Photo by joelzimmer/Flickr CC
Coca-Cola reveals calories? Well, sort of reveals. Coca-Cola announces that it will put calories on the front of its packages (so you don't have to search for and put on glasses to read the Nutrition Facts). You can see what the label will look like in the story in USA Today.
This sounds good but I view this action as another end run around FDA's proposed regulations. In March 2004, the FDA proposed to require the full number of calories to be placed on the front of food packages likely to be consumed by one person, like a 20-ounce soda for example.
If Coca-Cola followed that FDA proposal, its label would have to say 250 Calories right on the front of the package.
This idea got stuck in Bush administration but there's a good chance the new folks at FDA might take it up again.
Is Coca-Cola serious about helping people avoid obesity? If so, maybe it could send out a press release distancing itself from those consumer-unfriendly ads run by the Center for Consumer Freedom.
Here's another question: Does Coca-Cola fund the CCF directly or indirectly through the American Beverage Assocation or some other industry trade group? I will believe that they might really have an interest in consumer health when I know they have no connection whatsoever to CCF and its current ad campaigns.
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Not sure where you got bolded "800 calories" from. A 20 oz. Coke bottle contains about 250 calories.
http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/mail/goodanswer/soft_drink_nutrition.pdf
I find it kind of surprising to see such an off estimate from a Professor of Nutrition.
According to the nutritional information for Coca-Cola, an 8 oz. soda has 97 Calories. A 20 oz. soda contains about 250 Cals. So I don't quite know which product you're talking about that would display a total of 800 Cals.
Meanwhile, your only response to the CCF ads appears to be that they're funded by the evil soda industry. Some of us do actually value freedom, you know.
Ah, figured it out where you got the 800 number.
The image in the USA Today article is misleading. A 20 oz. COKE bottle would actually have a label that said "100 calories / 2.5 servings", not "100 calories / 8 servings"
Still I'm surprised that someone so knowledgeable about nutrition (and so critical of soft drinks) would not notice calorie counts that were greater than 3 times the real #s...
Sorry about that, readers. You're right, J, the 800 number came from the misleading USA Today image (which I'm guessing was taken of a label from a larger bottle--probably a 2-Liter one). We've corrected the number in the post. Thanks to all of you who noticed and let us know.
Eight servings is about right for the contents of a 2-liter bottle. But the image in the USA Today article is unlike any 2-liter bottle I have ever seen. I have to wonder if it's a fabricated "representation".
In any case, it sort of undercuts Nestle's argument. The FDA requirement almost certainly wouldn't apply to 2-liter bottles, which are not meant to be consumed by a single individual. So if Coke is putting it on 2-liter bottles (which the article suggests that they are), it's not just about an end-run to the proposed FDA regs.
Nestle seems so terrified of sugar, even in moderation, that I'm not especially surprised that she doesn't have a realistic perspective.
Um, while the CCF may have a long history of consumer-unfriendly ads, the ad campaign against a soda tax is not consumer-unfriendly except as a heresy of some odd new religion about taxing sodas....
I drink soda rarely (except for seltzer), and sweetened soda more rarely still (way too sweet for me), but I am one of the many people who find the developing orthodoxy about soda taxes offensive and counterproductive, so I am happy to have the CCF apply its services to mock it.
I wonder if they did any market research regarding placing the calorie label prominently on the bottle. In a calorie-crazed country, you would think they would lose some sales because of that. On the other hand, it is a good idea for people to know how much sugary intake calories they are taking in, and that may help some people to cut down their soda use and hence help in losing weight. http://www.mydochub.com