Quit Little, Save More


‘When you drink cola, you drink the blood of people’, said Mylamma, who led the Kerala women to successfully shut down a Coca-Cola plant in Plachimada, Kerala. Quitting cola can save our health, economy and environment all, as it is very harmful for us.
We all know that the pesticides found in cola drinks matter was in news from August 1, to end of September 2006. A Delhi based NGO and Centre for Science & Environment had charged that these drinks have a high number of pesticides in them. While these companies have got clean chit from the court, the Kerala Government has banned colas. Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan have also banned soft drinks in educational institutions and government canteens. 10,000 schools and colleges have declared themselves as Coke-Pepsi free zone. And Coke-Pepsi free zones are spreading across the country.

Now look, how much it is harmful for our health:

These drinks have not any nutrients in them such as, Vit A, Vit. C, Folic-Acid, Calcium, Potassium and Magnesium. While a glass of Orange juice contains all these.
They are becoming the greatest source of Caffeine in children’s diets, with each 12 ounce can of cola containing about 45 mg of Caffeine. These drinks also contain Ethyline Glycol, Phosphoric Acid and Carbon dioxide, which make it highly acidic which is why they are effective as toilet cleaners. We would not approve toilet cleaners for our children, yet industrial soft drinks, which have the same acidic properties, are being freely sold.

Now comes to the economic factor:
Do you know that a cold drink that costs only 70-80 paise to produce is sold for 10 Rs? And a major chunk of profits from these are sent abroad. This is really a serious drain on our economy.

Just look

Price of a bottle = Rs 10
Production filter cost = Re 1
Profit for the whole saler = Re 1
Profit for the retailer = Rs 0.50
remaining = Rs 7.50

Thus, we are giving Rs 7.50 to a foreign country in a single bottle of cola. Consider, how much we have in our country in a single day?
How much we are sending abroad to develop their economy?

Now check the environmental facts:

Each plant of Coke and Pepsi extracts 1 - 2 million litres per day. If each plant is extracting 1 - 2 million litres per day and there are 90 plants, the daily extraction is between 90 - 180 million litres. This could meet the daily requirement of drinking water of millions of people Each litre of soft drink destroys and pollutes 10 litres of water. And the toxic sludge generated has been found to have high levels of Cadmium and Lead (Pollution Control Board, Kerala, Hazard Centre).

You can drink LEMON JUICE, FRESH FRUIT JUICES, CHILLED LASSI (SWEET OR SOUR), BUTTER MILK, COCONUT WATER, ENERJEE, MASALA MILK........ ..
This will surely benefit us in health as well as this will benefit our poor farmers who depend on agriculture.

Now the choice is yours- save India, or drink the blood of the people that is cola.