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It's Coca-Cola's fault paying scientists to downplay how sweet drinks are related to obesity. It's Coca-Cola's fault not using morbidly obese people in their m

It's Coca-Cola's fault paying scientists to downplay how sweet drinks are related to obesity. It's Coca-Cola's fault not using morbidly obese people in their marketing campaigns and instead choosing physically fit, attractive people, those who realistically will not be drinking much Coca-Cola to get their gym bods because of the sugar it has. A 375ml can of coke is 161 calories / 40g of sugar. Two 375ml cans a day is the equivalent of a small meal calorie wise with no nutritional benefit, only 80g of sugar. People are essentially having multiple meals a day on top of their solid food by drinking soft drinks and unknowingly or through ignorance are in massive calorie surplus. Anyone who goes to a gym and in good shape knows it's 80% food 20% time working out. Your food is more important than the workout. It's not in Coca-Cola's interest to educate people advertising CocalCola as a very poor liquid meal consisting of only sugar.

mytailorisrich 6y ago
People know that their diet is what make them obese. People know how much sugar there is in Coke and soft drinks. It is frankly ridiculous to claim that in 2020 people are ignorant or misled.
- ageitgey 6y ago
  There's a big difference between what you know as an abstract fact vs. what seems normal in your society. By definition, normal people do what is normal in their society. I've lived in the southeastern US, various places in California, China and Europe. The type of consumption that is considered normal is so vastly different in all those places. In the southeastern US, your whole environment is telling you that eating enormous meals, drinking sugary drinks, etc, is totally normal. If you are responsible, maybe you could cut back a little to "watch your health". But you are starting from an unhealthy default setting and you have to dig yourself out of a pit to get back to 'healthy'. This includes Atlanta, the home of Coke (where I went to college and lived several years). In southern California or even more so in Europe, the norms are vastly different. Meals are much smaller and sugary drinks aren't assumed. Healthier options are available nearly everywhere. But in Europe, things go much further than even the healthiest parts of the US. The very composition of basic foods is different - brand name foods are less sugary and contain less preservatives than the same brands in the US, staple foods like bread are less shelf stable but contain less additives, and so on. Things like Kraft Mac & Cheese, Snickers bars and Doritos chips are literally illegal in Europe with their original US formulations and are produced with tweaked ingredients. It's in the very DNA of society to default to a more healthy lifestyle. Sure, it's possible to be unhealthy but the default setting of your environment is much healthier so more people are healthy. The point is that people operate at a default setting that seems normal for their society. Some will be healthy minded and will outperform the norm for their area, but not everyone will. If you want a healthy population, you need a healthy norm and no amount of telling people to take responsibility is going to fix a society if literally every food easily available is bad for you. There is just a mountain of public health evidence that shows this to be true.
rightbyte 6y ago
If I remember correctly what I was tough in elementary school it was that pizza and chocolate makes you fat and soda and candy makes your teeth bad. The sugar obesity link has been clouded by fat (in food) being the same words as being fat, for quite some time I guess. Probably the same thing about getting a cold from being cold?
andor 6y ago
"It's Coca-Cola's fault not using morbidly obese people in their marketing campaigns and instead choosing physically fit, attractive people, those who realistically will not be drinking much Coca-Cola to get their gym bods because of the sugar it has. A 375ml can of coke is 161 calories / 40g of sugar. Two 375ml cans a day is the equivalent of a small meal calorie wise with no nutritional benefit, only 80g of sugar." That's the thing, sugar water is not a bad drink for people doing sports. It's common to consume 60-90g of carbohydrates per hour during prolonged endurance exercise (let's say 90min+). Whether that's from gels, sports drinks or Coke doesn't make much of a difference. They are all full of sugar and caffeine. Even glucose-fructose-syrup is fine for sports: there's a limit to how much glucose the colon can absorb in a period of time, because fructose is absorbed via different pathways it helps increase performance. Outside of sports I wouldn't drink refined sugar myself. But a positive aspect is that a high-sugar diet will not give people diabetes, while a high-fat diet can.

mytailorisrich 6y ago

People know that their diet is what make them obese. People know how much sugar there is in Coke and soft drinks. It is frankly ridiculous to claim that in 2020 people are ignorant or misled.

ageitgey 6y ago
There's a big difference between what you know as an abstract fact vs. what seems normal in your society. By definition, normal people do what is normal in their society. I've lived in the southeastern US, various places in California, China and Europe. The type of consumption that is considered normal is so vastly different in all those places. In the southeastern US, your whole environment is telling you that eating enormous meals, drinking sugary drinks, etc, is totally normal. If you are responsible, maybe you could cut back a little to "watch your health". But you are starting from an unhealthy default setting and you have to dig yourself out of a pit to get back to 'healthy'. This includes Atlanta, the home of Coke (where I went to college and lived several years). In southern California or even more so in Europe, the norms are vastly different. Meals are much smaller and sugary drinks aren't assumed. Healthier options are available nearly everywhere. But in Europe, things go much further than even the healthiest parts of the US. The very composition of basic foods is different - brand name foods are less sugary and contain less preservatives than the same brands in the US, staple foods like bread are less shelf stable but contain less additives, and so on. Things like Kraft Mac & Cheese, Snickers bars and Doritos chips are literally illegal in Europe with their original US formulations and are produced with tweaked ingredients. It's in the very DNA of society to default to a more healthy lifestyle. Sure, it's possible to be unhealthy but the default setting of your environment is much healthier so more people are healthy. The point is that people operate at a default setting that seems normal for their society. Some will be healthy minded and will outperform the norm for their area, but not everyone will. If you want a healthy population, you need a healthy norm and no amount of telling people to take responsibility is going to fix a society if literally every food easily available is bad for you. There is just a mountain of public health evidence that shows this to be true.

rightbyte 6y ago

If I remember correctly what I was tough in elementary school it was that pizza and chocolate makes you fat and soda and candy makes your teeth bad. The sugar obesity link has been clouded by fat (in food) being the same words as being fat, for quite some time I guess. Probably the same thing about getting a cold from being cold?

andor 6y ago

"It's Coca-Cola's fault not using morbidly obese people in their marketing campaigns and instead choosing physically fit, attractive people, those who realistically will not be drinking much Coca-Cola to get their gym bods because of the sugar it has. A 375ml can of coke is 161 calories / 40g of sugar. Two 375ml cans a day is the equivalent of a small meal calorie wise with no nutritional benefit, only 80g of sugar." That's the thing, sugar water is not a bad drink for people doing sports. It's common to consume 60-90g of carbohydrates per hour during prolonged endurance exercise (let's say 90min+). Whether that's from gels, sports drinks or Coke doesn't make much of a difference. They are all full of sugar and caffeine. Even glucose-fructose-syrup is fine for sports: there's a limit to how much glucose the colon can absorb in a period of time, because fructose is absorbed via different pathways it helps increase performance. Outside of sports I wouldn't drink refined sugar myself. But a positive aspect is that a high-sugar diet will not give people diabetes, while a high-fat diet can.