Time to Do Something about the Soda Masquerade

Coca Cola Life made its debut in America at the end of August. The folks at Coca Cola are promoting the fact that this new product has 35 percent fewer calories and is “naturally” sweetened with cane sugar and stevia leaf extract.

Guess what? It’s still garbage, just like every other soda or energy drink.

In a recent announcement from Coca Cola about the domestic launch of this new garbage, there’s one word that’s noticeably absent – healthy.

That’s because soda has no health value whatsoever. Zero.

Maybe Coca Cola would like us to believe that Coca Cola Life is slightly less unhealthy than its predecessors.

After all, regular Coca Cola contains high fructose corn syrup, which has been linked to cancer, heart disease, stroke, type II diabetes and other chronic diseases. Meanwhile, Diet Coke and Coke Zero are sweetened with aspartame, which has been linked to cancer and stomach aches even though it’s FDA-approved. These products are still very much available, by the way.

Coca Cola Life still has four teaspoons of sugar per can – about one quarter of the daily recommended sugar intake for children. And what about the phosphates that suck the calcium from our bones and cause osteoporosis and other bone diseases? What about all of the other artificial substances and chemicals?

New product launches like this always bring me back to the same question: When are we going to stand up and do something about it?

This is a movement that needs to start at home with parents. But it must also continue with our heroes – the sports stars and entertainers who kids follow so closely and idolize. Peyton Manning. LeBron James. Kobe Bryant. Derek Jeter. Beyonce. Katy Perry.

These are some of the most popular celebrities in the world. They’re paid millions of dollars to promote products with ingredients that have been scientifically proven to be unhealthy. I have a massive problem with that.

It’s up to us as parents to get our collective heads out of the sand and call upon these celebrities to stop endorsing unhealthy products. I challenge all of my readers, patients and radio listeners to share this blog post with all of your friends and family on social media and get a movement started.

I also challenge any sports or Hollywood star to be the one courageous human being who refuses to take the money and walks away from a lucrative endorsement contract. If you know a celebrity, ask them to step forward and take a stand against endorsing products that make us sick.

If it’s not going to be parents and our heroes, who else will speak up? We as parents have the power to control what our kids put inside of their bodies. Celebrities have the platform to reach a worldwide audience. This is how movements get started, so let’s get the ball rolling today.

We can do this. We have to do this. Our kids’ lives are at stake.

Dr. James Prood­ian is an accomplished chiropractic physician and health educator who founded Proodian Healthcare Family of Companies to help people feel better, function better, and live longer. His expertise for the past two decades has been in physical rehabilitation, and he has successfully established himself as a spinal specialist. In his practice, he advocates the science of functional medicine, which takes an integrative approach to treating patients by addressing their physical, nutritional, and psychological needs. Alarmed by the escalation of complex, chronic illness in our country, Dr. Proodian has been speaking to companies and organizations through his “Wellness at Work” program since 1994, motivating thousands of people to make positive lifestyle choices and lead healthier, more productive lives. He can be heard weekly on his radio program, “Proodian Healthcare By Design,” on Tandem Radio.