Given how pretty much everyone on the planet drinks Coca Cola, I am surprised that, given the enormous budgets that are spent on research and prevention of serious illnesses, there is no clear and honest (and formally acknowledged) list of the ingredients of Coca Cola.<p>See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola_formula<p>If you want to release a medical drug, you need to document - at molecular level - how the drug is built up.<p>In the Netherlands, where I live, people go to expensive supermarkets to buy ecologically sourced meat and vegetables because of a so called chain of trust that no weird ingredients and antibiotics (if meat) have been added to their food.<p>Can someone from the HN community tell me:<p>1) Why is Coca Cola allowed to sell their beverages (e.g. by the FDA) when there are "secret ingredients"?<p>2) Have any proper studies been done on the health effects of Coca Cola consumption (not just sugary carbonated drinks)? Do we know how large populations are affected?
A: there are no "secret ingredients" in Coca Cola, there are a secret mixture of a certain secret subset of a set of well known, known to be safe, ingredients. In the same way you know that there is nothing weird added to your organic products, but also don't have documentation for the exact molecular structure of the product (not to imply any comparison between these products and Coca Cola).<p>B: Probably not, because there is no hypothesis that the particular mix of known ingredients in Coca Cola should have adverse health effects separate from those in other sugary, carbonated (add caffeinated) drinks.
The Stepan_Company is one the only commercial entity in the US authorized by the DEA to import coca leaves.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Company" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Company</a><p>Apparently the cocaine-free leaves are sold to Coca-Cola. while the cocaine is sold to Mallinckrodt (Pharma).<p>This seems pretty shady to me.. The most addicting and widely popular drink that will and has always been the biggest is also the only soda that has permission to put some kind of secret extract into their drinks..<p>I really wonder what quantity of this extract is in coca cola, and whether this is for taste, or for the psychological effect like caffeine.<p>I'm not trying to say there's coke in coca cola, but it think it's funny that while their brand has been marketed as 'Coca-Cola' for so long. Why do they still give kids a can in their hand that they are going to drink out of.. literally with the words COKE on it.
Why do they still put on the can?
For comparison, the ingredients of OpenCola are probably similar:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenCola_(drink)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenCola_(drink)</a>
> If you want to release a medical drug, you need to document - at molecular level - how the drug is built up.<p>Not exactly workable for foods. Any meat or plant contains every chemical that made up what it was made from, plus every contaminant.
<p><pre><code> > In the Netherlands, where I live[...] Why is Coca Cola allowed
> to sell their beverages (e.g. by the FDA) when there are "secret
> ingredients"
</code></pre>
It seems like you're implying that because Coca-Cola is an American
product they can get away with this, but if it were manufactured in
The Netherlands or the EU they couldn't.<p>That's not true. The exact same thing applies to food products
manufactured or sold in the EU. Food labels aren't required to
exhaustively list everything that goes into the product, or to
publicly document the process by which the product is made.<p>Edit: I know Coca-Cola is manufactured outside the US, but I don't know if it's from scratch. I have a friend who used to work at the Coca-Cola plant in Iceland, and all they did was mix sugar, water and some nondescript "goo" they got shipped from abroad and carbonated it. So what went into the "goo" wasn't local knowledge.
Nobody knows. Coca Cola lists most ingredients, but the secret sauce is listed as "Natural Flavors". That's where all the heavy flavor science in conducted and not just in Coca Cola. Most engineered foods in the US have "Natural Flavors" listed. The FDA, in their infinite wisdom, has decided that any number of artificial and engineered compounds qualify an "Natural Flavors" and they don't have to be disclosed. Some people I've spoken to think this is a result of lobbying from the major food manufacturers who want to make their products more "addictive".<p>I love America and I think Europe is backwards in many, many ways. This isn't one of those ways. I wish we had European-style food purity laws. The only way to guarantee your food hasn't been messed with or "adulterated" or "enriched" in some way is to skip the stores entirely and buy straight from a local farmer.
Today with chemical laboratory analysis you can get the ingredients of anything. So what Coca Cola uses is not that secret. Your point one is not valid.<p>The secret is making this product economically in enormous quantities. It is about providers, contracts, supply warrantees, dealing with those that bottle your concentrates, water supplies to mix your concentrates, and so on.<p>There are people that study illnesses data at least in Europe and USA, and there is a clear relationship between sugary carbonated drinks in general and lots of illnesses.<p>There is a clear relationship with diabetes an sugary drinks in particular.<p>In the past Coca Cola used Coca, and hence cocaine, but it does not anymore.
there are no secret ingredients, the ingredients are listed on the can/bottle. The secret is in the quantity of each and the manufacturing process, so you know exactly what you are consuming.
In college in the late 80s, amid a global movement to avoid doing business with companies doing business with apartheid South Africa, I stopped buying Coca-cola products.<p>Years later, Mandela became president and my conscience felt clear about buying their products.<p>I thought, "I remember why I stopped drinking coke, but I don't remember why I started in the first place." I couldn't think of a satisfying answer so never restarted.<p>I don't think I've had a coke product since. Soon after I stopped drinking any sodas, sweetened or not. I love delicious food, but nothing about soda connects with either deliciousness or food in my mind.<p>I never started drinking bottled water either, for its environmental damage.
Coca Cola has started to disclose the caffeine content of their drinks since about a decade.<p>Other than that there isn't much that is exciting in a glass of cola, the most unhealthy part next to the caffeine would be the sugar (and artificial sweeteners in 'light' products).
The <i>This American Life</i> episode mentioned in Wikipedia is worth a listen.<p><a href="https://www.thisamericanlife.org/427/original-recipe" rel="nofollow">https://www.thisamericanlife.org/427/original-recipe</a>
Is anyone offering insurance based on monitoring your grocery bill?<p>For example, people who choose to drink soda, alcohol, excess sugar, etc. could be grouped together.<p>I do think there are some insurance providers for vegans, but that may just be marketing.
I've started boycotting Coca-Cola after reading this: <a href="http://killercoke.org/" rel="nofollow">http://killercoke.org/</a> and I drink Pepsi now.
"pretty much everyone on the planet drinks Coca Cola" should be a good indicator not to drink it.<p>I think we as humans are worth enough to know what goes in our drinks and in how much quantity. If not, then the company is not worth the trouble. I would encourage anyone to have the same heuristic.