Hacker News Reader

Comment by adventured | Hacker News Reader

Throw in that two of the world's largest corporations are little more than glorified sugar pushers - Coke and Pepsi - and you have a replay of the 90's tobacco scene. Just Coke and Pepsi together represent a sugar ecosystem worth perhaps half a trillion dollars globally (their market caps + companies directly dependent on them + retail).

The upside is, those companies are slowly dying. Coke's sales the last three years:

$48 billion > $46.8b > $45.8b

We can add trash like McDonald's into this, their last three years of sales:

$27.5 billion > $28.1b > $27.4b

These types of companies will continue to bleed sales and struggle in the next decade as consumers seek alternatives.

View on HN

Alternatives like Diet Coke? But don't hesitate to put your money where your mouth is and buy Coke put options.

I recently cut out sugar and also quit diet drinks. I've heard that aspartame can have sugar-like effects, particularly triggering food cravings. I used to drink two, three sometimes more 7-11 style Big Gulps every day. Cutting them out has made a difference in my subjective quality of life but it's hard to describe.

A Big Gulp is 40 oz; I'd imagine cutting out 120 oz daily of anything would have a notable impact on your overall state.

For comparison, the most current recommendation I could find was for 64 oz of water a day -- about half of your prior soda intake.

I only drank diet drinks. 0 calories but lots of aspartame.

Are your teeth ruined?

No. I haven't had a cavity in at least ten years.

>consumers seek alternatives

>Buy put coke options

What if coke is able to change their business and provide those healthy alternatives?

A big what if, admittedly, since the dopamine hit provided by sugar is what drives excess consumption of the product. But never say never.

Then I guess Coke won't "continue to bleed sales and struggle" as the parent suggested?

Note that Coke ALREADY provides "healthy alternatives" (they sell bottled water if that's your thing). And also note that the parent has no idea what part of Coke's product line the dip in sales was caused by, whether it's an industry-wide phenomenon or not, etc. etc.

That's because the parent is just some armchair financial analyst spouting nonsense.

> What if coke is able to change their business and provide those healthy alternatives?

That was the implication of the post, yes, hence the mention of sugar-free drinks they already produce.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com