Mexico’s deadly Coca-Cola addiction | Unreported World

mexicans are the biggest consumers of sugary drinks in the world and in mexico coca-cola is but the country's love affair with fizzy drinks is causing a diabetes emergency moment in poor towns across the country coca-cola is more available than even fresh water children grow up malnourished and then because they're drinking a lot of coca-cola their body doesn't assimilate the sugar it's a terrible combination i've come to the region that drinks the most coke to find out why people are dying from too much sugar [Music] my m pedro jimenez has been living with diabetes for the past 12 years mexico is grappling with an obesity epidemic it's the number one killer and in chiapas the poorest state health officials have declared a diabetes emergency a four-fold increase in deaths over the last 30 years [Music] as a musician pedro is often called to play at funerals of people who have died too young [Music] this is san cristobal more sugary drinks are consumed here than anywhere else in the world we've come to the local cemetery with pedro he placed in a band and they have been hired to play at the funeral of a man that died from kobe today he was also diabetic [Music] and so at much greater risk from the virus [Music] [Music] everyone in pedro's family has diabetes he lives with his mother maria and brother roberto but as i arrived i discovered that roberto is seriously unwell he needs to see a doctor roberto is feeling really bad and his brother is taking him to hospital apparently his sugar levels have gone up roberto symptoms tiredness sweating confusion are all signs he could be having a diabetic emergency if his blood sugar levels are too high it could be life-threatening [Music] the doctor is going to keep roberto here for more tests he's going to test him for covet and his sugar levels are pretty high if he is infected with coverage it could be really bad news for him [Music] here in chiapas 3 000 people die each year from diabetes related illness it's the second leading cause of death after heart disease i can see why people like this it's very tasty and cheap but one third of mexicans have obesity and the country is amongst the top consumers of sugary drinks in the world in 2010 the mexican statistics agency energy found that people here drunk on average more than two liters of coca-cola a day more than 800 liters of coke in a year [Music] everywhere you look junk food and fizzy drinks are on sale it's part of the culture i've come to meet maria and pedro they're here because pedro brought her out of the house because she is very worried about roberto's health he's been deteriorating in the last few days and he also tested for kobe they've had a tough few days in quarantine [Music] [Music] um [Music] coca-cola has invested in low sugar options in mexico but they don't appear to be popular here people like traditional coke with lots of sugar and gas although coca-cola says its traditional recipe now has 30 percent less sugar you only have to drive around town to see the scale and reach of coca-cola but opposition is building we've been driving for around five minutes and i've counted 18 places with acell coca-cola keep counting i'm with dr marcos arana he's campaigning against the power and the influence of coca-cola coca-cola the owners are allowed to extract more than 300 000 gallons of water a day a concession that was granted more than 10 years ago foreign coca-cola says it's committed to a responsible marketing policy which complies with the laws and regulations in mexico and points to mexico's water commission which found the concession did not put the population's water supply at risk it says it understands water is a vital share resource and has been investing in conservation projects for over a decade [Music] i'm leaving san cristobal and heading out to some of the remote indigenous communities in chiapas [Music] in the 90s this territory was season held by max's rebels i'm on my way to san andres la raisar it's an indigenous town one hour away from san cristobal de las casas and once it was the stronghold of the zapatista national liberation army is today in communities like that the coca-cola is king i've been told the local shamans have been using coca-cola as part of their religious ceremonies maria is a practicing shaman today she's treating this man for diabetes the ceremony is a mixture of catholicism mysticism and involves animal sacrifices from but what i find incredible is how she's using coca-cola [Music] [Music] look at this right next to the shrine maria's own well-stocked coke fridge she says she sells about 50 crates a month why do you think there is so many people with do you think there are a lot of people with diabetes here because they have sugar drinks it's dangerous advice parabenics need to cut down on the sugar intake i'm a bit shocked after that ceremony i've participated in many indigenous rituals in this part of the world and i've never seen sugar drinks been offered to the gods here to sell coca-cola give you status in the community clearly sugar drinks are engraved in the culture here to combat the growing health emergency mexico introduced a sugar tax in 2014 that has had some impact on consumption but critics say money from the tax should have been spent on prevention back in san cristobal pedro's man maria is busy running her small shop foreign maria just sold two cokes to a man outside and she was telling me how she buys two crates of coca-cola a week maria makes very little profit from the sale of coke but her livelihood depends on it if she doesn't stock coke her customers would go elsewhere [Music] as the population of san cristobal has grown water has become increasingly scarce how are you i'm good thank you thank you fermin is campaigning to improve the town's water supply he's going to run a series of tests to show me the quality of the town's drinking water this is a river that comes into san cristo de las casas and as you can see here we are in a private reserve so it's in the middle of the forest we should expect the water quality to be pretty good coca-cola gets its water from deep underground wells but the drinking water people rely on comes from overground springs so we're gonna collect it from this place where it's flowing he wants to test for levels of e-coli bacteria this is basically the food for the e coli and the e-coli love to grow on this if you find e coli it means that the water has been in contact with fishes so how long does that need to rest to uh to know how much e coli he has we need about 24 hours okay and that's enough time for the e coli to reproduce and and to make this change colors if we want to see the water that is being drunk by the people of san cristobal where we should go there are a couple of springs that are the largest in san cristobal and they feed most of the city we're heading back into the town so we can test the water there all of the houses that you see in here do not have sewage so they they are basically dumping the water into the river is the situation with the sewage common the city does not have the infrastructure to collect the sewage avoid the sewage getting into the river just make sure that i don't fall yeah no worries and this is the spot close to where the city sources its drinking water i'm amazed to think that this was once a clean water river next to a beautiful spring and now it smells like pure sewage fermin is taking more water samples to test for e-coli as a water expert what do you think about the amount of water that coca-cola is using the city really needs to tap to the water that is underneath you know having a plant that has pristine water and you have hundreds of thousands of people in the dry season they have to deal with a small amount of water terrible quality i think that inequality shouldn't exist the next day i head back to framin's lab to see what he has found for me hi how are you very good on you have you managed to check the tests we did yesterday let's let's check them out so this is an incubator so look at this wow so there was a change in color in all of the pouches and that means that there's a high concentration of e coli on the water this is nasty water when you add up the problem of the water and the problem in eating and drinking rubbish what do you have you know children grow up malnourished and then because they're drinking a lot of coca-cola their body doesn't assimilate the sugar it's a terrible combination coca-cola says it has a policy of not promoting its products to children under 12. the samples from higher up the river also contain traces of e-coli but we're at much lower concentration roberto is back in the clinic with maria to check on his condition roberto's sugar levels are quite high there are nearly 200 they should be between 70 and 100. now it's maria's turn to get tested a there are all symptoms of her diabetes getting worse agrees that too much sugar isn't good for anyone and they're taking action to help people drink less sugar it says since 2018 it has reduced the calories across its mexico's drinks portfolio by over 25 percent including by reducing added sugar content today another funeral is taking place it's for a man in his 50s the cause of death is diabetes [Music] pedro has been called to play i've been here for three days and pedro has already been into the funeral of two people with diabetes clearly there's another pandemic here and he's not covered it's diabetes [Music] it's another grim reminder of the tall diabetes is having on this community [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] but changing habits won't be easy nice juice this is also made by [Music] this community is suffering from a deadly combination of poverty a lack of basic services and too much sugar in the diet if these problems aren't addressed another generation will be condemned to an early grave [Music] you

