Coca-Cola and Stevia -Soon!

by René | May 16, 2008 at 03:09 pm | 5365 views | 65 comments

UPDATE: Can't wait for a Stevia soft drink? Zevia beats Coca-Cola to the market! With four flavors: cola, root beer, orange and twist. Check out the website to see if it's available in your area yet.

It hasn't been easy to overcome the Aspartame lobby with the FDA, even though stevia has been used in countries like Japan for many years with no bad effects. Can't say the same for aspartame. Read about the FDA's insidious actions regarding aspartame and stevia.

Just who are are the FDA protecting? Not us.

Ever heard of stevia? Thanks to Coca Cola you will

POSTED May 16, 2:28 PM

If you've ever tasted stevia, you know it's extremely sweet. In fact, this amazing noncaloric herb, native to Paraguay, has been used as a sweetener for centuries. With zero calories, zero carbohydrates and a zero glycemic index, it is understandable why people would want this plant to be part of their diet.

However, the herb has had a real problem in the United States in recent years because of actions by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Since the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), stevia can be sold legally in the United States, but only as a "dietary supplement." If you call it a sweetner it would be considered "adulterated," and the FDA can come in and seize it. In other countries though, Stevia is widely used. In fact, Japan, where its refined product known as stevioside, enjoys 41% of the sweetener market.

Do we need another sweetner, what with sucralose, aspartime, and saccharin? First, stevia is natural, as opposed to the other three which are made in a lab. There are also some real benefits to it.; in all the studies done with this sweetener, it does not have any side effects, can not be overdosed upon, does not cause cancer in lab animals. Actually, the rats had decreased incidence of breast tumors, while the males displayed a lesser incidence of kidney damage. It may also contribute to stablization of blood sugar allowing those who are currently insulin dependent to eventually not need treatment for high blood sugar levels and may also contribute to lowering of blood pressure.

But now, there has been a major shift bringing stevia to market, thanks to uber-global-corporate-machine Coca Cola. They are soon going to release diet drinks with a purified version of stevia, called Truvia.

I can't wait!

UPDATE: the process has been in the works for a couple years, and so far there is no announcement on Coca-Cola's website when the new product will be launched.

Can we tell them to hurry up already?

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Rhonda J Mangus

at 16:19 on May 16th, 2008

good stuff:

René, I like this story. It's good stuff.

René

at 16:46 on May 16th, 2008

Like I said, I can't wait. I'm allergic to corn (high fructose corn cyrup) and to beet sugar, so a healthy alternative to Aspartame is highly welcome.

jordan

at 09:06 on May 18th, 2008

The fewer ten-syllable ingredients, the better...

Coca Cola began life with a product that featured natural stimulants... (Fair enough, cocaine was legal at the time, and Coke wasn't the only company to feature a coca-infused cola, just the most successful)

René

at 09:43 on June 2nd, 2008

And sugar, real sugar, not high fructose corn syrup, which totally ruins the taste even in so-called Classic Coke. Since many people are allergic to corn and it's undoubtedly the cause of the epidemic of obesity, it is a very welcome alternative.

Dain Sandoval

at 10:44 on May 18th, 2008

Fanta and Coca-Cola in Cairo, Egypt.

Dain Sandoval has contributed a photo to this story.

franzli72

at 10:59 on May 18th, 2008

franzli72 has contributed a photo to this story.

KarlStyle

at 12:22 on May 18th, 2008

I edited the saturation of this photo to make it black and white just to show how classic it is.

KarlStyle has contributed a photo to this story.

uctkesmitty

at 12:30 on May 18th, 2008

Kind of funny to find one of these cans sitting on the kitchen counter since my brother works for Pepsi, but Coke had the offer going on for free Shoeshoe Ski lift tickets.

uctkesmitty has contributed a photo to this story.

co.motion4u

at 15:08 on May 18th, 2008

This photo was taken in Israel.

co.motion4u has contributed a photo to this story.

KMountManiac

at 15:18 on May 18th, 2008

On my daily walk I came across this flattened can of Coca-Cola. The title "Nothing Worse Than Flat Pop" came to mind right away ;-)

KMountManiac has contributed a photo to this story.

dotinyoru

at 18:13 on May 18th, 2008

Stevia drinks are banned in Hong Kong even they are ok in Japan.

dotinyoru has contributed a photo to this story.

ktrotman

at 18:32 on May 18th, 2008

Rene, the Company is called "Coca-Cola" not "Coca Cola".

joshthejoker

at 18:47 on May 18th, 2008

just my favorite drink in shanghai

joshthejoker has contributed a photo to this story.

mixed.media

at 18:54 on May 18th, 2008

Nice collection ;)

mixed.media has contributed a photo to this story.

emmalucydaisy

at 18:56 on May 18th, 2008

um well funny enough i took this in England on the tube:)

emmalucydaisy has contributed a photo to this story.

BeautifulMachine

at 20:21 on May 18th, 2008

BeautifulMachine has contributed a photo to this story.

The Smoothie Fueled Rampage

at 20:37 on May 18th, 2008

I took this photograph randomly and never really expected it to garner any sort of attention, so imagine my surprise when I checked my e-mail and found it had been chosen for publishing. =)
Coke Cherry Zero is deeeelish.

The Smoothie Fueled Rampage has contributed a photo to this story.

prakashdaniel

at 21:32 on May 18th, 2008

Hope everyone who loves Coca-Cola, would this picture I took at KLCC when one of my friends had a Coca-Cola tasting session from different Coke's from around the WORLD !

prakashdaniel has contributed a photo to this story.

mrsyetidooscreecher

at 23:35 on May 18th, 2008

I took this for a photo competition, and then someone asked if they could use it for a news story...

mrsyetidooscreecher has contributed a photo to this story.

mrjnn

at 23:37 on May 18th, 2008

Actually after this picture was taken, I've almost completely abandoned drinks that have aspartime and sucralose and replaced them with self-made stevia drinks (ice tea for example). Stevia is also banned in Finland but few ("newagehippie") places sell it. It's legal because the packaging says something like "Cannot be used internally" meaning that you cannot eat or drink it but everyone who buy it knows what it's for. Rumour says that stevia is banned by EU (or just Finland, I'm not sure) because they cannot confirm that stevia doesn't cause cancer if you use it for 30 years. This is what I've read on Finnish sites.

mrjnn has contributed a photo to this story.