Many a facebook post this week has been photos of bottles of coke with people’s names on. I am (almost) speechless.
Speechless because I heard the boss of Coke on Radio 4 this week spouting on about how his company where going to make sure they did not advertise to Under 12’s, how they would push their diet drinks more and how they would be more honest on their labelling about how much sugar is in their products.
Then in the same breath they release their new advertising campaign where by they are selling bottles of their drinks with people’s names on the labels. Apparently causing a flurry of people searching through their local shops for their name, their child, their husband….etc etc.
Don’t get me wrong, when I was younger and did not know any different, I drank diet coke by the gallon. At one point in my life the only liquids I drank were coffee, diet coke and tea. I literally ran on caffeine. When I stopped, and I promise I kid you not, I had the most awful come down. I was an addict going cold turkey. I was physically sick, had migraines, could not eat, could not sleep. It was an horrific couple of weeks. I vowed then that never again would caffeine rule my body.
But it is not just the caffeine in these drinks that gets me angry. The sugar is astronomical. In a can of “classic coke” there are between 8 and 10 teaspoons of sugar. 8 – 10! In one can! (If you offered someone a cup of tea and said “How many sugars?” and they answered “10 please” – would you think that was acceptable?!
Coke admit their classic drink is very high in sugar, they state “just have one occasionally” and in the meantime you can still enjoy our brand by buying “diet” coke, or “coke zero” instead.
So the second reason I was speechless is because it has dawned on me how many people still drink these low calorie/no sugar drinks”.
Do you know what is in them? No sugar is right, but to make up for that they include sweeteners. Mostly sucralose, commonly known as Splenda. Which is a chemical sweetener, nothing natural in it at all and wreaks havoc on your body. They make you crave more sweet things, are highly addictive (worsening my horrific cold turkey experience). They make you hungrier, slow your metabolism, in short they freak your brain out!
They also contain aspartame. An ingredient which, many food studies conclude is the most dangerous food additive legally available today.
Aspartame is made from 3 chemicals:
Aspartic acid (an amino acid that has been found to cause serious chronic neurological disorders. Too much of this cause brain cells to die by over stimulating them)
Phenylalanine (another acid that affects the brain, this time responsible for decreased levels of serotonin (the happy hormone) which can cause a variety of emotional disorders).
Methanol (A wood alcohol poison and a known carcinogen – which means it causes cancer)
Yum!
So drinking these diet drinks can cause, among other things, headaches/migraines, muscle spasms, depression, joint pain, memory loss, hair loss. They are also shown to trigger or worsen brain tumours, epilepsy, parkinsons, diabetes….the list honestly goes on and on.
Surely I am exaggerating? No one would be able to add this stuff to food or drink if it was that dangerous? Well, you can still buy cigarettes can’t you? Still buy alcohol? You can still buy sausages and burgers with just 25% meat in them. Just because we can buy these things does not mean we should.
The legality around aspartame is a tricky subject, it is a long story (you can read a condensed version here http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/01/19/the-shocking-story-of-how-aspartame-became-legal/) but what it basically comes down to is:
It was banned because it is an unsafe food stuff.
The drinks companies threw billions of pounds at governments and the food standards people.
It was passed as legal.
Please, read more about this. Don’t just take my word for it, read the studies for yourselves. Then don’t buy it any more! Ever. Please don’t let your children drink them.
Water and/or vegetable juices are delicious and amazingly good for you.
I will give you one of our favourite juice recipes:
Juice 2 large beetroot.
½ a pineapple
½ a cucumber
a small piece of ginger
(Serve over ice – totally delicious!)
Our bodies are designed to eat foods available in nature. If in doubt about any food or drink, read the label:
Are the ingredients “real” food:
Can you pronounce them ? (Magnesium Stearate/Anthocyanin)
Could you grow them in a garden? (Maltodextrin Citric Acid)
Did the ingredient exist 100 years ago? (soya lecithin)
If the answer is no, do you want it in your body? If the answer is yes – enjoy!!
