Soft_Drinks_Menace

Yeh Dil Mange No More Divya Prabhakar Soft drink brands such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi are powerful icons, symbols not only of westernization but also globalization, creating a unifying idiom across the world, from Bombay to Bonn to Boston, from Tokyo to Tenali to Timbaktu. Coke and Pepsi logos, recognized in over 200 countries, are embraced by billions to whom they promise refreshment and rejuvenation, respite and relaxation. According to Zenith International, humans worldwide consume nearly 1 trillion – yes, 1,000,000,000,000 – 500 ml bottles of soft drinks every year. Before you can say “Coke”, 30,000 soft drinks would have been consumed in that one second. Coke and Pepsi are well-run companies, able to navigate to spread their tentacles of marketing, distribution and sales to every nook and cranny of the world. They are amazingly adaptable to local markets, manufacturing and marketing drinks and snacks to suit local taste; price them and size them to fit the local pocket; push them and promote them to appeal to the local zeitgeist. The marketing strategy, anchored around fun, friends and frolic, features famous stars, irresistible to youth and adults. Coke and Pepsi beverages are sold in almost every restaurant, fast food joint, and store. In Japan, consumers can get a can of Coke with the click of a button on their mobile phone and pay for it through their phone bill at the end of the month. The ubiquity and ease of procurement is astonishing in developed and, increasingly, developing nations. Go ahead, grab one, yaar. Last year, Coke and Pepsi together sold US $ 75 billion (Rs. 3,75,000 crores) of products and made a profit of $ 11 billion (Rs. 55,000 crores). The combined sales of these two companies is higher than the GDP of 116 countries in the world...including the likes of Sri Lanka, Syria and Serbia. Sweet, no' But both Coke and Pepsi have a problem. The markets in the West are saturated; an average American drinks 412 bottles of soft drinks a year. Here’s the good news: in India it is only 7 bottles a year. A recent Time story says: Coke has always measured its sales potential using the metric of bottles consumed per capita by country, and by that calibration, China and India remain untapped gushers...they're the future of the company. Of course, Coke and Pepsi have their act together with slick slogans – Yeh Dil Maange More and Little Drops of Joy – and top movie stars and sportsmen as endorsers. The soft drink market for Coke in North America shrunk 2% in 2008. Not in India. India’s market grew 33%.... 33% I repeat. And both Pepsi and Coke can see this growth continuing far as the eye can see. The message that should be sent to the public now is: INDIA, BEWARE! Be afraid, be very afraid. Before you know it, the little drops of joy will turn into little drops of poison. The stuff that the hearts more of will come to destroy it. According to Center for Disease Control (CDC), incidence of obesity (people with Body Mass Index of higher than 30) in US was less than 10% in 1985. Just 20 years later, it has crossed 30%. The reason soft drinks contribute to obesity is their extremely high glycemic index, which is a measure of how fast sugar gets absorbed into blood. Excess sugar in blood, more than body’s calorific needs, gets converted into fat in the cells. While it is theoretically possible to reverse obesity and become slim again, practically speaking, obesity in most human beings is irreversible Professors Lenny Vartanian, Marlene Schwartz and Kelly Brownell recently conducted a comprehensive and sytematic review and meta-analysis of 88 different studies conducted around the world to analyze the effect of soft drink consumption on health and concluded as follows:  Regular soft drink consumption leads to rising body weight and, over time, to pediatric, adolescent and adult obesity. Obesity has a cascading damaging effects on the body, including heart problems, back problems, hypertension, artertial sclerosis and, as found recently, cancer.  Regular soft drink consumption significantly increases the chances of diabetes. (The liver gets exceedingly taxed in producing insulin to metabolize the sugar and, over time, it fails to produce insulin, a condition commonly called diabetes. Diabetes, once set in, cannot be reversed and the patient has to live with it until death.)  Regular soft drink consumption is coincident with lowered consumption of essential nutrients of protein, vitamins and calcium.  Regular soft drink consumption is positively correlated with several other diseases and debilities such as hypertension, hypocalemia, degraded bone density, urinary/kidney stones. India has the dubious distinction of being the diabetes capital of the world, soon to have 50 million incurable patients. If Coke and Pepsi succeed in their growth plans in India, this already horrific disease will become a national calamity. In addition to contributing to human misery, Coke and Pepsi also corrupt and contaminate the environment. 70 crore Coke and Pepsi cans and plastic bottles are dumped every year in India. The success of Coke and Pepsi only spells health disaster for India. India must do all in its power to stop Coke and Pepsi from succeeding in India with their sugar drinks. There are three things a wise and gutsy government would do to prevent this menace from spreading:  Impose a large, effective disease excise tax on all sugared soft drinks sales; use the proceeds to educate the public on the dangerous effects of sugared soft drinks;  Ban advertising of sugared soft drinks just like we banned advertising of cigarettes;  Impose a hefty income tax surcharge on all payments from soft drink companies to socially irresponsible celebrities like Aamir Khan, Priyanka Chopra and Mahendra Dhoni who endorse these products for personal gain while thier countrymen suffer; And we should stop idolizing people like Indra Nooyi (CEO of Pepsi) and Warren Buffett (a major stakeholder in Coke) who are laughing their way to the bank while people are crying their way to the hospital. Divya Prabhakar is a 11th Grade Student American International School, Chennai.