Four Grams, Two Dimes & Coke
On a hot day a cold can of Coke is amazing, the sweetness as well as the caffeine a pure buzz, the taste unforgettable and one might argue, nearly divine. Coke from a soda fountain in a convenience store or a movie theater is a little less impressive, and a flat two liter of Coke is wildly unsatisfying and best served to the sink.
Coca-Cola is an amazing company, their beverages globally recognized and adored by millions, their logistics, industrial innovations and IP exceptional. In the encyclopedia of American industrial achievement Coke is an icon, one of our most recognizable brands. No other company has such a near monopoly on the global beverage market, and even though an internet search brings up soda brands from other countries, most of these I’ve never tried or even seen:
Uludag Legendary Pop, a Turkish soft drink and renown across the Anatolia Peninsula.
Tomamosu Soda, a classic in Japan.
Guarana Fruki, the “Coke” of Brazil.
Coke is delicious, its sweetness delivered by either one or another sweeteners, namely high fructose corn syrup (HFS) or old-fashioned sugar. As it is well known, American Coke contains HFS and Mexican Coke uses cane sugar. To many, Mexican Coke is a little sweeter, its adherents describing it as nuanced in flavor, or “spicier,” when compared to the classic American Coke.
However, the white elephant in the can is sugar, with a 12 oz (355ml) can of Coke containing 39 grams of sugar. Humans love sugar. This is innate in the human taste paradigm. Globally, tastes vary for sweetness, with the numbers clarifying some of our taste differences.
In the United States a 355 ml can of Coke contains 39 grams of sugar.
In the United Kingdom, a comparable can, 350 ml contains 35 grams of sugar, a 4 gram difference, about the weight of two American dimes.
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Think of these four grams of sugar, two dimes of powdery white granules. Now, take a moment and calculate up some from a single can to a six pack. Here we have 24 extra grams of sugar. Go higher, with a 12 pack of soda containing 48 grams of sugar. Now, try a case of Coke, 24 cans with an extra 96 grams of sugar, about 48 dimes.
1 can = 4 grams of sugar
6 cans= 24 grams of sugar
12 cans = 48 grams of sugar
24 cans= 96 grams of sugar
Go for a filled delivery truck, the bays high with soda, about 450 cases per load. The math here is just as straight forward, 450 (24 cans)= 10,800 cans of soda, the lot stuffed rich with an additional 43,200 extra grams of sugar.
In a single can these 4 extra grams of sugar seem negligible, almost meaningless, but, at a truck level these 43,200 extra grams seem quite different, perhaps menacing, maybe even deadly.
It has been well reported that in the United States our levels of diabetes and obesity continue to increase. Our population continues to get fatter and sicker. To be fair, Coke isn’t the only food or beverage company out there selling high sugar and high fat processed foods, the industry is rich in players making great profits on their products.
However, it might be helpful to our population if Coke reformulated the sugar content in their drinks, maybe removing these extra 4 grams of sugar, their drinks less sugary and a little healthier. Removing some of this sugar, even a single gram, would help millions of people with their health.
Obviously suggesting such an idea is heretical, with the possibility of government regulation meeting with outright resistance. As usual it seems that the market has spoken, and if you don’t want a sugary Coke you can choose any number of other drinks, from diet sodas, to juice to water.
In 2021, Coke dominated the beverage market in North America in sparkling soft drinks. Their success in the beverage market seems pretty much preordained. I would not bet against Coca-Cola.
The next time you have a Coke know that you’re getting 4 extra grams of sugar, a good deal more than the average citizen of the United Kingdom. That Coke you’re drinking will taste great, but the overall costs to our collective health will certainly be less tasty.
