Taubes, on the other hand, is assuming the opposite of sophistication, if expects his audience to apparently have once believed Coke was a health food.
Coke was absolutely a health food, but not during the periods that Taubes seems to be talking about. Many popular soft drinks have their origins in late-19th and early-20th-century patent medicines, and Coca-Cola is no exception.
Of course, the late 19th and early 20th centuries were times when nutrition advice was almost entirely superstition and quackery, as opposed to merely substantially so. So that amusing historical factoid doesn’t tell us much about the quality of nutritional science as it’s been in living memory.
Coke was absolutely a health food, but not during the periods that Taubes seems to be talking about. Many popular soft drinks have their origins in late-19th and early-20th-century patent medicines, and Coca-Cola is no exception.
Of course, the late 19th and early 20th centuries were times when nutrition advice was almost entirely superstition and quackery, as opposed to merely substantially so. So that amusing historical factoid doesn’t tell us much about the quality of nutritional science as it’s been in living memory.