By Dean L. Jones
The big three soda makers, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Dr. Pepper, made an announcement at the Clinton Global Initiative this week that each company will work to reduce the calories contained in beverages by 20% over the next decade. The method will include marketing smaller soda sizes, increasing bottled water distribution and hyping diet drink sales.
This is a slick move by the soft-drink beverage industry to distance themselves from increasing obesity rates that are more often than not being directly linked to the consumption of sugary drinks. The move by these giant corporations includes how they want to help consumers by reducing calories is so smooth as it will make them even more money from the smaller sizes. The retail prices will almost certainly not change, but the lower cost from smaller cans will yield higher profits per can sold.
The announcement is not surprising since for the past few years soda sales have been dropping as consumers are going more for water and juices. Nonetheless, this move to calorie reduction reflects the agreement between the American Beverage Association (an industry trade group), and the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, founded by the American Heart Association and the Clinton Foundation, where these groups partnered on a separate initiative to reduce beverage calories in public schools way back in 2006.
Essentially, this corporate move represents a true sugar alert, because if these giant companies are distancing themselves from using processed sugar, then individually we should be moving faster as this indicates the consumption risk is real. Processed sugar is a sneaky health destroyer because it tastes so good and one would never think about the harmful effects it has on the body and mind.
Processed sugar weakens the immune system and reduces the acidophilus in the body that helps to create an acidic environment that of all things even yeast does not like. However, when acidophilus is running low or processed sugars are running high, the yeast gets a leg up and starts to multiply. So these products that add a lot of sugar are doing consumers a disservice as when the blood sugar (glucose) spikes it is a magnet invitation to a yeast infection. Although yeast grows naturally all over our bodies, it especially loves dark, damp nooks and crannies, so it is often found in fat folds, armpits and, of course, vaginas.
Which is why the move by soft drink makers is something that we all should be aware of, because the possibility of some type of class action law suit may arise when soda consumers realize that they have been duped into ‘enjoying’ a highly dangerous product. Whether you suffer from tooth decay, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, inflammation, fatty liver, obesity …, there is a substantial chance that processed sugar is a root cause, so stay SugarAlert!
www.SugarAlert.com
Dean Jones, Ethics Advocate, Southland Partnership Corporation (a public benefit organization), contributes his view on health attributes derived from processed foodstuff items.
