Coke Says It Found Fungicide in Orange Juice

January 12, 2012

Wall Street Journal

BY BETSY MCKAY, BILL TOMSON AND LESLIE JOSEPHS

Coca-Cola Co. said it found an unapproved fungicide in orange juice made by Coke and its competitors, and alerted federal regulators that some Brazilian growers had sprayed trees with the substance.

The beverage giant, which makes Simply Orange and Minute Maid, wouldn’t say which brands had shown the fungicide. Both brands contain juice from Brazil.

The Food and Drug Administration said Monday an unnamed juice company had detected low levels of the fungicide in “its and competitors currently marketed finished products.” Those products include some that were on store shelves, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Read More at WSJ

Marketing of Sugary Drinks to Kids and Teens: As Strong as Ever

November 2, 2011

The Atlantic

By Kelly Brownell

Today’s children will be the first generation in the history of the country to lead shorter lives than their parents did. There are several contributors to this dim picture, but obesity leads the list.

Many things are being done to help prevent obesity in children and teens. One of the most visible is the effort by cities, states, and even entire countries to wage war on beverages with added sugar. What was once a simple landscape with only a few flagship beverages like Coke, Pepsi, and 7 Up has morphed into entire new categories of drinks with sugar — sweetened teas, vitamin waters, sports drinks, and energy drinks are examples. Collectively, these beverages are referred to as soda, soft drinks, pop, sugar-sweetened beverages, and sugary drinks — all terms referring to drinks high in sugar and containing little or no nutrition. In the 1990s, consumption of sugary drinks overtook milk consumption in the U.S., a trend that makes health experts cringe.

There is a long list of reasons why these beverages are bad actors:

They are the single greatest source of added sugar in the American diet and add little or no nutrition.
The body does not seem to recognize calories very well when they are delivered in liquids, hence sugary drinks appear to fool the body’s feelings of being full.
There is very clear evidence linking consumption of these beverages with elevated risk for obesity and diabetes.
There is massive marketing.

The health consequences of consuming sugary drinks are well known. It is not surprising, therefore, that groups such as the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Institute of Medicine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, and other groups have said that consumption is too high and needs to come down.

What has been missing from this picture is a detailed analysis of how the industry markets these products to the most vulnerable segment of our population: children. It is important to know this in order to help establish government policies on whether children should be protected from this influence, and also test whether the industry is holding true to its promises to market less to this age group.

The beverage industry, dominated by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, is represented by a trade association called the American Beverage Association (ABA). The beverage companies have made a number of promises that it will market less to children. Coca-Cola, for example, claims they “…will not place any of [their] brands’ marketing in television, radio, and print programming that is primarily directed to children under the age of 12…” Some industry critics believe that the chief aim of such promises is to court public trust and to convince legislators that government intervention is not necessary. Objective information is needed to see whether industry promises are kept and whether, in fact, children are exposed to less marketing of products that may cause harm.

Our group at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University has just released the most extensive analysis ever of the marketing of sugary drinks to children and teenagers. This new report found that children are exposed to more — not less — advertising for sugary drinks than they were several years ago, and that the companies are finding new and sophisticated ways to reach youth.

Our study looked at 14 beverage companies and examined the nutritional quality of nearly 600 products, including full-calorie soda, energy drinks, fruit drinks, flavored water, sports drinks, and iced teas, as well as diet energy drinks and diet children’s fruit drinks. Some key findings:

Click here for the full report from The Atlantic.

Fizzy Drinks Linked With Teenage Violence

October 26, 2011

The Epoch Times

By Epoch Times Staff

Adolescents who drink over five cans of regular fizzy drinks weekly may be more likely to behave aggressively, including carrying a weapon and behaving violently towards peers and siblings, according to a new U.S. study.

The research was based on a biennial survey of 1,878 teenagers aged 14 to 18 at schools in Boston, Mass.

The number of carbonated non-diet soft drinks that each youth had drunk in the past week was measured to create two groups—low consumption (up to four cans), and high consumption (five or more cans).

