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Because the world’s favorite beverage is starting to lose popularity, representatives of the Coca-Cola company came up with a brand new idea – teaming up with health experts and scientists to convince people that calories are not the main reason they are obese, a sedentary lifestyle is.
As the company’s sales are constantly in decline, placing a huge amount of pressure on its representatives, they started to invest in an NGO called the Global Energy Balance Network. This promotes the theory that Americans are too obsessed with how much they are eating but they are not focused on exercising enough.
“Most of the focus in the popular media and in the scientific press is, ‘Oh they’re eating too much, eating too much, eating too much’ – blaming fast food, blaming sugary drinks and so on. And there’s really virtually no compelling evidence that that, in fact, is the cause,” said the NGO’s vice president, Steven N. Blair,who is an exercise scientist.
The message pretty much translates into the argument that people should not cut back on the calories they are consuming but they should do more physical activity in order to lose weight.
However, health experts warn that exercise is only partially responsible for a person’s general health and that diet should not be neglected. They point out that exercise is extremely important but it also increases appetite, which makes people want to eat more. Therefore, if they don’t cut back on calories, they are likely to gain weight instead of becoming fitter.
This is why we should not diminish the role sugary beverages have in making us overweight or obese. Coke and other soft drinks that contain loads of sugar might lead to type 2 diabetes and have been associated with various other conditions such as heart disease and stroke.
Authorities are now trying to make people aware of the danger these beverages expose them to and reduce consumption by imposing new regulation. Thus, they are making efforts to tax sugary beverages, to ban them from schools and prohibit fast food restaurants to sell them with children’s menus. The marketing campaigns have also been restricted lately, especially those targeting kids.
The investment Coca-Cola is making in such organizations is a desperate attempt to keep the sales up. Nevertheless, statistics show the average American has reduced the daily consumption of sugary drinks by as much as 25 percent, so it is very unlikely that the company’s efforts will eventually increase their sales considerably.
Image Source: examiner
