(A New) Mexican Coca Cola Controversy Finds Traction Among Lonely Bloggers

The sale of Coca Cola Zero in Mexico has picked up some steam on the internets because it contains the artificial sweetener sodium cyclamate, something banned in the U.S. for 38 years over concerns that it causes cancer. Apparently finding nothing better to do, bloggers south of the border are up in arms over the whole thing; one calls the drink “poison” while another says the ingredient in question is a cheap way to cut costs at the expense of Mexican health. Meanwhile, an American blogger claims the doubt cast on the sweetener is baseless, a result of “anti-American lies, half truths, superstitions, myths and fables.” (Seems not even consumer goods are spared from patriotic hot air.) In our humble opinion, the stuff seems harmless enough if you consider that Canada and all the E.U. nations are cool with it. Then again, Mexican men may have their family jewels to worry about:

But the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, a frequent critic of Coke, warns people to avoid the sweetener because it can “increase the potency of other carcinogens and harm the testes.”

And if it does, so what? Mexican consumers have access to plenty of sea turtle eggs that’ll counteract any dip in testicular potency.

“Life tastes good” except when it tastes funny in Mexico [The Latin Americanist]
Image [Google]