Diet Coke and Pepsi: The Soda War That’s Killing Our Kids

[Guest guest]

Diet Coke and Pepsi: The Soda War That’s Killing Our Kids

What are the most popular drinks in America? Number one, Coke, number two, Diet

Coke and number three — gasp! — Pepsi. Yes, Diet Coke just trumped Pepsi as

the number two selling soda in the world. Ah, we love a good fight, and after

the Coke versus Pepsi challenge in the 80s this rivalry for top pop has been a

favorite American pastime. Both sides have engaged in dirty tricks from product

placements, to celebrity endorsements, to — oh yeah — paying money so they

can have their soda machines inside public schools. No child left behind, right?

Not without a soda in their hands.

Back in the late 90s when soda companies thought of this genius win-win

marketing campaign, there was some outcry, but it fell on the deaf empty pockets

of school officials who wanted chalk for their chalkboards. A huge win for both

brands: sell to the kiddies when Mom and Dad can’t monitor them, and in

exchange schools get little trinkets like books. Headlines had quotes like this

from one school superintendent praising Pepsi because the soda company helped

“finance school landscaping, purchased jackets for the security staff,

sponsored academic and multicultural events and supplied a scoreboard, too.â€

Amazingly even the venerable Washington Post printed this in a 1999 article:

“The National Soft Drink Association has challenged the information being

presented by the health advocates, calling it ‘an insult to consumer

intelligence.’ Any attempts to link soft drinks to health problems, the group

says, ‘are not supported by the facts.’ To be sure, no direct connection has

been established between increased soda consumption and increased obesity.â€

To be sure? Well, though we find that hard to believe, perhaps there was no

evidence at all that drinking spoonfuls of liquid sugar caused obesity. At any

rate, today we’re pretty fat. Childhood obesity has skyrocketed since that

article was written and studies on the dangers of cola are now everywhere and

definitively show things like links to diabetes.

And it’s not just full-sugar colas that cause problems — there is more and

more proof that diet drinks as well could be adding to the obesity problem and

health issues like bone loss. Research suggests artificial sweeteners can trick

our brains into wanting more sweets and make us hungrier with their empty

sugarless calories. So giving the kiddies diet alternatives could be equally

detrimental to their waistlines.

In any event, we’re not saying we don’t appreciate the lawns, or the books,

or the security jackets, but really dressing up like good guys and taking your

fight to the school grounds was a low blow for both of you. The good guys

stepped in with pedometers blazing. Obama came in with celebrities like

Oliver and tried to start a “food revolution.â€

After much pressure in 2010, Pepsi made a dramatic call to remove the

“full-sweetened†sugary drinks from schools and Coca-Cola offered to not

sell to primary school children. The latest reports on this were in March of

last year, now keep in mind — they weren’t offering to get their vending

machines off school grounds (not the pretty landscaped lawns these major soda

warriors helped fund).

So who’s to blame? Well is dead, so we can’t blame him for

starting the pop star pop endorsement campaigns. We can’t blame these

“self-regulating†companies for being good ol’ American capitalists,

working hard to make a buck or a billion. We can’t blame our new government

who is actively trying to bring nutritious lunches into our schools. We can’t

blame you, because you are busy forwarding this to your friends on Facebook and

Twitter.

Coke and Pepsi soda wars, food revolutions and the political rhetoric makes

these “food fights†seems so much more “fat-inating†(to watch on TV,

while we sit and eat, instead of writing to our local legislator.) Wait, maybe

it’s okay to blame Diet Coke.