Reading Room: Are Coca-Cola and Pepsi Guilty?

lisa42 said:

it doesn't surprise me
While I just said "wow" to myself as I was reading what you wrote, it actually really doesn't surprise me, sadly. It seems that a good half or more of what the general population consumes has something in it that is either carcinogenic or just really bad for our health in some way. And the manufacturers always deny and fight it, don't they? It hits them majorly in their wallets, and that always seems to be their first and foremost concern, over the health of the public.
Look at all the dyes in so many of our foods. I recently read that certain dyes get stored in our fat cells and stay there for many, many years. That's scary!
I would want to avoid them just based on that, but I have also known for years that I get itchy and sometimes hives when I consume yellow dye #5.
The high fructose corn syryp is in sooo many things- definitely a lot in all sodas/colas, and in many, many foods. Fortunately, some companies have been hearing the outcry against that, and have been substituing other things. Some will tell you right on the front that they use "real" sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. Not that processed sugar is good either- quite the contrary- but I guess it isn't as bad as the high fructose corn syrup. At least some manufacturers are listening. Also, many stores even now including Wal-Mart, have non-gluten foods available and are having a few healthier choices to pick from on a certain aisle in their food section of the store now.
The caramel color is a new one that I hadn't heard, though. I guess we need the information disseminated from the health food stores and get into the mainstream newspapers/online news so the public will be aware. It would only be then, if there is a strong enough public outcry, that the manufacturers would do anything about it.
How many people who are Coke or Pepsi-holics, addicted to the sugar and caffeine, are going to stop drinking Coke or Pepsi based on this? I don't know- we need the strong public outcry and newspaper articles!!

Lisa

Lifeisajourney said:

I am doomed
coke addicted. When my kids were little, Drs use to say if they had nausea, let coke or seven up sit out open and give them some warm after awhile to help stomach......to this day I say coke helps my nausea, of course I have colon cancer...., the whole food chain scares me....Just a comment....Pat

PhillieG said:

Not Surprised
Soon our water won't be safe either. They want to start hydro-fracking in the Catskill Mountains in NY State. This is some of the best water on the planet and it supplies NYC with most of their drinking water. The only thing is that "they" can get natural gas out of the shale by setting off explosives that cause mini-earthquakes. That all releases the gas. Then they pump in a toxic liquid down into the ground which forces the gas to the top. One problem is that there are known carcinogens in the fluid they use and also, it's proprietary which means that like coca-cola, they do not have to divulge exactly what is in there. Some people can actually light their faucets and it's like a flamethrower. This affects people with wells and it would affect the water that NYC gets. They already do this in 16(?) states and it's growing. There is a documentary called "GASLAND" that talks about it.

We may have to drink our scotch straight up!
Not good...

angelsbaby said:

Oh Great
thats all i drink go figure there was something about diet sodas to i drink diet coke i am cutting down abit trying to drink more water.

michelle

CherylHutch said:

Dark sodas
Any soda that has colour, in particular the dark colours, use the caramel colouring and have from the beginning of time. The only "sodas" that don't use it are your totally clear, non-coloured sodas.

But as Lisa said... it is not just the caramel colouring that is the problem. Like everything else, you would have to consume gallons of it per day for it to really be of concern. But add this to any store-bought food item that isn't a whole "fresh" food, then you are putting chemicals/pesticides/poisons in your food cycle.

To isolate one or two items is silly and won't help with any health concern if you eliminate them from your diet. Western diet is based on processed foods... for convenience, for laziness and for the taste we have become accustomed to, starting when we were children and that's what parents feed children. 30 years later, to say you are going to change your diet/tastes, good luck... chances are it will be a lot harder than just going to fresh produce markets, or organic meat farms. Your taste buds are now acclimatized to what you have grown up with... and yes, it is easy to change for the short term... but 97% of people who attempt will always fall back to that which they are used to... with every excuse in the book (the kids won't eat it, I have to prepare meals for me and meals for them, etc. etc)

So, yes, caramel colouring in sodas are not good for us. But then, neither is the corn syrup, or the extremely high salt content (especially in the colas), or the artificial sweeteners in the diet sodas... in other words, sodas are not healthy. So many say they will quit them... and instead of sodas go for fruit juices. They are just as bad because of the sugar/sweetener/salt content. So then you suggest organic, fresh squeezed or fresh juiced organic veggies/fruit juice... and those who have had a lifetime of sodas/commercial fruit juices now don't like the taste. They'll drink it for the short term because they know it's healthier, but most fail with sticking to them because they just don't like them... and back they go to their old ways.

The soda companies, etc. are not going to deviate far from their recipe. Why? The bottom dollar. Corn fructose is much much much cheaper than sugar and even more cheaper than organic raw sugar. If they used these products, your $1.50 bottle of coca cola would cost around the $5.00 mark... and no one is going to pay $5 for a bottle of coke when they can get one for under $2.

I think we can all agree... the "majority" of the public will talk the talk about eating more healthy until they realize just how expensive it is to eat healthy. If you are currently spending $100/week on your family's groceries, are you willing/able to spend $400/week for the same amount of groceries? When your kids/family are healthy now... are you willing to tell your kids they are going to have to eat foods they don't like so that they don't get sick? How many have the energy to fight with them over every meal? I feel it's just not feasible... and no matter what the intention, it's not doable for most families.

I grew up in a 2-parent family with 4 of us kids. A family of 6 where my father was the breadwinner, my mom was a stay-at-home mom and she had to make the grocery dollar stretch to feed her family of 4 growing kids. Back then, it was not unheard of to have high carb meals... white bread, mac and cheese, hot dogs, ground beef meals, the occasional chicken meal. Yes, she did try to serve veggies or a salad with dinner but none of us kids would eat it, nor would my father, so only she ate the fresh stuff. That was just the way it was in the 60s... and no one had the energy to fight with kids every meal and say you will sit there until you eat your salad.

Of the 6 of us, my mom who loved her fresh veggies is the only one who is not alive today... so really, how does one explain that to the kids of today? I don't think it's a generational problem... I think its a problem since the beginning of time... well, the beginning of when food has been prepared commercially.

Cheryl