New 'healthy' soft drinks may add up to more empty calories
The Iowa State Daily
Issue date: 3/22/07 Section: Editorial
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Editorial
The Iowa State Daily
U-WIRE - They're called "sparkling beverages" and they're the new carbonated beverages from PepsiCo and Coca-Cola with a healthy spin.
Some critics will say these new drinks are nothing but corporate spin, but we're not yet ready to agree with that claim. These new beverages, healthy or not, have the cola companies acting positively.
Fortified with vitamins and minerals, these soft drinks are the responses by the two big cola companies to a changing atmosphere. Diet Coke Plus - Coca-Cola's offering - will be unveiled this spring while Tava - PepsiCo's - will follow in the fall.
The atmosphere is that natural, organic foods and beverages are en vogue.
Grocery stores are continually expanding their organic stock. Retail organic sales have increased 20 percent each year since 1990, according to the Organic Trade Association, and another big name corporation, Wal-Mart, has joined in with its own organic program.
"All natural" has that safe-sounding assurance that a food or beverage is healthy, and as good and tasty as Mom's home cooking.
It's only natural that Pepsi and Coke would want to jump on board this cash cow and hitch a ride by pandering to the health crowd. Cola sales have gone flat, with sales dropping for the first time in 2005.
Soft drinks also carry the social stigma of being linked to obesity. Former President Clinton highlighted this in 2006 when he worked to decrease the sales of soft drinks in schools.
So is this new health spin nothing more than a ploy - or a joke as some say - for the corporations to cash in on healthy marketing?
Perhaps, but it's too early to tell how healthy these drinks will be, or if they'll even be profitable.
After all, 7UP Plus sales have not done so well, the soft drink once marketed as "100 percent natural" and then changed to "100 percent natural flavor" because it contains unnatural high fructose corn syrup.
What will be natural about this new healthy take by Pepsi and Coke is that consumers will ultimately decide whether to reject or accept these new beverages.
The public has shown a clear interest in health, and we can't fault the companies for trying to comply healthfully.
The Iowa State Daily
U-WIRE - They're called "sparkling beverages" and they're the new carbonated beverages from PepsiCo and Coca-Cola with a healthy spin.
Some critics will say these new drinks are nothing but corporate spin, but we're not yet ready to agree with that claim. These new beverages, healthy or not, have the cola companies acting positively.
Fortified with vitamins and minerals, these soft drinks are the responses by the two big cola companies to a changing atmosphere. Diet Coke Plus - Coca-Cola's offering - will be unveiled this spring while Tava - PepsiCo's - will follow in the fall.
The atmosphere is that natural, organic foods and beverages are en vogue.
Grocery stores are continually expanding their organic stock. Retail organic sales have increased 20 percent each year since 1990, according to the Organic Trade Association, and another big name corporation, Wal-Mart, has joined in with its own organic program.
"All natural" has that safe-sounding assurance that a food or beverage is healthy, and as good and tasty as Mom's home cooking.
It's only natural that Pepsi and Coke would want to jump on board this cash cow and hitch a ride by pandering to the health crowd. Cola sales have gone flat, with sales dropping for the first time in 2005.
Soft drinks also carry the social stigma of being linked to obesity. Former President Clinton highlighted this in 2006 when he worked to decrease the sales of soft drinks in schools.
So is this new health spin nothing more than a ploy - or a joke as some say - for the corporations to cash in on healthy marketing?
Perhaps, but it's too early to tell how healthy these drinks will be, or if they'll even be profitable.
After all, 7UP Plus sales have not done so well, the soft drink once marketed as "100 percent natural" and then changed to "100 percent natural flavor" because it contains unnatural high fructose corn syrup.
What will be natural about this new healthy take by Pepsi and Coke is that consumers will ultimately decide whether to reject or accept these new beverages.
The public has shown a clear interest in health, and we can't fault the companies for trying to comply healthfully.
