By Dean L. Jones

Another marketing deception was recently employed by Coca-Cola who took the top 250 most popular first names, particularly those names familiar among teens, and printed them on sugary-filled soda bottles with terms like ‘Friends’ and ‘Family.’  By merely putting a name on their carbonated soft-drink labels, the sales rose more than 2.5% for Coke, Diet Coke and Coke Zero this past summer.  Pepsi and Dr. Pepper reflected slight negative sales over the same period, which sort of served to prove how much consumers fell prey to buying and drinking these personalized bottles and cans so much that it reversed a decade long decline in Coke consumption.

It is no doubt that in spite of what Coca-Cola says that it is really concerned about obesity and the harms of artificial sweeteners, when it comes to selling more product look out.  Coke has already hiked up its global three year advertising budget to $4 billion (the name campaign generated an additional $1 billion).  Biblically, no one should consider making themselves an idol, or set up an image to bow down to it.  Except for some reason the Coke bottle/can has become one of the most iconic designs in the world.  For example, this sugary beverage generated over 500,000 Instagram photos of people with their namesake Coke bottle.  One has to be astound that people would get so crazy over seeing their name on a packaged item, where in stark contrast would this same phenomenon occur if personalized names were placed on broccoli stalks, or on apples?

Processed sugar extremely weakens the immune system so much that it negatively works by increasing the chances of developing a variety of cancers.  Consuming processed sugar puts stress on the immune system by decreasing important white blood cells, which are good cells needed to prevent bacterial, viral, parasitic and fungal infections, and cancer.

Drinking just a 12-ounce can of sugary-filled soda reduces the ability of white blood cells to eat bad bacteria by 40% for up to six hours.  In essence, what this means is that whenever a person drinks an entire can or bottle of soda pop the body’s defenses go down.  Consequently, if someone even sneezes near you, it makes one highly susceptible to contract a possible dire bacteria or virus.  Similarly, cancer starts to grow when white blood cells are being suppressed in the consumption of processed sugars.

In no form or fashion am I purporting to be medically trained or part of the science community.  Although, the Enterovirus is becoming more commonly infectious as a respiratory virus, and the D68 strain of it has not just struck some unfortunate children respiratory systems, but paralysis as well.  As the indoor months approach unfettered food feasts become pervasive, so be on guard from eating stuff that weakens the immune system by living more SugarAlert!

www.SugarAlert.com
Dean Jones, Ethics Advocate, Southland Partnership Corporation (a public benefit organization), contributes his view on health attributes derived from processed foodstuff items.