According to statistics from the Coca-Cola Company, Mexico consumes the most Coca Cola per capita in the world. I am not a huge fan of soft drinks in general, but when traveling my intake of them often goes up due to unreliable drinking water and juices made with questionable ice. Diet drinks, like Coke Zero, freak me out with all those weird additives listed in their ingredients, but many people prefer these drinks to the original...even though they have proven to be dangerous.

Last month, Coca Cola had to remove the artificial sweetener sodium cyclamate from the Mexican Coke Zero formula. The sweetener was banned from the US in 1969 because it appeared to increase the odds of developing bladder cancer in rats during testing. Oddly enough, sodium cyclamate is readily found in many Canadian (such as Sugar Twin) and European products.

The sodium cyclamate was replaced with aspartame and other fake sweeteners, because they are undoubtedly so much better for you. Coke refuses to admit that the sodium cyclamate was removed due to the danger it posed to consumers and instead said that this alteration will make Coke Zero taste more like the original Coca-Cola Classic.

The director of communications for Coca-Cola Mexico stated that Coke Zero has sold extremely well since being introduced the Mexican market over a year ago despite the controversy over the sodium cyclamate. How could Coca-Cola not do well in a country where the people consumed over 500 Coke products per person last year!

Coca-Cola even launched a new pro-Coke Zero campaign to support this new version with a slogan that reads, "Everything can get better."

I think "better" would be removing all the artificial sweeteners in their products...I think I'll be sticking with the Coke Classic or better yet, bottled water.

"No Wrong Turns" chronicles Kelsey and her husband's road trip -- in real time -- from Canada to the southern tip of South America in their trusty red VW Golf named Marlin.

Filed under: Food and Drink, Mexico, News, No Wrong Turns