Coca Cola has recently ventured into the foray of drinks that contain alternative sweeteners to sugar. However, as a company that is highly criticized for sugary drinks with massive amounts of addictive high fructose corn syrup, the move appears a bit contrived.
True Diversification or Marketing Ploy?
With growing concerns in the United States and Europe about the health effects of obesity, Coca Cola has begun making moves toward beverage products that are perceived as more healthy. They recently joined forces with Sanofi, a French company that manufactures nutritional supplements for hair and skin care. Coca Cola also has introduced two products with alternative sweeteners – Fanta with stevia and Sprite with stevia. Both products have received mixed reviews and are in limited release in the United States.
The products the company plans to produce in conjunction with Sanofi will be marketed under the new product brand name “Beutific Oenobiol” to a limited number of locations in France. The products are described as promoting weight loss and will contain mineral water, fruit juice and nutritional additives.
Although Coca Cola has produced diet sodas and drinks for many years, their new foray into purportedly healthy drinks does raise some questions about underlying motivations. A substantial amount of research has revealed that drinks produced by Coca Cola and other drink manufacturers contain high fructose corn syrup and promote unhealthy weight gain. Even diet drinks with aspartame pose health risks for weight gain and even cancer. Additionally, several studies have revealed that high fructose corn syrup products stimulate addiction centers in the brain, making it extremely difficult for many people to stop drinking the products entirely.
If Coca Cola is venturing into healthier drinks that do not contain high fructose corn syrup, are they truly motivated by trying to help people make healthier food choices? Or is their real motivation to take advantage of a health trend to make money and will they add ingredients that will continue the cycle of unhealthy food consumption? If Coke was really interested in promoting a healthy lifestyle and with the known detrimentalhealth issues of high fructose corn syrup, why not ditch the sugars and HFCS altogether?
Would you drink a product from Coca Cola that is marketed for weight loss? What do you think of this move?
– The Alternative Daily
