The photo of a crumpled can of Diet Coke told the story in
the Atlanta Journal Constitution, 30-1-2000, Coke's hometown
paper. Fitting, poetic, just, but tragic for the company once
rated "The Most Admired Business in the World".
Today Coke wouldn't even make the list. Sales are down, profits
collapsing, and 6,000 employees soon will be gone. (To
make room for 6,000 defence attorneys?) The tragedy
is stupendously larger than 6,000 jobs; it affects hundreds
of millions of unwarned, innocent, afflicted consumers across
the broad face of planet earth.
* This crisis can't be solved by belt tightening, greater efficiency,
more advertising, etc. It's so bad Coke can't say the word;
to pronounce it will bring instant cataclysm. That word is aspartame,
and their only recourse is denial, denial, denial, though every
ad and commercial builds higher the scaffold upon which Coke
shall surely hang.
* Reality is in that twisted Diet coke can. It's poison. It's
killing the unborn, raining tumours and seizures on the population,
destroying children, incapacitating workers, mimicking MS, erasing
memory and blinding.
* Inexorably Diet Coke visits a plague of 92 symptoms listed
by our FDA on a secret report they'll never show which names
diet soda as the first source of aspartame disease. And yes,
Death was one of the 92.
* Diet Coke is poison. And it's addictive, some victims drink
several litres a day and keep it on their nightstands. If Coke
changes the formula to remove aspartame the world will heal
and the surge of hatred and vengeance by the disabled and bereaved
shall certainly destroy Coca Cola.
* The poison in Diet Coke is aspartame. As a member of the
National Soft Drink Association, Coke opposed FDA approval of
aspartame for beverages. Their objections, running to several
pages published in the Congressional Record of 5/7/85, said
aspartame is uniquely and inherently unstable and breaks down
in the can. It decomposes into formaldehyde, methyl alcohol,
formic acid, diketopiperazine and other toxins. In a study on
7 monkeys 5 had grand mal seizures and one died, a casualty
rate of 86%.
* Coke knew; and knowing, broke their good faith contract with
customers, a breach exhibited by the recent plot to program
vending machines to raise the price with the temperature. Dissatisfied
with selling flavoured sugar water plus phosphoric acid, they
switched to pushing an addictive formula called "Diet".
Addictive substances multiply markets, so Diet Coke soared off
the sales charts, spreading obesity in its flight. We're fatter
because aspartame suppresses seratonin and makes us crave carbohydrates.
Our brain is programmed to expect calories and carbohydrates
when experiencing a sweet taste. When it doesn't get them, it
triggers HUNGER.
* So why is aspartame/NutraSweet/Equal/Diet Coke/Diet Pepsi/etc
on the market and in thousands of foods? Can you say CORRUPTION?
One FDA Commissioner and one acting Commissioner have changed
sides to work in the NutraSweet industry, plus 6 underlings
and two federal attorneys assigned to prosecute NutraSweet for
submitting fraudulent tests to get it approved. "It's
like a script for Abbott & Costello." lamented
an honest FDA scientist writing to Senator Metzenbaum. It works
like this: "Approve our poison, and when you stop being
a bureaucrat we'll make you a plutocrat! After its icensed we'll
pay off the American Dietetics, the American Diabetes Association,
the AMA and anyone we need who's for sale."
* The jig's up! Worldwide consumer action has exposed aspartame,
and millions have kicked the habit. Coke's profits are down
37% and for a year Monsanto's been trying to sell The NutraSweet
Company. Finally they sold NSC, producer of the phenylalanine
in NutraSweet for $125 million. Now Monsanto faces a $71 million
lawsuit for exaggerating profits. Monsanto stock is in the toilet,
but they may have found a buyer in the Swiss firm Pharmacia-Upjohn.
P.U. for short! The deal won't finalize for a year. The plans
are to ditch the Monsanto name, as its stench is unendurable.
CEO Bob Shapiro may soon be history, like Doug Ivester of Coke
who just resigned.
Will the last one out please turn out the lights! The next
time you reach for a diet drink (or some Sweet & Low), please
consider some fruit juice. You will be much healthier.
Have a great diet-soda-free day.
(The original source for this story is not known. -ed)
