Showing posts with label greenwash. Show all posts
Showing posts with label greenwash. Show all posts

01 August 2009

Another reason to avoid sugar drinks


Researchers at Georgia State have shown that fructose disrupts memory in rats.

Besides the obvious, another point struck me: "Fructose, unlike another sugar, glucose, is processed almost solely by the liver, and produces an excessive amount of triglycerides — fat which gets into the bloodstream. Triglycerides can interfere with insulin signaling in the brain, which plays a major role in brain cell survival and plasticity, or the ability for the brain to change based on new experiences." Whoa! Dr Atkins would be pleased.

When we think of Coca Cola, what comes to mind? It's all bikini-clad girls, dancing, sports, and good times. Fantastic marketing! What actually happens to us when we drink the stuff? We get health and brain problems, our teeth literally dissolve, we get fat, we get diabetes, we get dementia. And we've wasted a lot of money, which incentivizes environmental damage.

I've written about this problem before. If you drink sugar drinks (or worse, low-cal chemical drinks), ask yourself, "Am I suckered by the marketers? Why don't I just drink water or milk, which are cheaper and healthier?"

File this one under agriculture, corruption, diet, environment, greenwash, nutrition, and obesity. Why all those tags? Because agriculture is taking massive subsidies to give us pseudo-food that makes us sick, while the marketers do their part to hide the facts.

Dental image source.

24 February 2009

Green wash with green tea

Today I got spam with the line, "Your friend Jennifer Richardson has sent this message." I don't know this person, and I did not want the message.

Jennifer wants me to buy Salada tea, and is offering me a free bottle, with the notion that this new bottle will substitute for the disposable containers I have supposedly been throwing away.

So I should consume more and get another bottle to improve the environment? This doesn't seem like a good idea to me. I suggest drinking tea from a cup. If you need a closed container, wash out a disposable container and re-use that.

15 November 2008

False eco-friend



You know how it is when a person wants to be your friend, and you realize after a while that this person has a hidden agenda? Maybe that this person wants to use you to get at someone or something else?

This is what came to mind when I read about Ricoh's "econ-friendly" billboard. The thing cost $3 million, and has a rent of around $1 million/year. On a net present value at 5% over 20 years, that's about $15 million. Hey, Ricoh! How about if you spent $15 million on Amazon rain forest, then put up a very small plaque on your New York building, "We have put $15 million of our advertizing dollars into the Amazon rain forest." I bet people would appreciate that.