{"id":163278,"date":"2015-07-02T20:55:45","date_gmt":"2015-07-02T20:55:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=163278"},"modified":"2015-07-02T20:55:45","modified_gmt":"2015-07-02T20:55:45","slug":"coke-illegally-claiming-diet-soda-treatment-obesity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/latest-news\/coke-illegally-claiming-diet-soda-treatment-obesity\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Coke Illegally Claiming ‘Diet’ Soda is a Treatment for Obesity?"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON – U.S. Right to Know, a consumer advocacy group, sent a letter today to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)<\/a>, asking it to stop the Coca-Cola Company from making apparently illegal claims that its artificially sweetened sodas prevent, mitigate or treat obesity.<\/p>\n

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The Coca-Cola Company has made apparently illegal \u201cdisease claims\u201d on at least eight occasions. Federal law and rules allow food companies to make science-based \u201chealth claims\u201d that link a product to reduced risk of a disease, but prohibit them from making \u201cdisease claims,\u201d or claims to \u201cdiagnose, mitigate, treat, cure, or prevent a specific disease\u2026\u201d In this case, there is growing scientific evidence tying artificial sweeteners to weight gain, not weight loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoke is gulling consumers into believing that artificially sweetened soda is a treatment for obesity,\u201d said Gary Ruskin, co-director of U.S. Right to Know. \u201cCoke is wrong on the facts and the FDA should stop them if they are on the wrong side of the law.\u201d \u00a0Following are three examples of how the Coca-Cola Company claims its artificially sweetened sodas prevent, mitigate or treat obesity:<\/p>\n