Thursday, June 21, 2012

Coca Cola Boss: We Didn't Do It!

Yes sir. It's so easy to blame those  sugary fizzy drinks for people's obesity. They all blamed McDonald's Big Mac and God-knows-what for the fat they piled up.

Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent must have had enough - he insists his company is not responsible for the rise in US obesity despite New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's recent moves to limit the consumption of sugary drinks.

The Wall Street Journal, in an interview, quoted him :
"This is an important, complicated societal issue that we all have to work together to provide a solution.
"That's why we are working with government, business and civil society to have active lifestyle programs in every country we operate by 2015," Kent said.

The rest of the article:

His remarks came just weeks after the health-conscious Bloomberg proposed a ban on super-sized soft drinks that would restrict the sale to 16-ounce servings, more than an average can but far less than the bucket-sized beverages offered at cinemas, service stations and sporting events.

Kent said Coca-Cola has diversified from its namesake, offering a wide range of healthy teas, juices, sports drinks and other products.

"We've gone from being a single-beverage, single-brand company to now 500-plus brands, 3,000 products. Eight hundred of these products we've introduced in the last four or five years are calorie-free or low-calorie.

"It is, I believe, incorrect and unjust to put the blame on any single ingredient, any single product, any single category of food," he said.

Bloomberg said the proposed ban was needed to confront the "epidemic" of obesity in the United States, which contributes to rising health costs.

Critics have derided the proposed ban as a "nanny state" overreach of government power.
They have also faulted the mayor for seeking to restrict certain unhealthy habits -- like smoking and sugary drinks -- while the city hosts eat-athons like the annual Coney Island hotdog competition.

The proposed measure would target fast-food and other restaurants, delis, and places of public entertainment like stadiums. It would not cover drinks sold in supermarkets or any diet, fruit, dairy or alcoholic drinks.

3 comments:

bruno said...

Nuraina,this guy Bloomberg made his billions renting his terminals to the financial firms and wall streeters.And his TV station.

But in real life he is a goofey.Plain,unrealistic and stupid.Bloomberg can get the council to limit the size of soft drinks but he cannot stop people from buying more than one drinks.So what is the difference of buying one large drink and two medium drinks.Maybe two medium drinks will add up to more than one large drink.

Why don't he stop New Yorkers from eating steak too.Or order a total ban on sales of pork bellies.Or closed down all the butcheries.

Bloomberg and his anti smoking stance.NY has the highest cigarettes tax in the US if not the whole world.At US5.50 per pack city tax alone.But did it stopped smoking.No,but definitely it did stopped the city from collecting sales tax from cigarettes.

Some if not most of retailers went looking for smuggled cigs from out of state bootleggers.And they are doing brisk business.All at the expense of the city coffers.Go figure.

Anonymous said...

Too much sugar is bad.
Moderation is key.

Anonymous said...

its a complex problem. In America now people have health care and it needs to be funded by taxation but should people who take care of their diet and exercise fund medical care for people who live on KFC and twinkles and weigh 1000 pounds?