Venezuela bans Coke Zero, cites "danger to health"

CARACAS (Reuters) – The Venezuelan government of U.S.-critic President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday ordered Coca-Cola Co to withdraw its Coke Zero beverage from the South American nation, citing unspecified dangers to health.

The decision follows a wave of nationalizations and increased scrutiny of businesses in South America's top oil exporter.

Health Minister Jesus Mantilla said the zero-calorie Coke Zero should no longer be sold and stocks of the drink removed from store shelves.

"The product should be withdrawn from circulation to preserve the health of Venezuelans," the minister said in comments reported by the government's news agency.

Despite Chavez's anti-capitalist policies and rhetoric against consumerism, oil-exporting Venezuela remains one of Latin America's most Americanized cultures, with U.S. fast-food chains, shopping malls and baseball all highly popular.

Mantilla did not say what health risks Coke Zero, which contains artificial sweeteners, posed to the population.

Coke Zero was launched in Venezuela in April and Coca-Cola Femsa, the Mexico-based company that bottles Coke products locally, said at the time it aimed to increase its market share for low calorie drinks by 200 percent.

Neither Coca-Cola nor the bottler responded to requests for comment on Wednesday.

The bottler was plagued with labor problems last year in Venezuela when former workers repeatedly blocked its plants demanding back pay.

The government this year has seized a rice mill and pasta factory belonging to U.S. food giant Cargill and has threatened action against U.S. drug company Pfizer.

Chavez has also nationalized a group of oil service companies including projects belonging to Williams Companies and Exterran.

(Reporting by Fabian Cambero and Antonio de la Jara; Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Christian Wiessner)

Chavez sucks, but he's right on this one. They use aspartame and that may cause cancer and stuff.

What is aspartame?
aspartame information
Aspartame, is a low calorie sweetening ingredient. It is made from two building blocks of protein just like those found naturally in many everyday foods such as meat, fish, cheese, eggs and milk. Aspartame is digested by the body in exactly the same way as these other protein foods and so does not bring anything new to the diet.

What does aspartame taste like?
aspartame information
Aspartame tastes like sugar and has no bitter aftertaste. This means that foods containing aspartame enable us to enjoy the same sweet taste as sugar, but in a healthier diet.

What kind of products contain aspartame?
aspartame information
Aspartame is used in almost 5000 products around the world, of which more than 2000 are in Europe. Aspartame can be found in a wide variety of food products including:

Beverages: Carbonated and non-carbonated soft drinks, fruit drinks, squashes, iced teas and coffees and hot chocolate drinks.
Dairy products: Yoghurts, dairy desserts and fromage frais.
Confectionery: Chewing gum, sweets, chocolate, breath mints.
Table-top sweeteners: Tablets and spoon-for-spoon powders.
Frozen desserts: Ice cream and frozen snacks.
Powdered products: Powdered soft drinks, milkshake mixes, and multivitamin drinks.
Cereals: Cereal mixes, mueslis.
Preserves: Fruit preserves, canned fruits.
Pharmaceuticals: Effervescent tablets, chewable tablets and sachets.

What is the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for aspartame?
aspartame information
The Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for aspartame is 40mg per kg of bodyweight. The ADI of a food ingredient is defined as the amount you can eat or drink every day for an entire lifetime without experiencing any adverse effects. Expert panels of scientists review all of the available scientific data on an ingredient and agree on the maximum dietary level that can be safely consumed. This figure is then divided by 100 to reach the ADI. To consume the ADI of aspartame, an average person of 70kg would have to drink just over 5 litres of a drink sweetened only with aspartame.

Is aspartame safe for everyone?

Aspartame is one of the most thoroughly tested ingredients in our food supply. It has been approved by health and regulatory authorities in 100 countries throughout the world. Numerous organisations, including experts of the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, the European Union's Scientific Committee for Food, and the United States Food & Drug Administration have approved the use of aspartame in food and drinks. Aspartame is safe for the general population, including pregnant women and nursing mothers, children, diabetics and slimmers.

BENEFITS OF ASPARTAME:

Great Taste

Aspartame is indistinguishable from sugar and tastes much better than other low calorie sweeteners. The discovery of aspartame was a breakthrough in low calorie sweeteners because of its likeness to sugar, and because it has no lingering or metallic aftertaste. Taste tests show that the same holds true today: people prefer the taste of food and drinks sweetened with aspartame.

Low in Calories

Compared with sugar, only tiny amounts of aspartame are needed to sweeten foods and drinks, which means that products such as soft drinks with aspartame can have almost no calories. With governments and leading health care organisations around the world encouraging us all to reduce the amount of sugar we eat, aspartame's role in our diets is increasingly important.

Healthy Diet

Aspartame is made from two amino acids, the building blocks of protein found in many of the foods and drinks we eat every day, such as fish, meat, eggs, cheese and cereals. By reducing or replacing the sugar and calories in foods and drinks, aspartame can help everyone towards a healthier diet, combating rising rates of obesity and its associated diseases.

Kind to Teeth

Because it is made from parts of protein rather than carbohydrates, aspartame is tooth-friendly. It is the bacteria naturally present in the mouth turning carbohydrates to acid that can cause tooth decay.

