Coca-Cola Rolling Out New Misinformation Campaign to “Combat
Obesity”
January 30, 2013
Story at-a-glance
A new Coca-Cola ad campaign focuses on the mistaken belief
that beating obesity is a matter of counting calories. This
theory has been found to be patently false. All calories are
NOT the same, and obesity is the result of consuming too
many of the wrong type of calories
Carbs (fructose and grains) affect the hormone insulin and
leptin, which are very potent fat regulators. Fats and
proteins affect insulin to a far lesser degree
While soda consumption in the US has declined by 40 percent
in the last 10 years, consumption of artificially sweetened
“diet” beverages has risen in that same time
Research published in 2011 found that people who drank two
or more diet sodas a day experienced waist size increases
that were six times greater than those of people who didn't
drink diet soda
Research from 2005 found drinking more than two cans of diet
soda a day increased risk of obesity by more than 57
percent. Drinking more than two cans of regular soda per day
increased obesity risk by just over 47 percent
A new Coca-Cola ad campaign that encourages people to come
together to fight obesity is drawing fire from consumer
advocates and obesity experts.1,
2
Coke says it’s trying to make consumers more aware of the
healthy choice beverages Coke makes; critics say Coke is simply
doing damage control.
There can be no doubt that soda is one of the primary
beverages responsible for skyrocketing obesity rates. As Dr.
Sanjay Gupta told CNN:3
"...the scientific community has ...reached a
consensus that soft drinks are the one food or beverage
that's been demonstrated to cause weight gain and obesity.
And if we're going to deal with this obesity epidemic,
that's the place to start."
Granted, no one is forcing anyone to drink them, but
there simply has not been enough public education about the
dangers of excessive fructose consumption. In fact, the industry
has fought tooth and nail to minimize or flat out deny these
health dangers, very similar to the tobacco industry denying the
risk of lung cancer..
A perfect example of this ongoing denial is Coca-Cola’s reply
to the video below, The Real Bears, produced by CSPI.
The company called the short-film “irresponsible” and
“grandstanding” that will not help anyone “understand energy
balance.”
I cannot think of any instance where you might need a soda in
order to maintain correct “energy balance.” You can achieve
optimal health without any added sugar or artificial
sweeteners. In fact, if you want to understand energy balance,
read up on how to become
fat-adapted rather than being a sugar burner. This requires
cutting out virtually all added sugars.
Still, their vehement refusal to accept responsibility for
leading you astray does not surprise me. Just take a look at the
history of Coca-Cola’s advertising, and you’ll quickly realize
that this leopard is not about to change its spots anytime soon.
Two sites offering this history lesson include Arandilla’s
“Coca-Cola Advertising Through the Years” blog4,
and NPR’s blog page5,
“Vigor, Brain Power and Other Health Claims From Coke’s
Advertising Past.”
Now, Coca-Cola, the leading beverage brand in the world,
realizes it’s losing the information war and is trying to shift
your attention to its 180 different no- and low-calorie
beverages. Well, this certainly is NOT going to address the
obesity problem. On the contrary, artificial sweeteners have
been shown to produce even MORE weight gain than regular sugar
and even high fructose corn syrup.
Evidence of just how behind-the-times Coca-Cola is, their
brand new multi-million dollar campaign focuses on the sentiment
that:
"...beating obesity will take action by all of us,
based on one simple, common-sense fact: All calories count,
no matter where they come from. ...And if you eat and drink
more calories than you burn off, you'll gain weight."4
This “conventional wisdom” has been firmly debunked by
science. Not all calories count equally. And the “calories in,
calories out” hypothesis for maintaining weight has equally been
shown to be incorrect. It is in fact FAR more important to look
at the source of the calories than counting them.
In short, you do not get fat because you eat too many
calories and don't exercise enough. You get fat because you eat
the wrong kind of calories. At the end of the day, your
consumption of carbohydrates, whether in the form of grains and
sugars (especially fructose), will determine whether or not
you're able to manage your weight and maintain optimal health.
This is because these types of carbs (fructose and grains)
affect the hormone insulin, which is a very potent fat
regulator. Fats and proteins affect insulin to a far lesser
degree. Kudos to The Atlantic5
for calling Coca-Cola on its misleading tactics in its recent
article titled, Coke’s Unconscionable New Ad:
"Coca-Cola's latest attempt to position itself
against the rising tide of concern about the role of sodas
in the obesity epidemic is unconscionable, because of this
statement: 'All calories count. No matter where they come
from including Coca-Cola and everything else with calories.'
