Coca-Cola has announced plans to sell the company’s first stevia-sweetened Coke product, Coca-Cola Life, in Argentina beginning this week.
Stevia, a natural sweetener derived from a species of plants native to South America, Central America and Mexico, is sweeter than sugar but has no calories. Coca-Cola Life will have about half the calories of regular Coke.
The news comes months after Coca-Cola announced it would make over Sprite’s recipe in the U.K., subbing in stevia for some of its sugar content. Around the same time, Coca-Cola U.K. released an anti-obesity television commercial.
Experts, however, question if soft drinks made with stevia are truly a healthy option for people suffering from obesity and diabetes. Following the Sprite announcement, Dr. Sharon R. Akabas, a director at Columbia University’s Institute of Human Nutrition, told The Huffington Post that she was concerned by the couching of the stevia-sweetened beverage against the backdrop of Coca-Cola’s anti-obesity campaign. “It gives the impression that [drinking stevia Sprite] is a really healthy thing to do,” she said, “but it’s still … calories of sugar, which has no nutrients.”
Coca-Cola’s decision to release a stevia-sweetened cola is especially interesting in light of recent comments by PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi. “Stevia unfortunately does not work well in colas,” she said in May.
Read more at the Huffington Post.
{Matzav.com Newscenter}
1. I hate Stevia
and
2. That soda bottle wrapper color looks like an arbor day parade.
I switched to stevia in my morning drink yrs ago, its great 0 calories plus I love coke and would definitely switch to the healthier version.
I’m interested in trying it. I’m certain it won’t taste as good as the real thing, but if one wants geshmack he must sacrifice health. However, ChaZaL taught us that the food of Shabbos is not mazek.
YUK!
Yankiv, I think one can ease up on Shabbos a bit, but you have to wonder what Chazal might have made of nitrates, saturated fats and all that vis a vis venishmartem…
Im from Argentina, and i tried it, it’s better than expected, it is like a regular coke but in the end tastes like some herbal ingredient. That’s why they chose green I guess