making the concoction mildly habit forming. And, despite the efforts of dissenting shareholders, Coke cans are lined with the controversial, endocrine-disrupting chemical bisphenol-A. It's as if this drink were specifically engineered to promote health problems.

Of course, back in the late 1800s when morphine-addled pharmacist John Stith Pemberton invented the syrup that combines with carbonated water to make Coca-Cola, he had no idea that his concoction would become what it is today. According to the sanitized mythology on Coca-Cola.com, in its first year on sale at an Atlanta soda fountain, sales averaged just nine glasses a day.

Today, "liquid candy" -- non-diet carbonated soft drinks -- is the single largest source of American calories, providing about 7 percent of calories. According to our most recent report, the average 13- to 18-year-old boy drinks about two 12-ounce cans of soda per day; girls of the same age drink the equivalent of one-and-a-third cans per day. Fortunately, despite the hundreds of millions of dollars Coke spends on marketing in the United States, consumption is declining. In fact, per capita sales of Coca-Cola itself have declined by 30 percent since 1998. That's one of the best bits of health news around.

Thanks to many decades of sunny television advertising Coca-Cola conjures up warm and fuzzy feelings among many Americans. But I hope that in observance of this anniversary, policymakers and parents do everything they can to drive Coke consumption down even further. Instead of doubling soda sales, let's commit to cutting soda consumption far more by 2020. That would be a milestone worth celebrating.

 

Follow Michael F. Jacobson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CSPI

Comments

[AntiClast]

06:17 PM on 06/15/2011

See Mark Hyman's discussion of the biochemistry of High Fructose Corn Syrup vs. cane http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/high-fructose-corn-syrup-dangers_b_861913.htmlsugar.

Mark Jacobsen, please note that the corn syrup industry is pleased to quote you.
http://blog.sweetsurprise.com/2011/06/08/5-reasonshighfructosecornsyrupwillkillyou/

[AntiClast]

05:51 PM on 06/15/2011

"high-fructose corn syrup. While no better or worse than regular sugar"

Some biochemists suspect high fructose corn syrup is actually worse than table sugar, due to differences in molecular structure and the way the liver handles it. The development of gross obesity coincides with the introduction of HFCS. Also more sugar is added to foods.

No refined sugar is good for you. Serious studies are going on now to investigate the way the liver handles sugar. (Triglycerides go up rapidly in rats fed large doses of corn syrup, for example.) Sugar is thought to be the cause of 'metabolic syndrome'. Which, depending on your genes and amount of consumption, can lead to heart diseases, diabetes and cancers (some).

I checked the canned foods in my cupboard. I was startled to find spaghetti sauce contains sugar (not when I make it from scratch). And astonished that commercial gravy has sugar in it. I bought canned gravy thinking it was the same as mine.

A NYTimes magazine article in April reported on the present researches into sugar. While more research is needed, the cancer researchers are not eating sugar. Good enough for me.

[seedobecome]

02:42 PM on 05/13/2011

Oddly, if you have a food stamp card in Ohio, you can purchase all the Coke, Pepsi,candy, chips, and any other type of "junk" food you may desire.However you cannot buy toothpaste/brushes/floss,soap of any kind, toilet paper/nor paper products of any kind, otc anti-biotic creams, deodorant, shampoo, the list goes on. This is one reason why we have an obesity problem in America but also the acts of selling food stamps for cash is rampant. Partly, I'm sure to support "other" necessities such as smokes, drugs, alcohol, or even gambling.

[Christina Strother]

10:12 PM on 05/11/2011

Colas are not beneficial to people in any way. Diet soda is probably worse with all the chemicals it has with its artificial sweeteners. American companies created HFCS because it is cheaper than sugar. The companies can care less about the damage its products do as long as they are making their money. Yes, we have a choice to drink it or not but when soda costs $.88 to $1 for a 2 liter and real fruit juice costs $4 for a 64oz container, what do you think a lower income family can afford??? Open up your mind people to our capitalistic society...these companies do NOT care about YOU only your money. And someone stated it is not forced into people, what do you think the advertisers do, they swamp you with their products and the non-educated (not to be said offensively) go with what is available. Don't forget the stimulant that they lace their product with as well, caffeine, which is a reason why many choose colas to "start" their days.