Just under 30 percent of the participants were found to be in the high consumption group. The researchers found that people in this group were more likely to have drunk alcohol and smoked at least once during the last month.

They were also more likely to carry a gun or knife, and perpetrate violence towards friends and family members.

“There was a significant and strong association between soft drinks and violence,” wrote the researchers in their paper. “There may be a direct cause-and-effect relationship, perhaps due to the sugar or caffeine content of soft drinks, or there may be other factors, unaccounted for in our analyses, that cause both high soft drink consumption and aggression.”

A dose-response relationship was discovered when these results were split into four consumption categories, despite controlling for factors like drinking alcohol and smoking.

“We thought that when we controlled for cigarettes and tobacco, the effect would disappear. But instead, soft drink consumption was still what mattered,” said study co-author Sara Solnick at the University of Vermont, according to CTV News. “Even if kids used tobacco or alcohol, or they did not, it still boosted the risk.”

The number of people carrying a weapon rose from just over 23 percent in those who drank one or no cans of soft drink to just under 43 percent in those drinking 14 or more cans. Similarly, violent behavior rose as follows:

From 15 percent to 27 percent towards a partner;
From 35 percent to 58 percent towards peers;
From 25 percent to more than 43 percent towards siblings.

Overall, the researchers found that high consumption of regular fizzy drinks was associated with an increase in aggressive behavior of 9 to 15 percent. This correlation is also seen with alcohol and tobacco.

“We can’t explain why this is happening,” Solnick added. “What we have now is just an association. People who are involved in a lot of aggression also drink more soda and we don’t know why.”

Click here for the full report from Epoch Times.

Soda Addictions On The Rise

Addiction to sodas, like Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, all seem to be pretty standard in America these days.  I get so many emails and calls asking how to get off these products.

The addiction isn’t to the soda itself; it is to the high-fructose corn syrup and aspartame that contaminate what you are drinking.  You see, high fructose corn syrup comes from a genetically modified, genetically engineered product.  These companies specifically add in chemicals, like high fructose corn syrup, caramel coloring, and aspartame, to save money and get people physically addicted to the product. They are dangerous, ladies and gentlemen!

Click here to get the solution: http://bit.ly/qhXVbi

Yours in health…
KT

The Facts Behind Subliminal Messaging

A lot of people ask me for my opinion on subliminal messaging. I’m kind of an expert in this area because I have studied it for about 30 years now.

Years ago a study was conducted at a drive-in movie theater.  During the movie, they threw in a couple frames that said ‘buy Coke’ or ‘drink Coke.’ You couldn’t actually see the messages because each film frame goes by so quickly, but they would repeat this process a few times, and ended up finding out that there was an increase in Coke sales. It wasn’t by a small increase either; it was 20, 30, 40, 50 percent or more every time they ran the test.

That shows that this type of advertising really did have an affect on people’s behavior.  It became so powerful that it was added into advertising for years, but then the research started showing that it was a little too effective and the government got scared, so it was banned from advertising. You couldn’t use it legally.

Click here to find out how it is still going on today and how you can use it to program yourself for success: http://bit.ly/q6lKoT

Yours in health…
KT

Chicago School Bans Homemade Lunches, The Latest In National Food Fight

April 12th, 2011

Yahoo! News

By: Liz Goodwin

Students who attend Chicago’s Little Village Academy public school get nothing but nutritional tough love during their lunch period each day. The students can either eat the cafeteria food–or go hungry. Only students with allergies are allowed to bring a homemade lunch to school, the Chicago Tribune reports.

“Nutrition wise, it is better for the children to eat at the school,” principal Elsa Carmona told the paper of the years-old policy. “It’s about … the excellent quality food that they are able to serve (in the lunchroom). It’s milk versus a Coke.”

But students said they would rather bring their own lunch to school in the time-honored tradition of the brown paper bag. “They’re afraid that we’ll all bring in greasy food instead of healthy food and it won’t be as good as what they give us at school,” student Yesenia Gutierrez told the paper. “It’s really lame.”

