DailyDirt: Healthier Sodas Still Aren't That Healthy

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Fri, Nov 15th 2013 5:00pm — Michael Ho

It's not easy to introduce a new soda (or pop or whatever you like to call carbonated soft drinks). Just try to find a bottle of New Coke, Crystal Pepsi, OK Soda or 7Up Gold -- and those are just the discontinued sodas that had some significant marketing campaigns behind them. The successful introduction of diet sodas has evolved into a trend toward "healthier" sodas with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, real sugar, no BVO, herbal supplements and all sorts of other ingredients that might provide some kind of health benefit. However, some of these healthy sodas are dying off because consumers don't seem to want sodas that sound too good for you. Here are just a few examples of healthier sodas you might want to try.

Pepsi Special is a diet soda that contains dextrin -- an indigestible fiber that can make a person feel full and reduce the body's ability to absorb fat from foods. This beverage has recently been approved for sale in Japan, but it's not the only soft drink with dextrin on the Japanese market. (NB: drinking a lot of indigestible fiber might keep you in the bathroom for a bit longer than usual...) [url]
A few years ago, Coke and Pepsi both introduced "healthy" sodas (Diet Coke Plus and Tava, respectively). These carbonated beverages were fortified with vitamins and minerals, but they didn't quite catch on. [url]
Coke and Pepsi weren't the first to try adding vitamins and minerals to soda -- in 2004, 7Up Plus hit the shelves a few years before Diet Coke Plus and Tava. 7Up with antioxidants also ran into some problems, and a lawsuit from the Center for Science in the Public Interest made the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group agree to stop adding vitamin E to drinks and claiming to have antioxidant health benefits. [url]

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: 7up, 7up plus, antioxidants, dextrin, diet coke plus, diet soda, drink, fiber, food, health, minerals, new coke, pepsi special, pop, soda, tava, vitamins
Companies: coca cola, dr pepper snapple group, pepsi

8 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 15 Nov 2013 @ 5:28pm

Coca cola should just go back to its original formula with cocaine -- that'll take off a few pounds for people.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Coogan (profile), 15 Nov 2013 @ 8:21pm

I tried the Diet Coke Plus several times. Tasted like normal DC, but just a tad sweeter. I kinda liked it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Pickled Goosemeat, 16 Nov 2013 @ 6:25am

Beware of Aspartame
Aspartame is an artificial toxin accidentally discovered by Monsanto researchers that converts to formaldehyde at 86 degrees farenheit in the human body which can't break it down in digestion and also can't flush it out. It was discovered to be sweet and so people in high places went out of their way to ensure it was legal to add this to food and drink as an artificial sweetener, reguardless of the fact that it was pickling humans where they stand. Don't drink it. Don't eat it. Research it. Spread this news to your friends.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Technoid (profile), 16 Nov 2013 @ 4:08pm

Beware of urban myths
http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/aspartame.asp
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 16 Nov 2013 @ 4:21pm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synsepalum_dulcificum

Just eat some Miracle Fruit.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous, 16 Nov 2013 @ 4:29pm

I wonder whatever happened to Rockstar Cola, and why other companies don't make a cola-flavored energy drink.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous, 16 Nov 2013 @ 4:32pm

Re: Beware of urban myths
People seem to think Snopes is always right. What makes them so much more valid than any other website?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 17 Nov 2013 @ 5:12am

Re: Re: Beware of urban myths
Nothing, that is why you and me should be able to make that determination ourselves.

Obviously you have doubts, but do you have the means to prove it?

Start collecting urine samples to analyze what is that is being metabolized and what is not, what are the bio markers for the toxic substances there? how do you qualify and quantify them over a period of time, how do you control the experiment to account for other sources of the same toxins?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame_controversy

I would start looking for the study papers to see what they did, what they looked for and try to find out how the analysis is done.

If you need help find a hacker biolab near you.
http://publiclab.org/
http://www.ted.com/talks/ellen_jorgensen_biohacking_you_can_do_it_too.html
h ttp://genspace.org/
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130122-how-we-became-biohackers-part-1

Do some biohacking, your life may well depend on it someday.
[ link to this | view in thread ]