Helpful to Diabetics

Because it contains no carbohydrates, aspartame does not affect blood sugar levels. This means that it's an excellent choice for people with diabetes who would like to enjoy food and drinks that taste sweet, but who have to budget their carbohydrate intake carefully.
References:
http://www.aspartame.info/index.html
http://www.aspartame.info/aspartame_info.html

BUT IS IT CANCER CAUSING?

"According to the findings of a recent study conducted by the Cancer Research Center of the European Foundation of Oncology and Environmental Sciences in Bologna, Italy, the frequent use of aspartame considerably increases the risks of developing lymphoma cancers and leukemia. Although the long-term study was conducted exclusively on female rats, without involving the active participation of any human subjects, the results are still very conclusive: aspartame is a clear carcinogenic agent that has a major contribution in the occurrence and evolution of lymphoma. A very popular chemical sweetener used as a replacement for sugar-based sweeteners, aspartame is no longer considered to be harmless."

At the moment, the major health organisations maintain that aspartame is safe to use. However, like the Food Standards Agency, we recognise that some consumers may wish to avoid foods containing this sweetener. If you want to limit your intake, avoid foods that include the words ‘aspartame’ or E951 in the ingredients list – you’ll find it most commonly in products labelled ‘diet’, ‘sugar-free’ or ‘reduced-sugar’.

Meh, you only live once i'd take the risk, having said that, I don't like diet drinks anyway, so I think i'm ok lol, but it does seem bizarre to ban a soft drink because of one thoroughly tested chemical proven safe and used all across the world

THIS! IS! ASPARTAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




sorry couldnt resist

Yeah you are right but, dude it doesnt even taste good, its awful + may cause cancer? lol i dont think its worth the risk.


roflmao brute xD

lol that's what I said, I hate it anyway so there is no risk as I wont drink it ^_^ and lol brute, epic.

yeah im not drinkkiing that ****
McDonalds stoped serving Orange soda (ma fav soda) to start serving this ****ing ****...yeah coca cola bought the spot on almost all orange soda restaurants those bastards!

AeldraAvitus wrote:

Yeah you are right but, dude it doesnt even taste good, its awful + may cause cancer? lol i dont think its worth the risk.


roflmao brute xD

Yeah, but EVERY diet beverage uses aspartame

Coke own Fanta, incase it was Fanta that was replaced in which case it would be coke's fault and not McD's lol, just sayin'. ^^

ehhh, if you are all worried about it, dont drink soda.

You crazy? I live off Pepsi lol

hey, just a suggestion. lol
i drank pepsi for the longest time, but now i prefer coke. my mom still buys pepsi, but i drink it anyways

well, im going on a health binge, so i have decided to give up soda. i will still drink coffee, that will peobably be just as bad, but coffee is soo much more....natural. i guess.

lol, ironic, I just got off a coffee addiction, was drinking at least 3 cups a day (doesnt sound that bad, but when you're still in teens and have never really drank coffee before that, it is) and some espresso's.

Still love the occasional coffee though

Shady wrote:

lol, ironic, I just got off a coffee addiction, was drinking at least 3 cups a day (doesnt sound that bad, but when you're still in teens and have never really drank coffee before that, it is) and some espresso's.

Still love the occasional coffee though

yeah, thats bad

i think i usually make myself 1 cup a day. sometimes ill buy it at school, othertimes ill get something cold with coffee in it. but i try to only have 1 drink a day

Shady wrote:

Coke own Fanta, incase it was Fanta that was replaced in which case it would be coke's fault and not McD's lol, just sayin'. ^^

yeah but...fanta is not the only Orange soda brand in the world....
Crush and Kist are some good sodas...

We dont have either of those in Ireland :/ Just Fanta and Club Orange.

oh yeah...well...those brands are from Central america only. so i dont expect you to know about them...but those are ma fav orango soda brands...and also Fanta...

Shady wrote:

lol, ironic, I just got off a coffee addiction, was drinking at least 3 cups a day (doesnt sound that bad, but when you're still in teens and have never really drank coffee before that, it is) and some espresso's.

Still love the occasional coffee though

lol im addicted to coffee too, its like.. if i dont drink a cup after waking up i get either sad or angry lol. I drink like 5-6 cups per day *-* I luuv coffee

Well right now I'm drinking lots of cranberry because my URINARY TUBE HURTS!

Aspartame kills
ahahah cause you know its in the Sugar music video by SOAD!
Anyone get it?
No?
****

... wow byd, seriously? lol

I'm a loyal fan

VacuousReality wrote:

Well right now I'm drinking lots of cranberry because my URINARY TUBE HURTS!

cranberry? does it help? :S

It's supposed to...though drinking water and juices instead of soda and coffee would prevent that sort of thing most of the time lol. I mostly drink water, tea and some juice. When I do drink soda it's Sprite and sometimes regular Coke.

wow i didnt know that lol, i tried drinking a cranberry tea once and omg.. i couldnt do it.. it was too sweet. lol lina but its so hard to stop drinking coffee, i tried once and failed horribly

brutality,thynameismetal wrote:

ehhh, if you are all worried about it, dont drink soda.

Glad I'm not the only one.

btw, Thank you for mentioning venezuela!

I could never give up coffee. That would be too hard

I don't drink coffe either.

I drink tea alot. Any type is good lol.

Me too tea and fruit juice....and yoohoo.

Diet foods/drinks are often worse then the non-diet counterpart. They replace the sugar and fat with synthetic chemicals.

But nobody will ban smoking, too much profit there