14 DAY TRIAL // On March 5, Pepsi announced that it would be launching a revolutionizing soft drink that would replace high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) with natural sugar. Because of the sugar addition, the natural caramel and kola nut extract, the new beverage is being labeled as an all-natural drink that, somehow, would deter soda critics from picking on it and Pepsi. However, despite countless efforts on Pepsi’s behalf, talk on the Internet and in various health-oriented publications has it that Natural might not be that natural in the first place.
As a matter of fact, it has been said, Pepsi Natural is only considerably less harmful than regular Pepsi is. It neither tastes better, nor is healthier, so the claim that it is all-natural could actually be only a marketing move from Pepsi to trick customers into thinking that what they’re really buying is nothing short of health in a new glass bottle. Granted, it does replace the much-debated HFCS with natural sugar, it has been added, but nutritionists are quick to warn that both are equally harmful in large quantities.
Also, Pepsi Natural brings nothing new to the table other than the aforementioned three ingredients, namely sugar, caramel and kola nut extract. It still has “natural flavors” that are achieved through complicated chemical processes customers are not even aware of when they make their purchase.
“One must also be aware that ‘natural’ doesn’t mean ‘direct from a plant’ or even ‘organic’; rather, for natural flavors, the chemicals were derived from something that was alive at some point rather than a source like petroleum or coal tar, which are ‘artificial.’ Either way, you can bet that they went through a lot of processing and refinement before they met the bottle. Most of the minor ingredients in Pepsi Natural seem to have fairly straightforward routes from plants to bottles, but ‘natural flavors’ remains unappealingly ambiguous.” a review of the new drink reads.
What this practically means is that, no matter how much Pepsi would like to have customers believe they’re buying the closest thing to an all-natural drink, the truth is far from that. Pepsi Natural is only part of a new marketing strategy, as the NY Times points out, that has products labeled as dangerous return to sugar, seen now as the “retro” ingredient.
Nevertheless, that does not change the fact that both sugar and HFCS are equally harmful for our health when consumed in excess – and excess is precisely what Pepsi Natural is all about, with a 12 fl oz serving containing about 38g of sugar (approximately one quarter of a cup of crystallized sugar).