After the last few months of seeing Walmart and Target accept Safer Chemical’s Mind The Store challenge to remove key toxins from many of the health and beauty products they carry, and after Walmart’s commitment to remove trans fats from all the food they carry by 2015, I was particularly discouraged this week when it was announced that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) will be replacing cane sugar in Mexican Coca-Cola. For many years, hipsters and health freaks such as myself (although I don’t actually drink soft drinks) have sought out Coke manufactured in Mexico because it was sweetened by cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup as it is in the U.S. It’s particularly easy to find Mexican Coke here in Texas, of course. The announcement that the Mexican plant would be supplementing the sweetening of it’s beverages with corn syrup was followed by ABC News announcing that the bottles exported to the U.S. from that bottling plant would actually still use cane sugar. But seriously, how is that cool? The same article says that nearly 1/3 of Mexicans are obese. Why is it OK to give them HFCS when we don’t want it? This is yet another reason that I don’t love supporting Coca-Cola products, despite my fondness for their nostalgia signs and the rosy Santa drinking Coke at Christmas. The steps we’ve seen big corporations take forward in the last few years are small, but at least they’ve been steps forward. Let’s not take another step back, Coca-Cola.
This really bothers me and shows exactly what a company is made of. They will “do the right thing” when they are forced to or when the public pushes them hard enough but will continue to export “the wrong thing” to other countries who may not have bans against things like HFCS. It’s terrible. I won’t support companies like that. I also have a problem with companies who have a line of products that are good but continue to sell a line that is bad (and less expensive). Not much of a commitment to our health … and I say “no thanks”.
Exactly. Companies who assume we don’t know what they’re doing to other countries and people should be ashamed. I might not always know immediately, but when I do find out I have no problem cutting off any purchases I might have made from that company. Unfortunately, my husband loves Coke Zero. But they’re getting no money from me at the grocery store!