The Truth Behind Soft Drinks

Soft drinks have been in the news a lot lately, with many cities around the United States trying to minimize the intake of soda among their citizens. Readers will learn why there is such a backlash against soda. These sugary drinks are a favorite among people of all ages, but drinking too much is unhealthy. The solution may seem to be to drink diet soda or sugar-free options, but even these have problems. Readers will be armed with the knowledge of what soft drinks do to the body, and the impact of what they are really drinking.

It’s as American as fast foods, ice cream, and candy bars. So why are people saying all those nasty things about soft drinks? The answer is simple: All those terrible things are true. And while the facts may be hard to swallow, it is high time we look at the damage that has been done by our long-running love affair with the beverage industry. In their new book, Killer Colas, Dr. Nancy Appleton and G. N. Jacobs provide a startling picture of a greedy industry hell-bent on destroying our country’s health, no matter what the cost. Over the last twenty-five years, the sale of sodas, energy beverages, and sports drinks has exploded, as has the incidence of adult and childhood obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, cancer, and stroke. In Killer Colas, the authors detail why this downward spiral has occurred. They look at the history and growth of the soft drink industry from fountain shops to multinational mega-corporations; they examine the industry’s powerful influence over the media; and they look at the addictive and harmful ingredients these companies have added to their formulas. The authors also offer scientific evidence that links our growing consumption of soft drinks with our declining health. In the light of our country’s health crisis, the consequences of our addiction to soft drinks can no longer be ignored. Killer Colas exposes the facts behind an addiction that is just as powerful and dangerous as our love of tobacco. Once you have read this book, you will never look at a soft drink in the same way.

An effervescent exploration of the global history and myriad symbolic meanings of carbonated beverages. More than eighty years before the invention of Coca-Cola, sweet carbonated drinks became popular around the world, provoking arguments remarkably similar to those they prompt today. Are they medicinally, morally, culturally, or nutritionally good or bad? Seemingly since their invention, they have been loved—and hated—for being cold or sweet or fizzy or stimulating. Many of their flavors are international: lemon and ginger were more popular than cola until about 1920. Some are local: tarragon in Russia, cucumber in New York, red bean in Japan, and chinotto (exceedingly bitter orange) in Italy. This book looks not only at how something made from water, sugar, and soda became big business, but also how it became deeply important to people—for fizzy drinks’ symbolic meanings are far more complex than the water, gas, and sugar from which they are made.

Soft drinks have been in the news a lot lately, with many cities around the United States trying to minimize the intake of soda among their citizens. Readers will learn why there is such a backlash against soda. These sugary drinks are a favorite among people of all ages, but drinking too much is unhealthy. The solution may seem to be to drink diet soda or sugar-free options, but even these have problems. Readers will be armed with the knowledge of what soft drinks do to the body, and the impact of what they are really drinking.

Sodas are astonishing products. Little more than flavored sugar-water, these drinks cost practically nothing to produce or buy, yet have turned their makers--principally Coca-Cola and PepsiCo--into a multibillion-dollar industry with global recognition, distribution, and political power. Billed as "refreshing," "tasty," "crisp," and "the real thing," sodas also happen to be so well established to contribute to poor dental hygiene, higher calorie intake, obesity, and type-2 diabetes that the first line of defense against any of these conditions is to simply stop drinking them. Habitually drinking large volumes of soda not only harms individual health, but also burdens societies with runaway healthcare costs. So how did products containing absurdly inexpensive ingredients become multibillion dollar industries and international brand icons, while also having a devastating impact on public health? In Soda Politics, the 2016 James Beard Award for Writing & Literature Winner, Dr. Marion Nestle answers this question by detailing all of the ways that the soft drink industry works overtime to make drinking soda as common and accepted as drinking water, for adults and children. Dr. Nestle, a renowned food and nutrition policy expert and public health advocate, shows how sodas are principally miracles of advertising; Coca-Cola and PepsiCo spend billions of dollars each year to promote their sale to children, minorities, and low-income populations, in developing as well as industrialized nations. And once they have stimulated that demand, they leave no stone unturned to protect profits. That includes lobbying to prevent any measures that would discourage soda sales, strategically donating money to health organizations and researchers who can make the science about sodas appear confusing, and engaging in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities to create goodwill and silence critics. Soda Politics follows the money trail wherever it leads, revealing how hard Big Soda works to sell as much of their products as possible to an increasingly obese world. But Soda Politics does more than just diagnose a problem--it encourages readers to help find solutions. From Berkeley to Mexico City and beyond, advocates are successfully countering the relentless marketing, promotion, and political protection of sugary drinks. And their actions are having an impact--for all of the hardball and softball tactics the soft drink industry employs to maintain the status quo, soda consumption has been flat or falling for years. Health advocacy campaigns are now the single greatest threat to soda companies' profits. Soda Politics provides readers with the tools they need to keep up pressure on Big Soda in order to build healthier and more sustainable food systems.

According to the National Soft Drink Association, the average person now consumes 600 sodas per year, each at about 12 ounces per bottle. Boys ages 12 29 consume an average of 160 gallons per year - almost 2 quarts per day! In the United States, carbonated beverages are often less expensive than other drinks such as juices. Yet these soft drinks are far from benign. They are one of the major culprits in the obesity epidemic. This engaging, explorative book exposes the dangers of carbonated beverages and promotes healthy and flavorful alternatives.

"Citizen Coke demostrate[s] a complete lack of understanding about…the Coca-Cola system—past and present." —Ted Ryan, the Coca-Cola Company By examining “the real thing” ingredient by ingredient, this brilliant history shows how Coke used a strategy of outsourcing and leveraged free public resources, market muscle, and lobbying power to build a global empire on the sale of sugary water. Coke became a giant in a world of abundance but is now embattled in a world of scarcity, its products straining global resources and fueling crises in public health.

An exposé on the rise of Coca-Cola to become one of the world's most profitable and recognized brands shares unsettling reports on franchise deals in adversarial nations, the role of company products in obesity rates, and the environmental impact of its bottling practices.

For God, Country and Coca-Cola is the unauthorized history of the great American soft drink and the company that makes it. From its origins as a patent medicine in Reconstruction Atlanta through its rise as the dominant consumer beverage of the American century, the story of Coke is as unique, tasty, and effervescent as the drink itself. With vivid portraits of the entrepreneurs who founded the company -- and of the colorful cast of hustlers, swindlers, ad men, and con men who have made Coca-Cola the most recognized trademark in the world -- this is business history at its best: in fact, "The Real Thing."