Pepsi Launching 3 Soft Drinks Made with ‘Real’ Sugar
Rejoice! Forget all those sodas and soft drinks made with high fructose corn syrup, now you can guzzle your fizzy drinks guilt-free thanks to Pepsi. Finally a reason to feel good about your nasty soda addiction.
That’s right, this summer Pepsi is rolling out three soft drinks that are all sweetened with real sugar instead of good ole HFCS: Pepsi Made with Real Sugar, Pepsi Vanilla Made with Real Sugar and Pepsi Wild Cherry with Real Sugar.
Why? Because people are drinking fewer and fewer sodas these days, and when you’re a beverage company facing a decline in sales, you have to do something. So Pepsi is opting for ditching the high fructose corn syrup and reverting to real sugar in the hopes that it will boost its image.
“The big soft drink makers are eager to devise new products and marketing moves that spark consumer interest. At the same time, some consumers are increasingly showing concern over the use of high fructose corn syrup as well as artificial sweeteners in soft drinks,” reports USA Today.
Anyone else see something wrong with this picture?
If you feel like you’re getting fed a can of greenwashed soda, it’s because you are. Ultimately, soft drinks made with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup are still highly sweetened, and if there’s one thing the American public is battling, it’s the addiction to added sugars. The recommended amount of daily calories from added sugars in food and drinks in the U.S. is 10 percent, and yet, more than 70 percent of adults are getting much more than that. Switching to real sugar won’t do anything to budge that number.
Not to mention all the other stuff that is in a can of soda. Because cola equals caramel coloring, and caramel coloring often contains 4-methylimidazole, a potential carcinogen. In a recent Consumer Reports study, Pepsi was found to have very high levels of that exact chemical.
“Consumers shouldn’t only be worried about high fructose corn syrup, they need to investigate the entire label,” Vani Hari of FoodBabe told USA Today. “For example, most people don’t know that consuming the ingredient “caramel coloring” in Pepsi could be worse for them than the high fructose corn syrup.”
The bottom line is this: soda is still soda, and it’s not good for you, no matter how you look at it. After all, you don’t think those wild cherries in Pepsi Wild Cherry with Real Sugar were hand harvested do you?
Related on Organic Authority
Pepsi Breaks Promise, Soda Contains High Levels of Carcinogen
Do You Really Know Just How Nasty High Fructose Corn Syrup Is?
Pepsi to Remove Caramel Color Ingredient Connected with Cancer
Image: Matt
