Reading Room: Are Coca-Cola and Pepsi Guilty?

CherylHutch said:

Tea!
Hehehe Gail! But Tea actually has more caffeine than coffee... and of course you have to make tea with water.... and it seems some water supplies are going to be contaminated, so you may be in big doo-doo too

Cheryl

pete43lost_at_sea said:

i lived on diet coke before cancer
i have not had diet coke for 8 months since dx.

i had way too much over the last decade.

i know its not proven cause and effect, but its a real worry.

thanks for posting this info,

Pete

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