The story has attracted hundreds of comments so far. One commenter, who says her children attend a different Chicago public school, writes, “I can accept if they want to ban soda, but to tell me I can’t send a lunch with my child. ARE YOU KIDDING ME????”

For parents whose kids do not qualify for free or reduced price school lunches, the $2.25 daily cafeteria price can also tally more than a homemade lunch. “We don’t spend anywhere close to that on my son’s daily intake of a sandwich (lovingly cut into the shape of a Star Wars ship), Goldfish crackers and milk,” Northwestern education policy professor Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach told the paper in an email. She told The Lookout parents at her child’s public school would be upset if they tried to ban homemade lunches.

“I think that lots of parents at least at my child’s school do think that what they pack is more nutritious [than school lunches],” she said. A Chicago public school teacher started a blog to protest the city’s school lunches, and last year the schools tightened their nutrition standards for cafeteria-served school lunches. Every lunch must contain whole grains, only reduced-fat salad dressings and mayonnaise are offered as condiments, and the meals must feature a different vegetable each day. Meal providers also must reduce sodium content by 5 percent annually. About 86 percent of the district’s students qualify for free or reduced price school lunches because their families live close to the poverty line.

Change in Chicago’s school cafeterias feeds into a larger effort to combat the country’s childhood obesity epidemic. About a third of America’s kids are overweight or obese, and since children consume at least 30 percent of their calories while in school, making lunches healthier is seen as one way to counter that problem. Poorer kids are also more likely to be obese or overweight than middle class kids, and to consume a bigger proportion of their calories while at school. Forty-four percent of American kids living below the poverty line are obese or overweight, according to a 2010 study published in Health Affairs.

While we haven’t been able to track down another school that bans homemade lunches outright, many smaller food battles have been playing out in cafeterias across the country. As principals try to counter obesity in their schools, healthy intentions can come across as overreach, occasionally sparking parent and student anger.

Alabama parents protested a school’s rule that barred students from bringing any drinks from home, as ice water was provided at lunch. East Syracuse, New York schools have outlawed cupcakes and other desserts. And schools around the country have kicked out chocolate milk and soda vending machines. Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin even showed up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with dozens of cookies to express her disdain for a debate in the state about recommending teachers limit the number of times per month the sugary treats are eaten in classroom birthday celebrations.

Tucson, Arizona’s Children’s Success Academy allows home-packed lunches–but only if nothing in them contains white flour, refined sugar, or other “processed” foods, the Arizona Republic reported in a story last year. The school has no cafeteria, so some parents told the paper they struggled to find foods to pack that meet the restrictions. Many schools ban fast food or other take-out meals.

Soon, cafeteria offerings across the country will all be healthier, whether students like it or not. Last year’s Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, championed by First Lady Michelle Obama, calls for higher nutritional standards to serve the 32 million kids who eat lunch every day at school (most of whom qualify for free or reduced price lunches through a federal government program). For the first time, the USDA will set calorie limits for school lunches, and will recommend they contain more vegetables and whole grains, and less salt, USA Today reports. French fries should be replaced by vegetables and fruit, the guidelines say.

The bill also calls for stricter food safety checks on cafeteria food.

(UPDATE: An earlier version of this story was illustrated by an AP photo of a student’s lunch in Gleed, Washington, which was labelled as such but some readers complained was misleading. To see a photo of a sample lunch served at Chicago’s Little Village Academy, click here.)

Click here for the full report from Yahoo! News

The Kevin Trudeau Show: 3-25-11

Today, Kevin explains how the government is secretly taking money from you and what could be done to prevent inflation from getting any higher!

