Hot on HuffPost Healthy Living:

 

Coke Comes Clean on Calories

Posted on Oct 2nd 2009 9:00AM by Melissa Joulwan
Filed Under: Diet & Weight Loss
Photo: DeusXFlorida, Flickr
The front of your refreshing beverage will soon include a chilling fact: The number of calories in a single serving and in the whole container.

Coca-Cola Co. recently announced that it will begin including calorie information on the front of almost all of its product packages, including soft drinks, flavored waters, energy drinks, fruit drinks and juices. The new product labels are expected to hit U.S. store shelves later this year; the new labels are already being used in Europe and Australia.

Coke says they're the first beverage company to provide this front-of-the-container information to consumers. "Now more than ever, people expect facts about the product they consume to be both readily available and visible," said Muhtar Kent, Coke's chairman and CEO, in a press release.

Fast food and beverage companies have been under fire recently as threats of a soft drink tax swirled in the Senate, and a California state senator is about to put soda on trial.

Michael Jacobson, executive director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said the labeling is a "public relations" move, but that it could help change consumer behavior.

"It's a useful step," Jacobson told USA Today. "But listing calories on the front of a Coke is like putting lipstick on a pig. Coca-Cola is basically ... liquid candy."

Perhaps the best way to enjoy a cold Coke Classic is to split one with a friend.

And watch out for sugar-free soft drinks, too! Artificial sweeteners might be blocking your weight loss success.

Around the Web

Related Videos

 
 

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

 

Share Your Success Story

Jupiter Images

Have you lost weight and kept it off? We want to know how you did it and what keeps you inspired!