[Rachelvis]

02:36 PM on 05/24/2011

Water is free.

[Ryan Gilfedder]

04:18 PM on 05/09/2011

I think Mr. Jacobsen needs to realize that Coca Cola is not forced into people. People choose to drink it. The health risks that are involved are due to the amount of consumption. Promote personal responsiblilty and stop trying to portray Coke this evil corporation, you fail to get your point across.

[ron ray]

01:42 PM on 05/09/2011

I so rarely see anyone downing anything but a diet drink, I wonder who drinks full sugar coke. anymore.

[Rachelvis]

02:38 PM on 05/24/2011

We do! My parents raised us only allowing it on Fridays and Saturdays as a treat, never during the week. We were blessed with thin genes so none of us ever worried about our weight, and NONE of my 4 siblings would ever drink diet drinks. They would rather not drink anything.

[ron ray]

01:34 PM on 05/09/2011

of course, prior to coke a glass of whiskey before breakfast was common and people were downing a lot more had liquor -- all the calories and a lot more duis. so think twice before pining for the good old days.

[AmigaMan]

05:12 AM on 05/09/2011

Have a Zevia soda - all natural and sweetened with Stevia (all natural).

http://www.zevia.com/

You can get it the cheapest on Amazon.com like I do. BTW, they have 12 flavors now. :)

[GeorgieMark]

07:53 AM on 05/08/2011

Bottom line there is a plethora of food that can cause serious health issues if consumed in excess, fizzy drinks belong in that category.

It is up to individuals to look after themselves and their families.

[Margo Arrowsmith]

05:52 AM on 05/08/2011

I think the Cokes in other parts of the world still use sugar, which makes it taste better, but you are correct, Coke is not the "real thing"

[teresa1960]

08:16 AM on 05/07/2011

Dr. Robert Lustig of UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, is nationally recognized in the field of neuroendocrinology, ..has raised a war on HFCS. Watch his presentation on youtube "The Bitter Truth"
That chitt is in pretty much everything processed. (which I do not eat)

[Drmhp]

07:52 AM on 05/07/2011

The name says it all. It is an addictive drug that is killing us.

[Even17]

01:25 PM on 05/09/2011

i think perhaps thats a bit extreme...
cola is hardly any worse than any other soda or junk food
anything in excess can be unhealthy

[garystartswithg]

10:27 PM on 05/06/2011

i grew up without sodas, when i got out on my own i never bought them separately, but during my fast food days they were a practically manditory side dish. now when i do have one it tastes foul -- once you remove yourself from hfcs you lose all taste for it.

[FPhoebe]

05:35 PM on 05/08/2011

I was not allowed to have soda growing up, so while I drink it on occasion now it's not something I have to have and I rarely partake. I know people who wake up and have to have a Diet Coke or two, like people who drink coffee or tea. Gross...

[LINY01]

08:29 AM on 05/09/2011

Same here, it wasn't banned in our household, my parents were old school and just didn;t offer it. We had water with our meals.

[Redsilas77]

03:10 PM on 05/06/2011

Fruit juice has the same sugar as Coke and just as bad for your teeth and in some cases, worse. It's a natural 'liquid candy' but I don't see people rallying to ban it too.

[mograph]

04:38 PM on 05/06/2011

Fruit juice and coke have about the same sugar, yes.
Fruit juice has none of the chemicals that coke does.

http://www.hookedonjuice.com/

Coke should be viewed as candy. Drink water.

[AmigaMan]

05:22 AM on 05/09/2011

Wrong.

The sugar in fruit is called FRUCTOSE - a naturally occurring fruit sugar.
The sugar in Coke is called HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP (HFCS) is a chemical concoction made from corn starch. FRUCTOSE won't kill you. HFCS will.

[osofar]

07:58 AM on 05/06/2011

Coca cola is even taking over the land of tea...China. It is marketed as a new,hip, western, modern lifestyle choice to the young, as well as McDonalds (which features their beverages).