Two American Pastors Sue Coca-Cola over Health Risks

Ololade Adeyanju/

Two prominent African-American pastors have filed a suit against Coca-Cola and the American Beverage Association (ABA), claiming soda manufacturers knowingly deceived customers about the health risks of sugar-sweetened beverages.
They say soda marketing has made it more difficult to protect the health of their largely black, D.C.-based parishioners.
The Washington Post reports the complaint was filed, on Thursday, in D.C. Superior Court on behalf of Praxis Project, a public health group, and the pastors.
They are, William Lamar, the senior pastor at D.C.’s historic Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church; and Delman Coates, the pastor at Maryland’s Mount Ennon Baptist Church.
The lawsuit alleges that Coca-Cola and the ABA ran an intentional campaign to confuse consumers about the causes of obesity.
A statement by Coca-Cola, however, dismissed the pastors’ charges and the merits of the earlier lawsuit, which was filed and then withdrawn in California by the same legal team.
“The allegations here are likewise legally and factually meritless, and we will vigorously defend against them,” the statement said. ‘
“The Coca-Cola Company understands that we have a role to play in helping people reduce their sugar consumption,” the statement added.
The ABA also called the allegations in the lawsuit “unfounded.”
The pastors see things differently. Lamar said he is tired of presiding over funerals for parishioners who died of heart disease, diabetes and stroke.
Coates said he has seen members of his congregation give their infants bottles filled with sugary drinks and that it has “become really clear to me that we’re losing more people to the sweets than to the streets.”
Nigeria Bottling Company, which manufactures Coca Cola in Nigeria, faced a similar issue, in March, when a judge warned that Vitamin C becomes poison, when taken with beverages such as Fanta and Sprite.
Justice Adedayo Oyebanji in a judgement delivered at the Igbosere High Court in Lagos, consequently, ordered the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), to mandate the Nigeria Bottling Company to inscribe a written warning that content of Fanta and Sprite produced by the company cannot be taken with Vitamin C.

The court found that Fanta and Sprite become poisonous in the presence of Ascorbic Acid ordinarily known as Vitamin C, which can be freely taken by unsuspecting members of the public.