The Real Thing

A Coke and a smile and a shot of insulin

Coca-Cola - the delicious sugar drink invented by Dr. John Pemberton in Atlanta, Georgia in 1886 - is the most popular soda brand in the world. Enjoying a market share of about 45% worldwide, Coca-Cola is the 6th most recognized brand in the world (the top 5 are the usual suspects of tech companies). And people in Mexico drink more Coke than any other country in the world. And maybe that’s kind of a problem.

First, though, let’s look at some numbers to help put you to sleep (assuming you haven’t just ingested a bottle of that sweet, caffeinated nectar):

• The United States consumes the most Coke by total volume - a whopping 39,300 million liters per annum.

• Mexico is in second place, consuming 19,500 million liters each year.

But wait, didn’t I just say Mexico consumes the most Coke? Yes, by population Mexico is the largest consumer. Here are the two largest per capita consumers of Coca-Cola:

• Mexico: 151 liters

• U.S.: 117 liters

That is a liter of Coca-Cola consumed every 2-1/2 days by every person living in Mexico (statistically speaking, of course. And yes, the U.S. is no slouch in the Coke consuming department either.)

The problem with drinking all of this sugar water is that it contributes to the development of type 2 diabetes. The diabetes rate in Mexico in 2021 was 17%. That is roughly one-in-five people in Mexico with diabetes. In 2011 it was 15.6%, so the trend is moving in the wrong direction. For many years, diabetes was the number one cause of death in Mexico. It has recently been overtaken by ischaemic heart disease¹ - but the two diseases go hand-in-hand: diabetes is often a precursor to ischaemic heart disease, and both diseases are very much diet related.

For many Mexicans - even those who have been diagnosed with diabetes - getting away from sugar consumption can be extremely difficult. Sugar-based food and beverage are a staple of the Mexican food culture (they’re the staple of many food cultures). And it isn’t just what one might consider “sweet” foods that are problematic: any food containing simple or complex carbohydrates turns into sugar when broken down by the body. This includes all wheat- and corn-based foods. Many working class Mexicans who spend 12 hours or more a day on the job simply don’t have the logistical capacity to figure out and plan for food products that won’t end up as sugar in their bodies. And wheat- and corn-based foods are cheap; calories per peso is a fundamental economic consideration for working class Mexicans. Washing all that wheat and corn down with cheap and readily available Coca-Cola exacerbates this diet problem.

Coca-Cola FEMSA

Fomento Económico Mexicano, S.A.B. de C.V., better known by the acronym FEMSA, is a multinational Mexican conglomerate specializing in retail and bottling businesses. FEMSA owns the largest convenience store chain in Latin America: Oxxo. It also controls the largest Coca-Cola bottling company in Latin America: Coca-Cola FEMSA. This bottling and convenience store one-two punch puts Coca-Cola products almost literally at arm’s reach of most people in Mexico; almost every town of any sort of population density has an Oxxo, and in larger towns it is not uncommon to find Oxxos on every other block.

One of the largest Coca-Cola FEMSA bottling plants is located just outside the picturesque town of San Cristobal de las Casas in the southern state of Chiapas. When it comes to diabetes and other health-related problems, this plant may well be Mexico’s Chernobyl.

In Chiapas - one of Mexico’s poorest states - the Coca-Cola consumption statistics are completely bonkers. According to the Mexican government agency Consejo Nacional de Humanidades Ciencas y Tecnologías (National Council of Science and Technology), Chiapas consumes a nearly unbelievable average of 821.25 liters per capita. That is five times higher than the overall average in Mexico, and 32 times higher than the world average. It is 2-1/4 liters per person per day.

The legacy of Coca-Cola in Chiapas is nothing less than a tragedy. In many parts of that state, not only is Coca-Cola more easily found than drinking water, it is less expensive. And in a region where water scarcity is already a tremendous problem, the Coca-Cola plant consumes over a million liters of water each day to run its bottling operation. Adding insult to injury, Coca-Cola FEMSA pays a mere 10 cents (U.S.) per 250 gallons of water, and that money goes to the federal government, not to Chiapas, where it might otherwise have been used to improve local water infrastructure.

There are glimmers of hope in Chiapas: there have been and continue to be large, organized protest movements against the bottling plant there, with the end goal being shutting down the plant entirely. Additionally, volunteers on the ground are helping to increase access to safe drinking water. There have also been increased educational efforts to help raise awareness of the dangers of consuming soft drinks, and how it directly relates to the diabetes and heart disease epidemics in Chiapas. Progress has definitely been made.

But as of today, “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” seems to still echo on the hilltops² of Chiapas³.

1. Ischaemic heart disease - also known as coronary heart disease or coronary artery disease - is usually caused by the buildup of fat (plaque) in the arteries that move blood to the heart.

2. This footnote contains a spoiler alert for the U.S. television series Mad Men.

The “Hilltop” ad is one of the most successful and iconic advertisements in the history of U.S. television; first aired in the early 1970s, the ad features a group of young adults converging on a grassy hilltop while singing the song I’d like to buy the world a Coke. This television ad entered the popular imagination again for more recent generations when it was famously used as the final scene in the television series Mad Men.

3. I will dismount my high horse here for a moment and admit to enjoying Coke myself. I researched and wrote this article over the course of 2 days, and I craved a bottle of Coke the entire time. I grew up in a time when soft drinks were still considered OK to drink, and to this day, I still indulge my craving for Coke probably 3 or 4 times a year - for me, there is really nothing like it to wash down a plate of carnitas tacos.