STOP right there! Don’t lift that can before you read today’s issue

I’m so glad I caught you before you could lift that can of poison to your lips.

You see, early this morning, my colleague sent me an email from legendary natural medicine expert, Dr Jonathan V Wright about the dangers lurking in common fizzy drinks. For someone who loves fizzy drinks as much as I do, it was a real eye-opener!

I simply had to share it with you so that you know what you’re doing to your body every time you slurp your favourite fizzy drink. 

In the name of happiness,

Your Insider

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Are you willingly pouring cancer down your throat?
By Dr Jonathan V Wright

Picture for a moment a can of anything with the name “Cola” in it, it doesn’t matter what it says on the can. They’re all more or less the same, right? Fizzy, cola flavour... And that deep brown hue provided by “caramel colouring”.

The colouring used in fizzy drinks (and other foods) is made through a high-pressure and-temperature reaction between sugar and ammonia and sulphites.

The reaction that results in “caramel” (quotes because, let’s face it, it’s not caramel) colouring also forms 2-methylimidazole (2-MI) and 4 methylimidazole (4-MI). In laboratory studies, these beauties caused several types of cancer (lung, liver, thyroid).

They’ve been deemed animal carcinogens, which usually means a compound is a cancer threat for humans, too. 4-MI also appears on California’s list of “chemicals known to the state to cause cancer”.

And there are significant levels of these carcinogenic compounds in at least five brands of fizzy drinks, according to US researchers at the University of California. The levels of 4-MI in these drinks may be causing thousands of cancers.

As the executive director of the Centre for Science in the Public Interest put it, these have no place in the food supply, especially considering they’re only there for cosmetic reasons. So they’ve petitioned the Amrican Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a ban of colourings made through the ammonia process.

When consumer advocacy website The Consumerist reached out for the manufacturers for comments on the petition, they were passed along to the American Beverage Association (ABA) instead. Of course, all of this didn’t sit too well with the ABA.

They argue that 4-MI is “not a threat to human health”. Instead, they claim that the Centre for Science in the Public Interest is out to get them – that they’re dedicated to attacking the food and beverage industry (just for fun, I guess?). 

Plus, they say, 4-MI is in almost everything!

So, why pick on fizzy drinks, huh? (Which isn’t what’s being done — a ban on "caramel" colouring would affect a wide variety of products.)

And of course, they wrap it all up by reminding us that safety is their number one concern! Thanks, ABA! I guess that’s why high fructose corn syrup is in... Oh, just about everything!

I’m not sure how this will pan out, but I highly doubt we’ll be waving goodbye to that cola colour anytime soon... In the meantime, I think I’ll continue to stick with good old water (and my morning cup of coffee!).