World Food Day: Why Nigerians prefer 7UP as therapeutic soda drink
By Shaibu Patrick
One central subject that forms a seat of discourse in the commemoration of World Food Day are delicacies which appeal to recreation, and at the same serve the quality standard of health benefits. One of such to be considered is the widely accepted soda drink – 7UP – which Nigerians have embraced over the years.
7UP stands out as one of the largely consumed soda in the world today. Its health consideration (lithium, citric acid, sodium citrate) and refreshing nature, naturally flavoured with Lemon and Lime oil, and the presence of natural sweetener is seducing and worth longing to have a sip.
In commemoration of the World Food Day, we may like to ask “why, among others, 7UP is preferred as a soft for many Nigerians?” The response of having a healthy natural drink with no hazard would naturally come to mind. It is therefore significant to be acquainted with the ideology behind this soda brand.
October 16th of every year, is set aside to mark World Food Day (WFD), and to appreciate the amazing food we eat, and also to tackle world hunger. It is also a day set aside to mark the creation of Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) set up in 1945. FAO is a specialized agency of the United Nations, charged with the responsibility of combating international hunger and improve nutrition and food security. According to Dr Pal Romany’s (former Hungarian Minister of Agriculture and Food) celebrating World Food Day is not a misstep. It opens our eyes to see how beneficial and health appealing some foods and drinks we eat are to our system.
This year’s World Food Day, themed: “Our actions and our future-better production, better nutrition, and better environment and a better life,” succumb to the saying, ‘nutritional food breeds long life.’ These draw us closer to giving answers to the salient question of “what distinguishes 7Up from other soft drinks?”
After Coca-Cola Company and Pepsi Co, Inc., Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc. (DPSU) is the number three soft drink maker in the world. Seven Up and its parent company, Dr Pepper stand the position of nine and six respectively in the United States non-cola soft drinks. 7UP is that soft drink which has passed through critical laboratory testing in order to get a flavour that has never been tested.
Around 1920, while Dr Pepper was the drink on everyone’s mind, Charles Leiper Grigg, an advertising veteran of 30 years, had formed a company, named after the Howdy orange flavored soft drink he had developed, but the CEO had other ideas specifically, to invent a new flavour of beverage. For two years, Grigg tested different combinations of lemon and other flavours. By the mid-1920s he had settled on a distinctive lemon-lime formula and in 1929 the Howdy Company introduced the soda to the general public.
By the end of this invention, they were sure of how satisfying the taste will be. But the hopes were dashed following the unsatisfactory comments from consumers. They complained that it was unappetizingly flavoured, and the aftertaste of the heavy synthetic flavours was worth criticising. The taste stood the test of time and today, it is one of the dominant sodas in the market as beach chiller.
Nutritionally, 7UP in Nigeria and around the world has attracted the market with its low sugar level and low calories, and the presence of lithium is mind-blowing, as against its counterparts with ingredients that could cause blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.
7UP has embraced a different approach of health sustainablity instead.
According to Dr. Harley Willasy, the importance of lithium to human body are broad. It reduces depression of any form, thus help to curb the increasing rate of psychological disorder among people in the world.
As an antidepressant, it reduces acute headache, control of aggressive behaviour or intentional self-harm and possibly suicidal behaviour. According to him, Lithium has been used successfully to reduce aggression in patients with learning disabilities who are unmanageable by environmental factors, and in patients with aggressive self-mutilating behaviour. Lithium has become prominent ingredient among foods and drinks companies in recent times. 7UP is not an exception. It is clear that counteracting the benefits of Lithium in the noncola soda is deceptive.
According to a source, the presence of Lithium in 7UP, highly premeditated the naming of the brand. He said that 7UP consists of seven ingredients, namely, essence lemon, lime oil, carbonated water, citric acid, sodium citrate, sweetener and Lithium. Lithium was classified as the “up” mood lift. This, according to sources, necessitated the “UP” in the brand’s name.
Sodium citrate is one of the ingredients present in 7UP. According to WebMD, sodium citrate reduces the acidic content of the urine. Urine that is less acidic helps the kidneys get rid of uric acid, helping to prevent gout and certain types of kidney stones (urate). It can also prevent and treat certain metabolic problems (acidosis) caused by kidney disease.
Citric acid is another ingredient contained in the 7UP soda drink. The United states Food and Drug Administration (FDA) deems non-naturally occurring citric acid as “generally recognised as safe.” In addition to that designation, it is also recognised as safe for use in food by all other major national and international agencies tasked with food regulations.
According to Laura Minton Gonzales, citric acid improves the body’s ability to absorb nutrients, protects the liver from damaging free radicals, restabilizes an acidic environment, often caused by stress or poor nutrition, kills some types of bacteria and viruses and so forth. She concluded that although, consuming products derived from a mold certainly sounds scary and bad, research overwhelmingly shows that citric acid is not as bad as supposed, but safe for most people. In fact, it has many suprising health benefits which 7UP has made readily available to its consumers.
Lime oil is another health developmental ingredient present in the 7UP soda. The Zee blog states aptly that, lime oil is an embodiment of nutritional ingredients. It has been classified as a ‘mood lifter.’ It revitalizes emotions so that decisions and feelings can be explored constructively.
It is no lie that some of food and drinks that we take do have negative reactions and are dangerous to our health. These might be as a result of wrong preservation or addition of certain chemicals that oppose right metabotalistic functioning.
7UP product is one of the highly demanded soft drinks in Nigeria and has joined the race for dominance in the global market recently. Beyond its market responsibility, The Seven-Up Bottling Company which makes the product has been set on the record of Corporate Social Responsibility through remarkable commitment to community courses, directly and indirectly. Recently, the Bottling and Marketing Company, a franchise of 7UP inc, had donated two million bottles of its product to Nigerians living in vulnerable communities.
7UP remains rich as an embodiment of varieties of nutritional ingredients which are medicinal to the human body. Its wide acceptability cannot largely be unconnected with these qualities of serving the dual purposes of the therapeutic and recreational values it offers to consumers, a profile that has continued to accord the drink referrals for medicinal purposes.
