How Coke Comported Itself Last Year
This picture shows the “Holidays Are Coming” truck, which yearly visits more than 40 locations in the United Kingdom. Last year, 2015, saw more pushback than ever, including harsh words from Parliament member Keith Vaz who said: The Coca-Cola truck is not welcome in Leicester, and this national tour to promote sugar-laden drinks is ill-judged and unwise […]
Coke Again
Childhood Obesity News salutes two pieces of web journalism that were first published six years ago. Wade Meredith’s classic “What Happens to Your Body if You Drink a Coke Right Now?” describes the effects of the first hour. Then, Briana Rognlin’s “What Happens to Your Body After You Drink a Soda Every Day, For a […]
The Coke Saga Continues
Last week was pretty much Coca-Cola week at Childhood Obesity News, culminating in a partial list of our previous posts on the topic. Still, interesting events remain to be mentioned. In the autumn of 2014, Claire Suddath and Duane Stanford wrote for Business Week about how the sugar-sweetened beverage industry’s situation had soured since 1998, […]
Coke’s All-Encompassing Miasma
Coca-Cola just might be the single corporation most mentioned by Childhood Obesity News, which can hardly keep up with the never-ending flow of bad behavior manifested by the world’s most hated beverage manufacturer. Coca-Cola’s flagship product, of course, has the same name as a much-feared addictive drug (which, in the old days, used to be […]
A Clutch of Coke Stories
Following the activities of Coca-Cola can be a fascinating pastime. Even if the company’s antics don’t show up on one’s radar immediately, looking back on the corporation’s woefully misguided application of its expertise is just as much fun. That is, if “fun” is defined as learning about and marveling over tactics that range from ethically […]
Minorities, Economic Disadvantage, and Coke
Last time, Childhood Obesity News looked at some of the “collateral damage” (aside from the obvious obesity) the makers of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) inflict on the poor, including members of politically powerless minority groups: sub-optimal land use; air and water pollution; tons of packaging trash; and an increased need for dental care by those who […]
Poor and Minorities at Coke’s Mercy
The U.S. government first contributed to the rise of childhood obesity by tinkering with the rules surrounding sugar production and importation, and thus its cost. As explained in great detail by Bartow J. Elmore for Salon.com, the government interfered again by introducing subsidies for agribusiness. These payments (to Big Corn in particular) stimulated the overproduction […]
Coke and Its Contradictions
Shouldn’t we be about finished with bashing Coke? You’d think so, but Coca-Cola is such an inviting object on which to focus. It’s the archetypal childhood obesity villain. Central Casting could not have done a better job filling the role of “corporation with mixed motives. To indicate the scope of the problem, a Business Week article […]
More Shenanigans from Coke and Friends
Republished in a forum, this article originally came from the British newspaper The Times, and its title is “Sugar watchdog works for Coca-Cola.” In the past, the U.K. government had assigned scientists to determine how much of a person’s total energy consumption should consist of added sugars. They had determined an upper limit of 11%, […]
What Has Coke Been Up To?
As an example of a global corporation that activists love to hate, the Coca-Cola Company is at the top of the list. Every now and then, it’s useful to look back over what Coke has been up to, in its long and troubled relationship with the childhood obesity epidemic, as well as other serious health problems. […]