America Is Catching On – Soda Sales Drop Dramatically As Healthier Choices Continue To Grow
March 26, 2012 by admin
Filed under News Stories
March 27, 2012
Natural News
By J. D. Heyes
“Just stop drinking soda for two months. When you try it again, you will discover just how nasty it really is. Don’t be fooled though by drinking garbage like vitamin water. Drink regular water instead.” –KTRN
Better late than never, but more Americans finally seem to be getting the message they’ve been consuming far too much soda and as such, sales of pop have been falling.
In reality, soda sales have been falling for about seven years, but they really dropped off in 2011 as consumers made other choices about what sort of refreshments to put in their bodies.
The beverage market actually grew last year by about 0.9 percent, but according to sales data, consumers chose more coffee and teas, sports and energy drinks and bottled water over soda and fruit juices.
Beverage Marketing, a research, consulting and financial-services firm that tracks the beverage industry, said 2011 was the second year of growth for the beverage industry after two consecutive declines in 2008 and 2009.
Costs are up, sure, but choices are healthier
One of the reasons why sales were down, according to Beverage Digest, an industry newsletter, is cost: Prices for carbonated soft drinks climbed about 3 percent last year, making them harder to afford. Drink makers passed on higher prices for the cost of sweeteners, such as corn syrup and other raw materials, to consumers.
According to an analysis of sales data by Beverage Digest, all three big soda-makers — Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Dr. Pepper Snapple — showed slower sales of popular brands like Coke, Diet Coke, Pepsi-Cola, and Mountain Dew.
Coke and Pepsi market shares shrank while Dr. Pepper’s share was mostly flat. And though sales of some soda brands rose, sales of Dasani — a bottled water sold by Coca-Cola — was the fastest-growing beverage brand, rising 11 percent, according to Beverage Digest. It was followed by Arizona iced tea (9.3 percent) and Pepsi’s Gatorade (8 percent).
Carbonated drinks, by comparison, grew about 3 percent a year through the 1990s, but sales have been declining steadily since 2005, as more health-conscious consumers increasingly turn to better choices of drink.
Sales of Gatorade, meanwhile, are ballooning as well, topping the one billon-gallon mark last year for the first time. In fact, Beverage Marketing says Gatorade, coupled with G2 and other brand variations, is the fifth-largest beverage trademark.
Click here for the full report.
Pepsi’s Lawyers Say Mountain Dew Can Dissolve a Mouse
January 12, 2012 by admin
Filed under News Stories
January 09, 2012
NatrualNews
by: Tara Green
While drinking Mountain Dew, have you ever seen (or perhaps felt on your tongue) a thick, jelly-like substance? Maybe you assumed the ingredients in the soda had gelled. According to Mountain Dew manufacturer Pepsi, you may have been ingesting some extra protein with your beverage in the form of a liquified rodent.
Pepsi’s Lawyers Say Mountain Dew Can Dissolve A Mouse
January 9, 2012 by admin
Filed under News Stories
January 9, 2012
Natural News
By Tara Green
While drinking Mountain Dew, have you ever seen (or perhaps felt on your tongue) a thick, jelly-like substance? Maybe you assumed the ingredients in the soda had gelled. According to Mountain Dew manufacturer Pepsi, you may have been ingesting some extra protein with your beverage in the form of a liquified rodent.
An Illinois man is suing Pepsi, claiming he found a mouse in his can of Mountain Dew. Ronald Bell of Edwardsville, a small town near St. Louis, alleges there was a mouse in a can of soda he purchased and drank in 2009. Bell says he spit out the mouse and called the company to complain. At the soda manufacturer’s request, he sent them the mouse corpse. Pepsi had a veterinary pathologist examine the body. Their scientific expert found the rodent could not have been in the can since the soda case was sealed in August 2008, and its body would have dissolved as a result of the acid in the soda.
Bell says that Pepsi destroyed the evidence in the case and is seeking judgment. Pepsi’s legal team has moved to dismiss the case. Bell’s suit initially also involved the owners of the convenience store chain where he purchased the beverage, but those defendants have been dropped from the case and an amended suit was filed. The trial was set to begin in late 2011; however a Madison County Circuit Court judge granted Pepsi another month to argue for dismissal.
Click here for the full report from Natural News.
Fizzy Drinks Linked With Teenage Violence
October 26, 2011 by admin
Filed under News Stories
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.”
