‘There’s never been a more delicious way to cherry pick your antioxidant!’ is how 7UP’s web site puts it. But according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in California (US), the antioxidant claim is both misleading, since it gives the impression that the antioxidants come from the pictured healthful fruits, and illegal, since Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations prohibit fortifying nutritionally worthless snack foods and beverages with nutrients.
The suit was filed on behalf of a Sherman Oaks, a man who purchased the drinks but would not have had he known the product didn’t contain juices from the advertised fruits, and that the drinks have only a small amount of one isolated antioxidant, vitamin E.
The nonprofit CSPI is acting as co-counsel in the lawsuit, with the consumer protection class action law firm Reese Richman.
CSPI executive director Michael Jacobson, said: “Non-diet varieties of 7UP, like other sugary drinks, promote obesity, diabetes, tooth decay, and other serious health problems, and no amount of antioxidants could begin to reduce those risks.
“Adding an antioxidant to a soda is like adding menthol to a cigarette-neither does anything to make an unhealthy product healthy.”
Source: CSPI
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