Have you seen the new 2 minute ad by Coca-Cola? The premise is that they are not contributing to the obesity epidemic, but rather helping to fight obesity by offering low-calorie diet sodas and smaller cans (at a higher price)!
Never mind that research has shown that diet soda is dangerous, linking it to heart disease, bone loss, kidney disease, and stroke, not to mention weight gain and obesity! (Even more references here and here).
But, you have to give Coca-Cola credit for getting out ahead of the issue and trying to protect their business. (It reminds me of when the cigarette manufactures came out with low tar cigarettes.) Coke’s major premise is that if you consume more calories than you burn, you will gain weight, regardless of whether those calories come from chocolate cake, sugary drinks or even mom’s home cooking. They even encourage us to get more exercise to burn off those excess calories. All good advise.
As sugar, aspartame and other artificial sweeteners are legal products, I am not in favor of the government dictating what we can and can’t eat (ha, they do it all the time through the FDA, but that’s a topic for another day)! But as we move toward the government paying for our health care, and our health is directly related to what we consume, will the government take it upon themselves to control what we eat and drink? Sugared sodas, high fat desserts, alcohol, caffeine???
Let's Get in Shape Together 