Its logo is in every shop and street, it sponsors TV programs, appears almost everywhere, and is readily valued and accepted by the unthinking masses. It’s popular with kids who drink truckloads of the stuff and have it for breakfast. It has thousands of devoted fans, and millions of addicted consumers.
Take out the water, and all its remaining ingredients are known toxins. The two most dangerous are sugar (implicated in almost all modern disease), and aspartamine (a Monsanto-manufactured carcinogenic toxin), and there’s plenty more dodgy stuff in every can. Imagine inventing a drug that was dirt cheap to make, addictive, totally legal, and could be sold readily to children who could become hooked for life. Like cigarettes, but without the bad press. Imagine pushing it for over a century and getting away with it…
Reasons to boycott Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola in the third world: Coca-Cola has been strongly criticized for its campaigns in the third world. In these countries, the company sets the price of their products just within reach of the poorest, and their products represent, through huge commercial campaigns, symbols of a western lifestyle.
Cary Fowler, economist at the UN commission for checking transnational companies, has said: “Poor people in the third world can see (in the company’s advertisements) how Coca-Cola and Fanta is enjoyed by happy, well-off, often white middle-class families. The poor that want the best for their children consequently buy Coke or Fanta for their children, or even worse, they start buying it for their infants. Instead of breast milk, the children get Coca-Cola!”
Unhealthy: The Cola drinks are downright harmful to your health. A can of Coke contains up to 10% sugar. This amount is about the same in all drinks from the Coca-Cola Company, with the exception of the “diet” drinks, of course. Since the sugar in the diet drinks is substituted with saccharine, they must carry a health warning in the US, since saccharine may cause cancer of the bladder. In a study in 1991, however, it was discovered that many of the sodas not classified as diet products contain both saccharine and ordinary sugar.
Multinational Coca-Cola: Coca-Cola is definitely world-wide. Their products are sold in more than 155 countries. Smaller companies can’t compete with companies of Coca-Cola’s size, since they don’t have a chance to put together campaigns and reach out to the consumers.
Oppression of workers: Coca-Cola are (in)famous for brutally and actively fighting unions on their factories, and in the countries in which they’re established. In Guatemala, the company leaders and the death squads in the country co-operated. The whole union leadership on the factory was on the death list, and in 1980 two were murdered. This lead to a world-wide boycott of Coca-Cola. In America, Coca-Cola has also been accused of racial bias. In 1999, eight black former employees sued the company, accusing it of denying fair pay, promotion, raises and performance reviews to blacks. This lead to a “bus trip for justice”, between Atlanta, GA, and Wilmington, Delaware, in April 2000. On November 16, 2000, Coca-Cola was ordered to pay $190 million to about 2000 black workers.
Let’s take a look at some of the major components of a can of soda
Phosphoric Acid: May interfere with the body’s ability to use calcium, which can lead to osteoporosis or softening of the teeth and bones. Phosphoric acid also neutralizes the hydrochloric acid in your stomach, which can interfere with digestion, making it difficult to utilize nutrients.
Sugar: It is a fact that sugar increases insulin levels, which can lead to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, weight gain, premature aging and many more negative side effects.
Aspartamine: This chemical is used as a sugar substitute in diet soda. There are over 92 different health side effects associated with aspartamine consumption including brain tumors, birth defects, diabetes, emotional disorders and epilispsy/seizures.
Caffeine: Caffeinated drinks cause jitters, insomnia, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, elevated blood cholesterol levels, vitamin and mineral depletion, breast lumps, birth defects, and perhaps some forms of cancer.