For Coca-Cola to suggest that all calories are equal
flies in the face of reality as best as we can determine
it... Coca-Cola wants us to ignore the considerable research
confirming that sugary soda is a major contributor to
obesity, and that it has no nutritional value... Coca-Cola
could use its considerable advertising muscle to promote
healthy exercise, yes, but when it does so as a ploy to
confuse the public about the dangers of its products, that's
not a public service, that's unethical.”
The
video above is from Youtube and is available to the public
for information and entertainment purposes only.
Mercola.com does not own and did not produce this video.
Why Calorie Counting Doesn’t Work
Dr. Robert Lustig, an expert on the metabolic fate of sugar,
explains that fructose is 'isocaloric but not
isometabolic.' This means you can have the same amount
of calories from fructose or glucose, fructose and protein, or
fructose and fat, but the metabolic effect will be
entirely different despite the identical calorie count. This is
a crucial point that must be understood.
Fructose is in fact far worse than other carbs because the
vast majority of it converts directly to FAT, both in your fatty
tissues, and in your liver. And this is why counting calories
does not work... As long as you keep eating fructose and grains,
you're programming your body to create and store fat.
Furthermore, research by Dr. Richard Johnson, chief of the
Division of Renal Diseases and Hypertension at the University of
Colorado and author of The Sugar Fix and
The Fat Switch, demonstrates that large portions of
food and too little exercise are NOT solely responsible for why
you are gaining weight. Rather it’s fructose-containing sugars
that cause obesity – not by calories, but by turning on your “fat
switch,” a powerful biological adaptation that causes cells
to accumulate fat in anticipation of scarcity (or hibernation).
According to Dr. Johnson, based on his decades of research:
“Those of us who are obese eat more because of a
faulty 'switch' and exercise less because of a low energy
state. If you can learn how to control the specific 'switch'
located in the powerhouse of each of your cells – the
mitochondria – you hold the key to fighting obesity.”
According to Beverage Digest, soda consumption in the US has
been on a steady decline since 1998.6
A recent article in The Atlantic7
shows consumption of soda “in freefall,” with US consumption
having declined by 40 percent since 2003. Unfortunately, many
are simply switching to no- or low-cal beverages, which
Coca-Cola is now trying to boost, and quite frankly, if I had to
choose between these two evils, I’d choose regular soda, as
artificial sweeteners are even worse for your long-term
health, and have been linked to increased weight gain when
compared to calorie-containing sweeteners.
No- or Low-Cal Beverages CONTRIBUTE to Obesity Problem
While soda consumption has gone down, consumption of
artificially sweetened “diet” beverages has risen in that same
time, according to an October 11, 2012 report by USA Today.8
The industry has effectively convinced people that diet drinks
are a healthier choice because they lack any calories. However,
if you’re concerned about your weight and health, switching to
artificial sweeteners is NOT a wise move.
Mounting research shows that diet soda is not a "guilt-free"
treat at all. For example,
two studies published in 2011 linked diet soda to poor
health outcomes. In one study, people who drank two or more diet
sodas a day experienced waist size increases that were six
times greater than those of people who didn't drink diet
soda. A second study that found that aspartame (NutraSweet)
raised blood sugar levels in diabetes-prone mice.
As you may know, your waist size is not only a matter of
aesthetics, but also a powerful indicator of a build-up of
visceral fat, a dangerous type of fat around your internal
organs that is strongly linked with type 2 diabetes and heart
disease. Your
waist size is a far more accurate predictor of your heart
risks than your body mass index (BMI). Nearly eight years ago,
research by Sharon P. Fowler, MPH9
(who was also involved in the newer studies noted above) found
that your risk of obesity increases by 41 percent for each
can of diet soda you drink in a day. Furthermore, for diet
soft-drink drinkers, the risk of becoming overweight or obese
was:
36.5 percent for up to 1/2 can per day
57.1 percent for more than 2 cans per day
For regular soft-drink drinkers, the risk of becoming
overweight or obese was:
26 percent for up to 1/2 can per day
32.8 percent for 1 to 2 cans per day
47.2 percent for more than 2 cans per day
How Decreasing Sugar Intake Can Impact Body Weight
In related news, recently published research10
shows that decreasing sugar consumption can help you lose
weight. The researchers examined outcomes from 71 studies on
sugar consumption and body fat. The duration of included studies
ranged from two weeks to one year. According to the authors:
“In trials of adults with ad libitum diets (that is,
with no strict control of food intake), reduced intake of
dietary sugars was associated with a decrease in body weight
(0.80 kg/1.8 lb); increased sugars intake was associated
with a comparable weight increase (0.75 kg/1.7 lb).
