Coke Bad, Fertility Good

Via Dave Simmonds at Mexico Premiere, it seems the new Coke Zero has at least one ingredient that may not be very good for a body: sodium cyclamate.

Sodium cyclamate, an artificial sweetener, was banned in the U.S. nearly 40 years ago due to increased cancer risks. But now, after further testing, it is deemed safe enough to be used in 50 countries, including Mexico, which legalized it last year.

Not surprisingly, Coca-Cola jumped at the opportunity and added it to their Coca-Cola Zero brand, raising the ire of various consumer-advocate groups. You may have noticed, Mexican’s [sic] drink a lot of soda, the sweeter the better. Okay, sodium cyclamate is sold in 50 countries, and the U.S. can tend to be rather anal about these things. But the Center for Science in the Public Interest based in D.C., is definitely hitting below the belt when they warn that the ingredient can “increase the potency of other carcinogens and harm the TESTES”. Whoa!!!….if this claim reaches the Mexican male population (or female, for that matter) I’d guess that Zero is soon doomed. Personally, I’m sticking to beer and tequila.

Emphasis Dave's.

According to Wikipedia, the artificial sweetener sodium cyclamate has not been found to cause cancer and is approved for food and beverage use in 50 countries including Canada. There's a suggestion--without corroboration--in the Wiki entry that perhaps sodium cyclamate is still off- limits in the States simply due to effective lobbying. "Another possibility is that makers of aspartame exerted behind-the-scenes pressure to keep the ban in place to block competition."

Coke certainly laid on the advertising blitz in Oaxaca this summer for Coke Zero. All over Oaxaca I saw billboards for the newest Coke variation, and many tiendas in Oaxaca had promotional posters and signs for the same thing. Will Mexicans quit drinking it because they hear it may accelerate the effects of other carcinogens? In my opinion no. As for negative effects to the testes, that's a whole other ball (sorry!) of wax. If word got around that Coke Zero made your sperm weak, then I think, given the culture of machismo that is prevalent in Mexican society, that yes, guys would rag other guys for drinking it and the product would eventually tank. But will a little known warning from a little known public interest group make waves down south? Not likely.