ALBAWABA - Health experts are putting pressure on Olympic organizers to sever connections with Coca-Cola, AFP reports, claiming that the US company's running lucrative sponsorship agreement enables it to "sportswash" harmful, sugary beverages.
On the other hand, French environmental advocates described it “bizarre” and “surreal” witnessing Coca-Cola servers filling plastic reusable “eco-cups” from 50cl plastic bottles, accumulating sacks of empty bottles for recycling at various venues, the Guardian reports.
Coca-Cola has sponsored the Olympics since 1928, however according to Trish Cotter and Sandra Mullin of the global health organization Vital Strategies, these sugary beverages "offer little or no nutritional value" and advertising such harmful goods has no place in sport.
The two experts said in a commentary published in the journal BMJ Global Health that sugar-filled beverages are a "key driver" of a number of major health issues impacting people worldwide, such as diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, and heart disease.
While the Paris Olympics were touted to be the most environmentally conscious Games in history, environmental activists said that millions of plastic drink bottles being unnecessarily emptied into millions of plastic cups constituted to "greenwashing" and a double usage of plastic.
“By continuing its association with Coca-Cola, the Olympic movement risks being complicit in intensifying a global epidemic of poor nutrition, environmental degradation and climate change,” the authors noted.
Adding that “it is time for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to cut ties with Coca-Cola in the interest of athletes, spectators and the planet.”
Coca-Cola defended it’s drinks in a statement, saying “as a total beverage company, we support recommendations to limit added sugar to 10 percent of daily calories and continuously adapt our product range by reducing added sugar and introducing innovative products to meet evolving consumer tastes.”
