For decades Coca-Cola was presented as an harmless drink, a symbol of conviviality and modern lifestyle. But the reality that emerges from scientific studies, legal complaints and journalistic investigations is very different: the company would have consciously concealed the dangers related to the excessive consumption of its sugary drinks.
Sugar and diseases: data that could not be ignored
According to a study published on Nature Medicine In January 2024, only in 2020 the sugary drinks were responsible for 2.2 million new cases of diabetes and 1.2 million cardiovascular diseases in the world.
Despite the warnings of the scientific community, consumption remains high: the medium American continues to drink about 350 ml of sugary drinks per day, and for each person who avoids them there is someone else who takes twice as much.
A strategy to the “Big Tobacco”
Already in 2017 two US shepherds, William H. Lamar IV and Delman L. Coates, together with the Non-Profit Praxis Project, reported Coca-Cola and the American Beverage Association for deceptive marketing. According to the cause, the company knew very well the bond between sugars and chronic diseases, but would deliberately confuse public opinion with misleading messages.
The case came closely to the strategy used by tobacco multinationals: minimize risks, question science and manipulate the public debate.
“A caloror is a calorie”: the narrative that has deceived millions of people
One of the most effective messages spread by Coca-Cola was that “all calories are the same”. A simple, but misleading formula: it implied that the origin of calories was not important, but only the balance between those taken and those burned with physical activity.
In this way, responsibility was discharged to the consumer, shifting attention from the impact of sugary drinks.
Science, however, says more: liquid sugars are metabolized differently than those present in natural foods, without fiber and micronutrients, and are much more harmful to the metabolism.
The case of the Global Energy Balance Network
In 2014 Coca-Cola financed the birth of the Global Energy Balance Network, an apparently scientific organization, led by academics of the Universities of Colorado and South Carolina. One of the best known spokespersons, Steven Blair, claimed that obesity and diseases were not caused by drinks or junk food, but only by “too much physical activity”.
The truth came to the surface soon: the New York Times He revealed that the association was a facade financed and controlled directly by Coca-Cola. The scandal forced the then CEO Mhtar Kent to write on Wall Street Journal A letter entitled “We will do better”, admitting the company’s responsibility.
Advertising and false promises
In addition to manipulating science, Coca-Cola also acted with ad hoc advertising campaigns. In 2013, in a post deleted, the company declared that it had “removed 1.5 trillion calories from the US market” thanks to new formulas and reductions in portions.
In reality, behind the scenes, it continued to finance events and foundations such as the Hudson Institute and the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, to which he had donated millions of dollars.
An evident paradox: Coca-Cola could have eliminated billions of calories simply by removing the full sugar versions of its drinks from the market. Instead, not only has he continued to sell them, but has launched new hyperzuccraterate variants, such as the recent Coca-Cola Spiced, which in some cases contains even more sugar than the classic version.
The price of disinformation
What emerges clearly is a conscious choice: despite always knowing that sugar causes devastating damage to public health, Coca-Cola preferred to spend billions in sponsorships, piloted research and misleading advertising.
A tactic that closely recalls that of the tobacco industry: protecting profits at any cost, even at the expense of the health of millions of people.
Today, while diabetes and cardiovascular diseases continue to grow at alarming rhythms, the most iconic multinational on the planet continues to sell its cans and to convince consumers that “is not his fault”.
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