Trump’s diet coke addiction
Washington, D.C. – President Trump has a diet coke addiction. Addiction may be a strong word, but the President recently stated that he drinks up to twelve diet Coco-Cola’s per day. While the term “diet” leads consumers to believe the drinks are less harmful than their sugary counterparts, research has shown the exact opposite. The artificial sweeteners in diet sodas give consumers the false belief that the health effects of drinking diet sodas are far less severe than the health effects associated with drinking their more sugary alternatives and this misconception lead to massive weight gain by its consumers.
While it is true that most diet sodas have significantly less sugar than their non-diet counterparts, diet sodas often contain aspartame, an artificial sweetener known to increase an individual’s desire for other sweets. Many scientists believe that aspartame effectively “teases” the body into wanting more sweets.
When an individual drinks aspartame it signals to the body that it is about to receive energy in the form of sugar, but because aspartame is an artificial sweetener the energy boast that is normally associated with the sugar never comes. This chemical deception is problematic because it teaches the body that a sweet taste doesn’t necessarily mean energy causing the body to react in harmful ways as a result of the lack of energy. While Trump seems to ignore the clear dangers of diet soda consumption, many consumers have been duped by big soda into believing that their diet sodas are a healthier alternative to other sugary drinks.
Recently, Abraham Melamed Esq. of the Derek Smith Law Group, PLLC, the Law Office of Jack Fitzgerald, PC, and Sacks Weston Diamond, LLC, have filed three class-action lawsuits in New York federal court against The Coca-Cola Co., Pepsi Cola Co., and Dr.Pepper Snapple Group Inc. alleging that big soda mislead consumers with “diet” drinks containing aspartame because the artificial sweeteners caused consumers to actually gain weight instead of losing weight. According to the suit, big soda used the term “diet” in connection with the non-caloric aspartame, allowing them to put “no added calories” on their labels. This leads many consumers to believe that diet soda will not lead to weight gain. However, modern research has found the opposite to be true.
As the complaint explains, scientific evidence demonstrates that nonnutritive sweeteners like aspartame interfere with the body’s ability to properly metabolize calories, leading to weight gain and increased risk of metabolic disease, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. The body’s metabolic response, which is normally to produce energy to process calories, is interrupted when a sweet taste is introduced but the chemicals that would normally accompany this taste never show up. This deception triggers the body’s chemical fail-safe and causes the body to overproduce those chemicals associated with weight gain.
Currently, three complaints against big soda are pending in federal court. The consumer fraud class action and sexual harassment attorneys at the Derek Smith Law Group, PLLC, led by Abe Melamed, Esq. are standing up against big soda’s deceptive practices. Working closely with our Philadelphia consumer fraud class action and sexual harassment attorneys, and the Law Office of Jack Fitzgerald, PC, and Sacks Weston Diamond, LLC, the Derek Smith Law Group vigorously fights for our clients who have been deceived by big soda’s improper advertising. If you feel you have been affected by big soda’s deception, please give us a call at 800-807-2209 for a free consultation.
