Healthy Brands Team Up To Educate Public About the Risks of Excessive Sugar

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This article originally appeared in Presence Marketing’s February 2022 Industry Newsletter

By Steve Hoffman

A band of seven “better for you” food and beverage brands announced in January 2022 that they have come together to form a new health coalition named ACES, the Alliance to Control Excessive Sugar. The companies include Enlightened, HighKey, Koia, Lemon Perfect, OLIPOP, Super Coffee and Three Wishes. Competitors in the marketplace, the companies are unified in their mission to help consumers reduce sugar in their diets, the coalition said in a statement.

Despite the well-documented harmful effects of high-sugar diets, Americans knowingly and unknowingly consumed over 84 billion pounds of sugar in 2021, due in large part to added or hidden sugars. Additionally, many low- or no-sugar products on the market contain synthetic sweeteners, which can trigger insulin release and alter gut bacteria, and other potentially harmful ingredients, said the ACES statement.

"America's go-to brands are loaded with sugar and unnecessary calories that make food and drinks taste good but at the expense of health and wellness," said Jimmy DeCicco, CEO of Super Coffee and Chair of the ACES coalition. "At ACES, we're committed to showing consumers that there's a better way – food and beverages that are low in sugar and don't compromise on taste. Our combined impact is far greater than any single brand alone, which is why we're banding together for the betterment of our community.”

As a first step, the ACES coalition launched a website where consumers can learn more about the mission. ACES said it also will be giving away $1 million worth of discounts to consumers as incentives to remove sugar from their diets. For information, visit https://sweetaces.org.