Self Help:
KT on Tour
Get Your Omega-3’s
Protect Your Bank Account
Get Rid of Diabetes
Weight Loss Cure

Video:
The Youth of America

Health:
Carmel Coloring In Cola May Cause Cancer
Zinc May Curb Cold Symptoms

Wealth:
Inflation 66% Higher Than The Fed Reports

NWO:
Iconic Symbol of America Now Owned By The Germans

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Brain Chemicals From Love Mimics Cocaine High

February 24th, 2011

ThirdAge.com

By: Eric Lander

Brain chemicals released when a person falls in love come from 12 parts of the brain — all releasing euphoria-inducing chemicals that create the same euphoric feeling as cocaine, U.S. researchers say. Stephanie Ortigue of Syracuse University and colleagues worldwide conducted a meta-analysis that finds falling in love can take one-fifth of a second and then the brain starts to release euphoria-inducing chemicals such as dopamine, oxytocin, adrenaline and vasopressin, but the heart is involved as well.

“I would say the brain, but the heart is also related because the complex concept of love is formed by both bottom-up and top-down processes from the brain to the heart and vice versa,” Ortigue says in a statement.

The analysis shows different parts of the brain are involved in love. For example, the unconditional love between a mother and a child include the middle of the brain, but passionate love is sparked by the reward part of the brain.

The meta-analysis also finds blood levels of nerve growth factor also increased when falling in love. This molecule plays an important role in the social chemistry of humans, or the phenomenon of “love at first sight,” Ortigue says.

Conversely, when love goes wrong, it can cause significant emotional stress and depression.

The findings are published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

Click here for the full report from ThirdAge.com

The Kevin Trudeau Show: 2-17-11

Today, Kevin explains how the government is secretly taking money from you and what could be done to prevent inflation from getting any higher!

Self Help:
KT on Tour   
Get Your Omega-3’s   
Protect Your Bank Account   
Get Rid of Diabetes   
Weight Loss Cure     

Video:
The Youth of America   

Health:
Carmel Coloring In Cola May Cause Cancer   
Zinc May Curb Cold Symptoms   

Wealth:
Inflation 66% Higher Than The Fed Reports  

NWO:
Iconic Symbol of America Now Owned By The Germans   

Everything Kevin:
Become An Insider!
Kevin is on YouTube!
Sign Up For Kevin’s FREE Podcast
Follow Kevin on Twitter
Become Kevin’s Friend on Facebook
Kevin’s Film Club
Kevin’s Book Club

Take Trudeau on the Go! Click here to download this show to your iPod, mp3 player, or PC through iTunes!

Click Below to Watch the Kevin Trudeau Show LIVE!

New Book Exposes the Dirty Truth Behind Coca-Cola

October 7th, 2010

Alternet.org

By: Tara Lohan

Coca-Cola spends $2.8 billion a year in advertising to make sure its soda is seen as the most iconic American drink — a beverage enjoyed around the world, virtual peace-building in a bottle. The company has spent 124 years polishing its image, but it took author Michael Blanding only 300 pages to tarnish that gleam. In his new book, The Coke Machine: The Dirty Truth Behind the World’s Favorite Soft Drink, Blanding details the sordid history of the company, from patent medicine experiment to multinational behemoth.

The book opens with a page- and stomach-turning description of the murder of Isidro Gil, a union worker posted at the front gate of a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Carepa, Colombia. As Blanding describes later in the book, Coca-Cola has been accused of being complicit in the deaths of union members in South America who were killed by paramilitaries. Some people may find this shocking. “Finding the Coca-Cola Company accused of murder is like finding out Santa Claus is accused of being a pedophile,” Blanding writes in the introduction. But throughout the book he details the accusations against Coca-Cola on the human rights front, explaining why Coke is reviled elsewhere in the world. In India and Mexico the company is facing blowback for allegations that its bottling plants have drained local aquifers and polluted water sources; in Turkey there are more charges of anti-union activity; and in the U.S. and Europe people are fed up with Coke’s advertising to children, especially in schools, and are concerned about the link between soft drinks and obesity.

Blanding recently spoke to AlterNet by phone to tell us what he uncovered in years of investigating claims against the mighty soft-drink giant.

Click here for the full report from Alternet.org

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