Infinite Unknown

One healthy plant (Stevia) in there does not make ‘junk’ healthy. Stevia is not allowed in foodstuffs and remedies in the EU. I think this is because of the sugar industry in Europe.
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Men harvest the stevia plant in Ybycubua, Paraguay, on Sept. 9, 2008. Photographer: Carlos Bittar/Bloomberg News

Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) — A leaf the Guarani Indians of Paraguay’s jungles used to sweeten drinks for centuries may help Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. revive flagging sales in the $320 billion-a-year global soft-drink industry.

The Food and Drug Administration is poised to act on allowing a zero-calorie sweetener derived from the stevia plant grown in Paraguay and China. Approval may allow the world’s two largest soda makers to reverse three years of U.S. soft-drink sales declines with beverages containing the natural extract, according to Mariann Montagne, an analyst at Minneapolis-based Thrivent Asset Management.

“They are really desperate for something to pick up colas,” said Montagne, whose firm owns Coca-Cola and PepsiCo among the $70 billion it oversees. “There is definitely a need, and people will respond if they have this natural sweetener.”

The two companies lost a quarter of their market value this year, falling about 8 percentage points more than the Standard & Poor’s 500 Consumer Staples Index, as the world economy slowed. Massimo D’Amore, chief of PepsiCo’s beverage division, said Nov. 20 the company will use a compound made from stevia as an alternative to higher-calorie or artificial sweeteners in some drinks as soon as the government gives “the green light.”

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Tags: Coca Cola, Corporations, Economy, FDA, Health, PepsiCo, Stevia

A trader looks up at monitor while working on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York on Oct. 15, 2008. Photographer: Jin Lee/Bloomberg News

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks plunged the most since the crash of 1987, hammered by the biggest drop in retail sales in three years and growing doubt that plans to bail out banks will keep the economic slump from deepening.

Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. tumbled more than 12 percent as commodity prices declined on concern the slowing economy will hurt demand. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. retreated 8 percent after the Commerce Department said purchases at chain stores decreased 1.2 percent last month. Morgan Stanley lost 16 percent after Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Meredith Whitney said the government’s bank rescue is not a “panacea” solution.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index sank 90.17 points, or 9 percent, to 907.84, with nine companies declining more than 20 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 733.08, or 7.9 percent, to 8,577.91, its second-biggest point drop ever. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 150.68, or 8.5 percent, to 1,628.33. About 37 stocks fell for each that rose on the New York Stock Exchange.

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Tags: Banking, Ben Bernanke, Chevron, Coca Cola, Credit Crisis, Credit Crunch, Dow Jones, Economy, Exxon, Fed, Federal Reserve, Financial Crisis, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Mortgage crisis, Mortgages, NYSE, Recession, Stock Market, U.S., Wall Street

Most U.S. Stocks Fall as Earnings Concern Overshadows Bank Plan

Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) — Most U.S. stocks fell a day after the market’s biggest rally since the 1930s as a worsening outlook for earnings forced investors to look beyond a $2 trillion global push to rescue banks.

PepsiCo lost as much as 14 percent, the most since October 1987, after lowering its profit forecast as customers cut back on snacks and soft drinks. Microsoft and Intel slid more than 5 percent as analysts said demand for computers is slowing. Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. added more than 19 percent, sending banking shares to a third straight advance.

“Notwithstanding the government and Treasury’s actions focusing on financials, the general economic environment has deteriorated quite a bit in the last five or six weeks,” said Jonathan Armitage, head of U.S. large-cap equities at the American unit of Schroders, the U.K. manager of $259 billion. “You’re just seeing different parts of the equity market reacting to that.”

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Tags: Banking, Citigroup, Coca Cola, Economy, Financial Crisis, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, PepsiCo, Politics, Recession, Stock Market, U.S., Wall Street

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Coca-Cola Co (KO.N), the world’s largest soft drinks maker, offered to buy juice maker China Huiyuan (1886.HK) for a hefty premium, marking the biggest takeover in China by a foreign company.

The all-cash deal of $2.5 billion, which still requires regulatory approval, values Huiyuan at nearly three times its closing price on Friday.

Coca-Cola, which has offset flat sales at home by expanding globally, dominates a growing Chinese diluted-juice market and now hopes to make inroads into an untapped pure-juice sector.

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Tags: China, Coca Cola, Corporations, Danone, Economy, Goldman Sachs, PepsiCo, RBS

Artificial food colours are set to be removed from hundreds of products after a team of university researchers warned they were doing as much damage to children’s brains as lead in petrol.

Academics at Southampton University, who carried out an official study into seven additives for the Food Standards Agency (FSA), said children’s intelligence was being significantly damaged by E-numbers. After receiving the advice last month, officials at the FSA have advised their directors to call for the food industry to remove six additives named in the study by the end of next year.

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Tags: Children, Coca Cola, damaging, Diet Coke, E-numbers, Efsa, Food Additives, FSA, IQ, Lead, petrol