I commented on Dr Pepper/Seven Up’s Raging Cow drink a few months ago. Now the Wall Street Journal reports on Raging Cow and Coke’s new Swerve drink. From Mooove Over, Milkman:
But are Raging Cow and Swerve what mom and dad have in mind when they tell their kids to drink milk? Probably not. An eight-ounce serving of Raging Cow’s Chocolate Insanity has 170 calories and 25 grams of sugar, compared with 150 calories and 11 grams of sugar in the same size glass of whole milk, or 100 calories and 12 sugar grams in 1% milk. The new drink has five fat grams — double the 2.5 grams of fat in 1% milk, but less than the eight grams in whole milk. A 12-ounce can of Coke’s Swerve, made with skim milk, is expected to have 150 calories — about 10 more calories than its trademark soda.
[...]
Just over 50% of the new drinks’ content actually consists of milk, which means they lack enough calcium and other nutrients to meet the Food and Drug Administration’s minimum standard for using “milk” on the label.Instead, they are called “dairy drinks,” because the other half of their content is made up of water, sugar and flavorings. (The drinks do have enough milk to use the American Dairy Association’s “Real” seal.)
Another element that kind of scares me:
One plus for the new drinks: They don’t need refrigeration.
They can’t be labelled “milk” or “real” dairy, and they don’t need refrigeration. Healthy soft-drink alternatives indeed!