Here's a quick pop quiz for you (ha-ha). What is the most natural, thirst quenching beverage in production today, one that lacks all artificial colors and flavors, chemical sweeteners or funny business of any kind? I hear everything from IZZE and Blue Sky to fruit juice and brewed tea being shouted out, and I suppose that there's a degree of accuracy to all of those responses, but I actually had pure, unadulterated H20 in mind. Many would agree. Hooo-eeey...there's nothing quite like saddling up to the tap in your kitchen and pouring yourself a lonnng, slowwww drink of cool aqua. Boy, that hits the spot. Considering the Worldwatch Industry's claim that tap water costs consumers approximately 1 cent per gallon (compared to bottled water, which ends up costing significantly more per gallon than gasoline) it just makes $en$e to befriend your faucet on a regular basis.
In the late 80s to early 90s as America's municipal water supplies fell under scrutiny and people started paying attention to convincing marketing campaigns focused on the health aspects of portable H20, a multi-billion dollar industry took hold. It's no secret that the greater part of the civilized world fell hard for portable water, willingly coughing up $1 - $2 (sometimes even more) for PET encased, supposedly purified-mineralized-deep-rock-derived liquid refreshment. According to the Container Recycling Institute, in the U.S. alone, we chug an average of 70+ million bottles of water daily. Despite this, Nielsen reports that bottled water sales have fallen 3.3% in the last year in America, a figure that will surely increase as environmental/health concerns and budgetary limitations rise to the forefront. So, aside from bottled water, what other type of liquid has been a mainstay in our shopping carts?
Americans seem to be particularly fond of their carbonated soft drinks given the fact that 50% of all beverage sales are of the bubbly kind (according to the Beverage Marketing Corporation). As it turns out, Americans slurp down over 13 billion gallons of soft drinks each year. While the U.S. beverage market shrank 3% in 2008 and has exhibited a minor but steady decline in the past 4 years (from o.2% in 2005 and 0.6% in 2006 to 3.3% in 2007), the carbonated beverage market is still one of the best revenue leaders, surpassing even the financial and automobile sectors. Many sources claim that the long-term profitability of the soda market is still threatened by concern over the connection between soda and persistent obesity and diabetic issues among Americans. There is also continued negative press regarding artificial sweeteners and other potential health issues that could arise.
In response, major beverage companies have been scrambling to maintain our interest and recapture our fiscal allegiance with an ever-steady array of "healthier" bottled drinks designed to fulfill niche markets. As it stands, the majority of U.S. made soft drinks are produced with cheap and plentiful high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). GM Corn is the single most subsidized crop cultivated by American farmers and it has gripped our food industry because the government rewards farmers handsomely for their agricultural success -- the more, the merrier. But, HFCS has become a much maligned suspect in America's ongoing obesity and diabetic epidemic. For a handful of beverage manufacturers, their answer to sagging sales and rising health concerns is in the form of one crystalline shining super star -- sugar. Its cane, which grows out of the ground and needs to be processed in a factory, is perceived as a sweetening goody two shoes compared to its HFCS counterpart which is hatched in a lab using an elaborate processing technique and dangerous chemicals (such as mercury) to emerge as a thick and gooey saccharine substance.
Pepsi Natural, unlike Pespi original, is a real sugar cane based soda available in select U.S. markets, priced at around $4.69 for four 12 fluid ounce glass bottles. Boasting nothing more than sparkling water, sugar, a few assorted acids for tang, caffeine, apple extract/caramel for color, and kola nut extract for flavor, it seems quite different from its predecessor in that the HFCS is completely absent. That may be a positive recipe tweak, but the natural part of the formula is rather misleading (as with so many products available in our marketplace) since it conveys the notion that their product is healthier. Most consumers see that word and think that they are making a better choice, however, since there is no federal regulation of the term natural, companies like Pepsi are not required by law to use exclusively natural ingredients in the products that they label as such. The very definition of natural is something that exists in or is produced by nature or is not artificially altered. If you take those words literally, then there is no such thing as Pepsi Natural in Mother Nature's world of fruits, vegetables, herbs and grains. In fact, very few items that we consume on a regular basis are natural or minimally processed.
What is your opinion of products that are labeled as natural? Since manufacturers like Pepsi suffer no legal ramifications when they slap the word natural on their product, how confident are you that what you drop in your shopping cart is actually healthy compared to conventionally processed goods? Can any soda product be considered truly natural or good for you? Do you think that the 38 grams of sugar that each 12 ounce glass bottle of Pepsi Natural contains -- equivalent to 1/4 cup of granulated cane sugar by volume -- is something that you should feel good about putting in your body? What are your feelings about sugar and high fructose corn syrup in general?
Cameron Miller
said on August 03, 2009