A high level Coke exec spilled the beans to me!
I feel obliged to pass along this information. While on vacation earlier this month, I stayed next door to a guy who's been in the beverage industry since before I was born. He works for Coke, and ever since Coke bought Vitamin Water, an acquisition he helped initiate, he's been working primarily for Coke's subsidiary Glaceau, the company that makes Vitamin Water. To make a long story short, he told me some damning things about Coke, Diet Coke, Vitamin Water, and the beverage industry as a whole. One night the combination of guilt, too much wine, and the ***** attitude of the South Pacific led him to really spill the beans. In a nutshell, here's what he said:
1. The introduction of New Coke back in the 80's was intended to fail. The real reason New Coke was introduced was to function as a subterfuge and allow time for the changing of Coke's original recipe from including cane sugar to corn syrup. Coke knew that if they simply switched from cane sugar to corn syrup, there would be a public outcry, but if they switched to corn syrup after New Coke, the public would welcome the change back to the near-original formula. It worked. Coke switched to corn syrup without a hitch. Apparently, the only way one can still find Coke with cane sugar and no corn syrup is during Passover (I think). Coke makes a drink called Kosher Coke (can anyone confirm this?) that only uses cane sugar. It's very similar to the old Coke formula.
2. Coke knew all along that the Diet Coke they sent to the troops during the first Gulf War contributed to Gulf War Syndrome. Apparently aspartame breaks down above 80-something degrees. Anyway, when it breaks down it becomes far more poisonous. The pallets of Diet Coke that were sent to the troops sat out in the desert heat, cooking for days, before they were finally chilled and drank by the troops. Similarly, Coke knows about aspartame poisoning, as do many companies, but keeping from the public the dangers of excitotoxins and other chemical additives is a top priority. He said that only the pharmaceutical industry spends more money pushing their poisons. Aspartame is far worse than most people know. I asked about fluoride in Coke, and he says that there is fluoride in Coke products, but not as much as in most cities' tap water, and he didn't believe fluoride is as bad as I thought it was. :glare:
Tags: