A Conacyt study showed impressive figures, such as the average consumption per person in this southern Mexican state is five times higher than the rest of the country and 32 times higher than the world average.
The National Council for Science and Technology (Conacyt) reported that the world record for Coca Cola consumption is held by the state of Chiapas, in the south of the Mexican Republic.
The Conacyt was based on a study that showed shocking figures, such as that the average consumption per person in this state of southern Mexico is five times higher than that of the rest of the country and 32 times more than the world average.
“It is the epicenter of the soft drink consumption epidemic,” Dr. Marcos Arana, a researcher at the Salvador Zubirán National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition, told BBC Mundo.
BBC Mundo also asked the ANPRAC for the figures of this study but did not receive a response before the publication of this article.
There is no doubt that soft drinks are an essential part of daily life in Los Altos de Chiapas, where the majority of its population is indigenous and rural.
Coca-Cola has a bottling plant in the municipality of San Cristóbal de las Casas, so the consumption of this brand is overwhelmingly greater than the competition from an early age of the population.
“To 3% of children under six months, their mothers give them Coca-Cola, at a time when they should only drink breast milk,” said Arana, as part of the conclusions reached in an investigation, carried out in 2016.
Local organizations such as the Center for Training in Ecology and Health for Farmers (CCESC), which Arana directs, pointed to the “aggressive” business practices of soft drink companies and the easy access to their products in the area as the causes of this excessive consumption.
“Coca-Cola is the most widely available product in Los Altos, one has to walk further to buy tortillas or anything else. The number of points of sale is excessive, without any control, and with prices reduced by up to 30%”, said Arana.
“The availability and advertising of something so cheap is so great and omnipresent in Chiapas among vulnerable populations that they have created an addiction that is seen as a necessity,” he said.
Arana assured that the routine of the inhabitants of this area is to have coffee for breakfast and take “two or three liters of Coca-Cola” to the field to drink at lunchtime.
ANPRAC position