Isoenergetic exchange of dietary sugars with other
carbohydrates showed no change in body weight . Trials in
children... in relation to intakes of sugar sweetened
beverages after one year follow-up in prospective studies,
the odds ratio for being overweight or obese increased was
1.55 (1.32 to 1.82) among groups with the highest intake
compared with those with the lowest intake. Despite
significant heterogeneity in one meta-analysis and potential
bias in some trials, sensitivity analyses showed that the
trends were consistent and associations remained after these
studies were excluded.”
Skyrocketing Obesity is Related to Misleading You on Health
Issues
Obesity is the result of inappropriate lifestyle choices, and
unfortunately, our government has done an abysmal job at
disseminating accurate information about diet and health. It’s
one thing for corporations to put out misleading ads – honesty
is not in the self-interest of the processed food and beverage
industry. It’s another when the government falls in line with
for-profit deception and becomes a propagator of corporate
propaganda. And this is exactly what has happened... For
example, conventional advice that is driving public health in
the wrong direction includes:
Cutting calories: Not all calories are
created equal, and
counting calories will not help you lose weight if
you're consuming the wrong kind of calories
Choosing diet foods will help you lose weight:
Substances like
Splenda and
aspartame may have zero calories, but your body isn't
fooled. When it gets a "sweet" taste, it expects calories to
follow, and when this doesn't occur it leads to distortions
in your biochemistry that may actually lead to weight gain
Avoiding saturated fat: The myth that
saturated fat causes heart disease has undoubtedly harmed an
incalculable number of lives over the past several decades,
even though it all began as little more than a
scientifically unsupported marketing strategy for
Crisco cooking oil. Most people actually need at least
50 percent of their diet to include healthful
saturated fats such as organic, pastured eggs, avocados,
coconut oil, real butter and grass-fed beef in order to
optimize their health
Reducing your cholesterol to extremely low
levels: Cholesterol is actually NOT the major
culprit in heart disease or any disease, and the guidelines
that dictate what number your
cholesterol levels should be to keep you "healthy" are
fraught with conflict of interest -- and have never been
proven to be good for your health
This is just a tiny sampling of the misleading information on
weight and obesity disseminated by our government agencies. A
more complete list of conventional
health myths could easily fill an entire series of books.
The reason behind this sad state of affairs is the fact that the
very industries that profit from these lies are the ones funding
most of the research; infiltrating our regulatory agencies; and
bribing our political officials to support their
financially-driven agenda through any number of legal, and at
times not so legal, means.
Could Warning Labels Be Part of the Answer?
According to Dr. Harold Goldstein, executive director of the
non-profit group The California Center for Public Health
Advocacy (CCPHA), “43 percent of the increase in daily calories
Americans consumed over the last 30 years came from sugary
drinks.” The CCPHA has published a list of seven things soda
makers could do to create “meaningful change,” such as11:
Cease all advertising of sugary drinks to children under
16
Add warning labels to containers stating the link
between soda consumption and obesity, diabetes and tooth
decay, just like cigarettes must declare its connection to
lung cancer
Declare number of teaspoons of sugar the container
contains, in large print
Quit marketing sports drinks as healthy beverages
You Can Avoid Becoming a Statistic
Perhaps one of the most powerful scientific discoveries to
emerge in the past several years is that the old adage “a
calorie is a calorie” is patently false. Furthermore, the idea
that in order to lose weight all you have to do is expend more
calories than you consume is also false... The research
clearly demonstrates that even if you control the number of
calories you eat, if those calories come from fructose, you are
at increased risk of developing metabolic syndrome, or
prediabetes, which includes insulin resistance, fatty liver,
high blood pressure and high triglycerides.
Conventional thinking tells us that metabolic syndrome is the
outcome of obesity, which is simply the result of eating too
many calories and not exercising enough. However, Dr. Johnson’s
research, discussed above, shows that a high fructose diet
is the key to developing metabolic syndrome, and that
as soon as you throw fructose into the mix, “calories in versus
calories out” is no longer a functional equation.
In short, avoiding fructose in all its forms, along
with other sugars, is imperative in order to avoid “flipping the
fat switch” that can trigger your body to accumulate excess fat.
So please, do yourself and your family a favor, and don’t get
swept up in Coca-Cola’s multi-million dollar ad extravaganza.
The entire campaign is based on flawed, inaccurate, misleading,
and patently false conventions of thinking.
Let's not forget: Coca-Cola spent $1.2 million to defeat
California Proposition 37 last November, which would have
required genetically engineered (GE) foods to be labeled as such
(which could have included soda containing GE high fructose corn
syrup). That, in and of itself, is proof positive that Coca-Cola
has no concern for health conscious consumers.