Thursday, December 17, 2009

Coca-Cola. It Does A Body Good?

This week has been pretty busy, even though I haven't had a ton going on after work. I still seem to have a lot to do (like wrap the gift for my brother-in-law for Woody to take to the post office). We had great plans yesterday to make a whole wheat flat bread pizza for dinner, but that didn't work out in the end. Instead, our smoke detector went off 4 times in about 20 minutes. I ended up turning off the oven and giving up. Woody couldn't stand on the stool waving my latest issue of Runner's World around the detector for another 20 minutes and it was too cold out to keep the window wide open any longer! Mark Bittman has, what seems to be, a very easy recipe on his website, but apparently the 10 inch skillet we tried to use just was not right for it. I haven't given up yet though. I'll pick up a pizza pan this weekend at Bed, Bath, and Beyond (can't find one anywhere else close by) and try again. I'm GOING TO MAKE THIS BREAD!! (And I'll show you when I do!) It's a good thing we had a backup plan for dinner!

Have you seen the new advertising that Coca-Cola is doing all over the web and through street marketing? They have a new website called Live Positively. It promotes the health benefits of Coca-Cola products, ways to include them in a healthy life, and promotes all the good they're doing in the world. Now, I definitely enjoy a really good diet root beer or diet Vernors every now and then, but soda hasn't been a part of my diet on a regular basis for years now.









Personally, I just don't see the need for it. I know others who need a Coke first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Now that I'm paying a bit more attention to what I'm putting in my mouth, I feel like there are just too many ingredients listed on many sodas that I don't recognize, to comfortably consume regularly. They're empty calories or unnecessary sugars. Even the so-called 'healthy' or 'natural' sugars, aren't necessarily all that healthy or natural. Many are newly created or 'discovered' and we just don't know enough about them yet. There has been a lot of research done on soda and it's not favorable.
So anyway, Coca-Cola. According to this new website, they've been hard at work supporting and sponsoring healthy events and groups. Apparently they were a sponsor of Fred's Team, one of the largest charity teams running in the NYC Marathon. My cynical side feels they're doing this as a publicity stunt, but I hope that they genuinely believe they are doing the right thing for their customers. They are beginning to introducing a new product, which is actually just Coke classic in a smaller can with just 90 calories worth of soda in it. Hopefully people will be able to curb their craving with just 90 empty calories instead of the larger bottle.
I'm glad there's another place for people to find out about healthy ways to live and I'm glad a large company like Coca-Cola is supporting good causes, but personally I hope this site doesn't convince anyone that all Coke products are good for them simply because the company is doing good things.
What do you think? I'd love to know.

7 comments:

Jamie Cooks It Up! said...

Good luck with your pizza making!
Found you on sits....
PS. I have to admit, I love a good diet coke now and then. Seems like lately it's a little more NOW than THEN!

Alissa Grosso said...

I have to admit, I'm sort of addicted to Coke Zero. That said, I don't drink it daily, maybe a few times a week. Sometimes when I am on the road, I need some caffeine to keep me awake at the wheel, and I've never been a big fan of hot beverages when driving, but I certainly don't think of it as a healthy beverage.

Mel -Tall Mom on the Run said...

I am a coffee drinker.. Never have liked soda besides the occasional Rootbeer :)

Empty calories for sure!

Unknown said...

If you told me Coke was good for you, I'd probably laugh out loud. I think that just because Coke wants their product to be good for people isn't going to make it good for people. It's sad that a lot of people will believe what Coke tells them or want to believe it's better for them than it really is... I used to be one of those people that drank a soda first thing in the morning and last thing at night. That was more than four years ago. I can honestly say that I feel a lot more healthy living a soda free life style.

FoodFitnessFreshair said...

I agree that there are too many unidentifiable ingredients on the back of soda cans. I'd rather eat my calories and chew my sugar intake than drink it down. It's funny because I actually just read a book that went into detail the history of coke and how it was originally patented as a medicine. Only did they remove the quack medicine title when they realized they could make more money without it.

I do like their 90 calorie idea though. At least they have an option for all those soda addicts trying to cut back.

Nice post :)

Alisa said...

I heart coke zero but I save it for "treats." I've never heard of Vernon's.

The Laminator said...

All coke is is empty calories! No matter how you package it, it is all the same! Using buzz words like natural or healthy or organic or whatever doesn't really change what's inside that can.