The Venezuelan government has banned the sale of Coca-Cola's new beverage, Coke Zero, a zero calorie "diet" soft drink, citing health reasons for the ban.

"The product should be withdrawn from circulation to preserve the health of Venezuelans," said Health Minister, Jesus Mantilla. Coke Zero will no longer be sold in stores and existing stocks of the beverage will be removed.

While the government originally cited "unspecified health dangers" as the reason for the ban, the Huffington Post later reported that "Venezuela's Health Ministry said it banned sales of Coca-Cola Zero because the company failed to declare that the no-calorie soft drink uses an artificial sweetener allegedly harmful to health."

Tests found Coke Zero to contain sodium cyclamate, Venezuelan health officials said. Sodium cyclamate is a zero-calorie artificial sweetener banned in the United States for 40 years due to concerns it may cause cancer and reproductive problems in men.

The picture gets slightly weirder. Sodium cyclamate is legal in 50 countries around the world, including Venezuela (although it seems it may be the product's failure to list the ingredient that may be causing the objection). What's more, Coca-Cola denies that their product contains the sweetener, saying that it is sweetened with a combination of acesulfame-K and aspartame.

In my opinion, the banning of diet sodas can be considered nothing but a good thing. The data behind the safety of all artificial sweeteners is questionable at best. Stick with natural, less-processed sweeteners whenever possible.


The Healthy Foodie is Doug DiPasquale, Holistic Nutritionist and trained chef, living in Toronto. You can email him with questions at dugdeep@gmail.com.