Pepsi or Coke? Don't choose either and save yourself and the planet.

While reading articles on Al Jazeera about alleged terrorist plots, toothpaste explosives and more craziness I came across an article about the state of Kerala in southern India which has banned the manufacturing and selling of soft drinks. Finally, some good news I can get excited about and get behind. As many of you know I have not been a drinker of soft drinks for almost 10 years now. I admit I have accepted a very rare soft drink here or there as it is hard enough, especially in Africa, being a vegetarian and not drinking alcohol and then going out and eating or visiting people with them wanting to buy you something. I chose to stop drinking soft drinks as I recognized that they are carbonized sugar water and have no real nutritional value for a person and worst of all once again they are a way to use unnecessary packaging that might be recycled in some places but even where recycling is available it is not always done and so on.

Enough about my reasons for not drinking soft drinks let's now get back to the article I found. I will give you links to another story on BBC and I am sure other news sites have their versions too. In this case the ban has come into place due to high levels of pesticides being found in the soft drinks which isn’t surprising seeing as how India is being increasingly forced by globalization, government deals and very nasty multinationals to “mass” produce crops using more hazardous chemicals and non-natural techniques. It is scary when the “canary” in this case is soft drinks but I guess what ever it takes for people to realize the danger we are in is a step in the right direction. The Al Jazeera article can be found here and if you want to read the BBC one you can go here.

Serendipitously enough I was teasing Doug today about drinking Coke and I felt the need to know more so I went to the internet. I Googled two words “Coke” and “thirsty” which came up with two different articles on the growing public dislike of Coke in India. Did you know that soft drinks are depleting water across the globe and taking this precious recourse away from the people and crops that need water the most and are most affected by its lack? Read this and there is also this article. The second article was posted on a site killercoke.org which chronicles the exploits of Coke in Columbia that has caused the deaths of hundreds who have worked for Coke and tried unionize and labor reform.

FYI, I know and have looked at Coke’s website and the section where they claim to debunk rumors but I am not totally convinced about it all yet. I still want to find out more about the potential for Coke to cause dehydration through diuretics it contains and if you know anything about this I would appreciate your input. It will have to wait for another blog though. Thought, reactions, life changing decisions due to this information? Another topic I will address at a later date is bottled water which if you must drink something and you can't get "fresh" water is a better alternatives to soft drinks but is creating many of its own problems as this fad is growing greatly.