Channel: Unreported World

Views: 11,370,654

Keywords: Unreported world, unreported world documentary, Mexico, Coca-cola, coke, diabetes, shorts, documentary, chiapas, health, video, shaman

Id: hqnUohxXV0I

Length: 24min 10sec (1450 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 03 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Mexican here, many people reduce coke with water and give it to babies in a bottle. source: me, i saw it this week.

[u/DroopyDachi]

I'm mexican and the presence of Coke here is basically cultural at this point. They started marketing 100 years ago and they basically established themselves as the go to drink if you are having any type of reunion.

My grandma is really addicted to coke, like doesn't matter the time of the day she is drinking coke. Could be 7am or 11pm , coke. She even mixes coke when she wants other drinks, beer or any other type of alcohol

[u/dontthinkaboutit42]

I was watching this just recently.

What struck me was

Interviewer: "what causes diabetes?"

Answer: "family conflicts"

Interviewer: "what do you suggest they should do?"

Answer: "drink coke"

[u/JeanClaudVanRAMADAM]

There are similar situations in African countries where CocaCola bought all the major reserves of drinkable water. After that they skyrocketed the prices of Bottled water and now people just switched from drinking water to CocaCola. This is absolutely criminal

[u/TaskForceCausality]

If memory serves, the medically recommended daily sugar limit is something like 45 grams for men and 35 for women. Imagine my shock when I realized 1 bottle of Coke has ~40 grams!

I know people who put away three bottles + of that stuff a day, and we wonder why diabetes was the worst health problem in America prior to covid-19.

[u/[deleted]]

As a kid we would visit family who were hillbillies. Functional hillbillies but only a generation removed from living on the side of a mountain with running water being the stream. I was shocked to find out they were putting soda in the baby bottles. Idiocracy in real life.

[u/xjustapersonx]

Would the be boiled down to lack of education and understanding? That one lady claims coke has "healing properties" but even a 101 level Biology/physiology course would explain why that is factually incorrect on all possible levels.

[u/likebudda]

I went years without drinking plain water (closest thing was sweetened instant Nestea). I started watching my calorie intake and realized no drink tasted good enough for the calorie load. If it takes roughly a minute of stair climbing to burn 10 calories, the thought of getting to skip 14 minutes of stair climbing just by not drinking that can of coke is a no-brainer.

[u/HeftyPackage]

Ignorant question: how bad is sugar free coke for you?