The abundance of readily-available junk food is believed to be the cause of this obesity epidemic we're in the midst of, but the makers of many infamous brands, like Mars Bars, Pepsi, Froot Loops and Häagen-Dazs, want to be part of the solution. And they've committed $20 million -- granted, barely pocket change to an organization like PepsiCo -- to shaping our nation (literally) by forming The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation alongside several non-profit organizations.

A case of extreme irony? They don't think so -- according to the recent press release, they're "united in an unprecedented, collaborative and focused effort to help children and adults achieve better energy balance between calories in and calories out." In other words? They want you to know that you can eat as many Oreos as you like as long as you exercise like crazy to work them off.

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.

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Quercetin is found in the skins of apples and red onions. Photo: visualpanic, Flickr

In the world of sport, it seems everyone's talking about quercetin, a phytochemical that could increase your athletic performance and, perhaps more importantly, it comes in an energy drink endorsed by Lance Armstrong. But not so fast says a new study funded by Coca-Cola -- it seems quercetin won't actually do you much good on the race track.

The research, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, tested performance levels at maximum-effort biking of 30 recreational cyclists -- half were given 1 gram of quercetin in their sports drinks, while the other half weren't. At the end of the one-to-two-week study, participants who took the supplement showed no difference from those who hadn't in a variety of measures, including metabolic changes, peak oxygen consumption and strength after testing.

The study's lead researcher, Kirk Cureton, was surprised by the findings, as he had predicted positive effects on athletes, especially since tests on mice had proved promising. However, he adds "Only one study that I am aware of has found a positive effect" referring to research done by the U.S. Army, that had heavily invested in the supplement. But it is not necessarily a waste. Quercetin has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, so even if it's not shrinking your split times, you may be reaping other benefits.

I was browsing through my regular blogs the other night and came across this story: apparently Coca-cola and L'Oreal are teaming up to bring you a beauty product in beverage form. Currently called Lumae, this nutraceutical is a tea-based drink that will supposedly help your skin. Riiiighttt...... Oh wait, they're serious?

This is just the newest in a bunch of 'healthy' drinks that coke has, including a new Diet Coke infused with vitamins, and another one that aids in weight loss called Enviga. I'm quite skeptical about any of these having the desired effect they were intended too, and the Beauty Brains are equally as put off -- check out what they have to say about the notion of 'drinking your way to better skin'.

I think coke is coke and no matter what they put in it, it will be bad for you. What do you think about all this?

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With the nation's waistline expanding, sugary soft drinks have taken a direct hit in the blame game, and Coke is working diligently to take the target of their backs. With the introduction of their new Coke Zero, vitamin infused Diet Coke, and the controversial Enviga, the company is trying to edge their way into the booming health food business. But because the label "soft drink" is notorious in the public eye, Coke's wants to call its new drinks "sparkling beverages" and have them included into the same market as sparkling waters and teas.

Trying to shift a little attention away from themselves, Coke also wants to get people talking more about activity and less about their choice of snack food. Coke's CEO recently told reporters, "Video games are a major part of the problem." (Does anyone want to tell him about this?) Claiming that even a full calorie soft drink...um, I mean sparkling beverage...can be an appropriate choice if someone exercises regularly, Coke wants people to start feeling good about their products again.

I'm not a soft drink consumer, so I don't really know what to make of all this. On one hand, he's right. A soft drink -- full calorie or not -- once in a while won't hurt you. But trying to tell consumers that soft drinks are any kind of "health food" instead of a snack food -- especially when essentially the product hasn't changed -- smacks of smoke and mirrors to me. What do you think?

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The Coca-Cola company recently announced that it would voluntarily start putting the caffeine content on the labels of products containing the ingredient. This is part of a company wide initiative that comes among expectations that soon the FDA will require labeling of caffeine content across the board. Caffeine information has already been on the labels of a couple of its products, Full Throttle and Enviga, and by this May all Coca-Cola drinks with any level of caffeine will have new labels.

I do believe this is a good thing, but I can't help but think- Great, yet another thing to watch for on nutrition labels.

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With last year's purchase of the Naked Juice brand by soft drink giant PepsiCo and the recent purchase of vitamin-fortified energy drink Fuze by Coca-Cola, are fans of these two smaller -- but healthy -- brands scared of having their precious drinks taken over in ingredient-land by the sugar water nonsense that makes up most soft drinks?

I am an avid fan of Naked Juice and I'm not that worried really. Although I'm not a drinker of the Fuze product, both Coca Cola and PepsiCo are basically trying to cash in on the shift away from high-calorie and high-sugar soft drinks and into healthy energy drinks that contain healthful and real ingredients, not corn syrup and insanely-high levels of caffeine.

Just don't change our products, please.

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Coca-Cola and Nestle's new weight-loss drink Enviga enjoyed a limited release recently in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The celebration appeared to be short-lived, however, as Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal began an investigation this week into claims that the product can promote weight loss.

Enviga contains a green tea extract known as EGCG, as well as caffeine and calcium. Coke cites studies that found that the combination of EGCG and caffeine speed up a person's metabolism, and a study done by Nestle found that young people who downed three of the drinks a day burned over 100 calories. Blumenthal says that the product is nothing more than "voodoo nutrition" and requested copies of all data collected by the corporation.

The product is slated for national release later this year, so we'll see who comes out on top. In the meantime, I have a question. If you have to guzzle three of these drinks to burn 100 calories, wouldn't it just be easier to take a 10 minute walk? Just my two cents...what do you think?

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I never imagined that there would come a day when Diet Coke would be good for you. But that day might come after all, according to this. Coca Cola reps have neither confirmed nor denied the claim, and it's not clear what type of vitamins would go in to the new and improved coke. I've never been a fan of coke, or any pop for that matter, and this move wouldn't change that because if you ask me, nothing is healthier or more refreshing than a glass of water and a serving of fresh fruit. And I'm not sure how to interpret this move -- is it a step in the right direction, or a ploy to make people think they are making a healthy choice by consuming a chemical-infused soft drink that might not be any healthier for them in the long run? What do you think?

Anyway, the fortified Diet Coke should hit shelves in 2007.

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Is it better to drink pure fruit juice or soft drinks? Both have loads of sugar and there are arguments that sugar content is pretty evenly matched based on the quantity and brand of soft drink or fruit juice you consumer.

But there is more to the picture than that. Natural sugars in all-natural fruit juices are not combined with high-fructose corn syrup (a cheap sweetener) or caffeine and other ingredients that are harmful when taken in large quantities.

Solution? I make whole-fruit smoothies on occasion but day-to-day, I like Naked Juice all-fruit smoothies. No mess to clean up!

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It's an odd feeling to know that some actions you may take may lead to bodily harm -- but you continue doing them anyway. Adrenaline junkies and junk food eaters are two groups that fall into this category -- both seek out excitement (physical or edible) in order to have a "high" of sorts -- even as the activities that get them there can be indirectly or directly harmful.

Why do junk food addicts continue to eat bad and nutritionally-deplete foods while knowing that harm is most likely a result? The answer may come down to the convenience alone of standard junk and processed foods, which is incredibly enticing in this day and age of everyone not having enough time to set aside for family, friend and work commitments.

But, the time you save may have direct negative impacts on health. That's time I would rather spend in a healthy-habit way, but that's my opinion -- millions of American citizens apparently don't agree with me on this one. Do you?

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