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After reading Emily’s blogpost and Jose’s blogpost about the ongoing “cola war” between Coke and Pepsi, I was surprised to know that both of the two major soft drink companies are still trying to win back customers by producing “healthier, natural and less-fattening” sodas.

In general, carbonated drinks have been in decline since the last nine year. It is no surprise, as more are becoming weary of health problems such as obesity, diabetes, and other weight-related health it is. The general public is becoming more health conscious, more have switched from the sodas, either regular or diet, to alternatives such as sports drinks, vitamin waters, tea and simply water.

So in their latest attempt, Pepsi True and Coca-Cola Life are released: both are made with stevia, a natural sweetener. However, using Coke as an example, the new Coke Life has less calories then the regular ones (89 calories instead of 139 per 330ml) but contains more calories than Diet or Zero. By replacing sugar with natural sweetener doesn’t make it healthier, but actually less healthy and more fattening.

Therefore, I believe that the two products will fail eventually. When you ask others why they would prefer the less healthier option over the healthier one, the answers will roughly be “because it tastes better”. When people are drinking sodas, they are enjoying for the taste and not caring that much about the calories. So what are the chances for the public of having something that taste like a diet soda with 60 calories? The product would appeal to no one. It seems like neither Coke nor Pepsi will be winning in this cola war any soon if both of them don’t step up in their game soon.

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