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Robin Shreeves

Milk with 26 grams of sugar per bottle

Can fizzy milk with 26 grams of sugar in it be nutritious? Sure, about as nutritious as chocolate cake for breakfast.
Tue, Jul 28 2009 at 11:00 AM EST
Read more: HEALTHY EATING, RAISING HEALTHY KIDS, USDA

When I read that Coca Cola is helping Six Flags place recycling bins in their parks or that the soft drink company is going to start to use bottles partly derived from plants, I'm glad the efforts are being made, but I can only get so excited. Some of their production practices may be getting a little greener, but many of their products are still very problematic.
 
Take their newest product – a fizzy milk drink called Vio. Fox News reports that the drink “contains skim milk mixed with sparkling water, flavored with fruit and sweetened with cane sugar.”
 
This drink, which will be sold in 8 oz aluminum bottles, will not curdle when unrefrigerated and will sell for about $2.50 a bottle.
 
It comes in four "natural" flavors — peach mango, berry, citrus and tropical colada — and could even be marketed as a healthy nutritional drink. But it has 26 grams of sugar a bottle, on a par with other non-diet Coca-Cola products, and 1.5 grams of fat.
The fact that this might be marketed as healthy and nutritional is mind-boggling, isn’t it? The NC Buy website reports (under their weird news category) that Coca Cola “touts Vio as a healthy refreshment citing its natural ingredients and calcium and vitamin C.”
The USDA doesn’t seem inclined to clearly define or regulate the word natural as it pertains to food. Any product’s “natural” claims are murky at best. I was unable to find a list of ingredients for Vio anywhere online. However, I think there must be more than just skim milk, sparkling water, fruit flavor and cane sugar in the drink. None of those ingredients contain fat, yet the product contains 1.5 grams of fat.
My biggest concern with this product is the potential for marketers to fly the healthy flag. There has been a recent trend in marketing to claim that products with real cane sugar are healthy. Because many people see sugar as slightly more healthy than its evil twin, high-fructose corn syrup, marketers have chosen to try to convince us it's healthy.
But do the ingredients milk, fruit flavors, and real sugar necessarily equal healthy and nutritious? I’m reminded of the old Bill Cosby “Dad is great” routine. He’s in charge of breakfast. The kids want chocolate cake for breakfast. He begins to think of the ingredients in chocolate cake – eggs and milk and wheat. His mind says “That’s nutrition!” He makes chocolate cake.
The kids begin to chant, “Dad is great. Gives us the chocolate cake” until his wife comes into the kitchen and has a conniption and fire from her eye sockets burns his stomach. The kids, of course, turn on him and cry “Dad made us eat this.”
Chocolate cake is not a nutritious breakfast. Products like Vio, with a few healthy ingredients but loaded with sugar, are not nutritious drinks. I would hate for a parent to think, "Milk, fruit flavoring -- that's nutrition!"
Now, we all know that there is place for chocolate cake in our diets as a special treat. And, there is probably a place for drinks like Vio in our diets as an occasional treat. I myself, have the occasional Coke. But when marketers start touting drinks like Vio as healthy, I get concerned. Let me be clear, I haven’t personally seen any marketing of this drink, so I don’t know if “healthy” is the way they’ll go. But I see the potential.
I’ve said it before. We need to be smarter than the marketers. We need to read the list of ingredients and question what’s on those lists. We need to think for ourselves. We need to use common sense.

Photo: Guardian 

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Comments(7)

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Posted By Ben - Sat, Aug 22 2009 at 11:10 AM EST

Vio Study

MediaCurves.com just conducted a study with 30 male viewers of a recent CNN video discussing the new Coke Vio beverage line. Results showed that 56% of viewers would consider purchasing Vio if it was available to consumers. The study also found that 66% of viewers do not think this beverage will be successful among consumers. More in-depth results can be viewed at http://www.mediacurves.com/NationalMediaFocus/J7502-CokeVio/Index.cfm.
Thanks,More

Posted By Robin Shreeves - Mon, Aug 24 2009 at 2:59 PM EST

interesting video

thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Posted By Anonymous - Wed, Aug 19 2009 at 7:55 PM EST

this nation is just sick.

this is disgusting. there's going to be no such thing as "milk", as in, fresh from a cow ("what is this "cow" you are speaking of?") in a few decades.
26 grams sugar in 8oz.
i'd pick the chocolate cake...

Posted By Anonymous - Sat, Aug 01 2009 at 11:50 PM EST

Yeah, Blame Coke

Business success is driven not necessarily by a real "consumer demand." Often, products are concoted, tested and then marketed to create the demand... and companies that sell multiple products, some with higer profit margins than others, will price and market to drive sales from the lower profit margin line to the higher profit margin line -- and eventually discontinue the lower profit margin products (if they've driven consumers away from similar products of their competition). There is a.... More

Posted By Iris Klehr - Wed, Jul 29 2009 at 11:56 AM EST

I'd rather have my kids drinking water...

To Anonymous - you're right, Vio is probably better than regular Coke, but that doesn't mean that's what they should be drinking! And you are also right that Coca-Cola's actions are dictated by the consumer - let's hope there are NO consumers of this. It just sounds gross anyway - fizzy milk with a fruit flavor? Almost as gross as that coffee and Coke thing they came out with.

Posted By Alexandra Harcharek, www.afoodcoma.com - Wed, Jul 29 2009 at 10:10 AM EST

Hear hear!

You make excellent points here regarding sugar vs high-fructose corn syrup. It's a battle that I wage in my own kitchen, trying to teach my family and patient Other Half to stop falling for the packaged garbage hidden in clever "go-green" style advertising.

The natural claims are getting just a bit too much for me. Cane sugar, raw sugar - it's still sugar. Fruit flavoring does not compare to real fruit.

I must admit...the Cosby skit made me laugh like mad. You're doing a great job.... More

Posted By Anonymous - Wed, Jul 29 2009 at 8:12 AM EST

Don't Blame Coke.

Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Which would you rather have - a child drinking Coke or Vio? Let's not criticize Coca-Cola for not putting in place a strategy that will put them out of business. The consumers want a product like Vio - at least that's Coca-Cola's bet. There is no plot to fill kids with sugar, no conspiracy to make us all fat. Coca-Cola's actions are 100% dictated by the demands of the consumer.

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