McDonald’s To Stop Selling Sprite

In what’s thought to be a world first for a fast-food chain, 21 McDonald’s outlets in New Zealand will stop selling sugar-laden Sprite in an effort to help curb diabetes, according to the New Zealand Herald.

Sounds promising, right?

Well, the catch is this: The high-fructose-filled sodas are being replaced with Sprite Zero, which contains the artificial sweeteners aspartame and Ace-K.

This, in my mind, is replacing one potentially dangerious substance with another.

A can of soda contains about 10 teaspoons of sugar and could lead to weight gain. Drinking regular soft drinks causes 40 preventable deaths a year in New Zealand from heart attacks and strokes, according to Auckland Medical School estimates.

But, on the other hand, articificial sweeteners aren’t an improved choice over sugar.

In fact, both aspartame and Ace-K, particularly the former, have been linked to a variety of health-harming symptoms.

The intentions are honorable for the soda swap.
"[It’s] one of our hopes that it will prevent weight gain," said the project’s medical director, diabetes specialist Dr Brandon Orr Walker.
"We don’t yet know that substitution of sugary drinks with diet drinks prevents weight gain; it flows from logic, but it’s not proven."

Well, I guess Dr. Walker didn’t read about some studies, which linked diet drinks with weight gain not weight loss.