Toastmasters Club Meeting - 09/01/2009

This was the first Toastmasters Club meeting for the year 2009 and I had done my project 7 - Research my Topic.

I was an enjoyable as before, learned lotz of good stuffs.

Quotes:

- New Year, New Beginning, New Start, New Opportunity.

- Everyone hols a key

- Walk to talk

What I said:

Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants and vending machines world-wide in over 200 countries. It is produced by the Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta, Georgia and is often referred to simply as Coke or Cola in the whole world.

Do anyone know what is the recipe of Coca-Cola?

As spelled out, Coca refers to coca leaf while Cola refers to kola nuts.

As Frank Robinson, Pemberton’s partner, felt that “2Cs would look better in advertising”, he changed the ‘K’ to a ‘C’ and named the drink Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola was invented by a pharmacist, John Pemberton. John Pemberton was also the creator Pemberton’s French Wine Coca. Pemberton’s French Wine Coca was an alcoholic beverage mixed with coca, kola nuts and damiana. To side track alittle, damiana is a kind of flower that is used in herbal medicine to treat coughs,

constipation and depression.

French Wine Coca was marketed mostly to upper class intellectuals, afflicted with diseases believed to have brought on by urbanization and Atlanta’s increasing competitive business environment. John Pemberton claimed that the drink would benefit “scientists, scholars, poets, lawyers, physicians and others devoted to extreme mental exertion.”

But in 1886, when Atlanta and Fulton County passed prohibition legislation, Pemberton responded by developing Coca-Cola, essentially a non-alcoholic version of French Wine Cola. The first sale was on 8^th May 1886. It slowly gained its popularity in United States at that time due the belief that carbonated water was good for the health. Pemberton still claimed that Coca-Cola could cure many diseases such as morphine addiction, headache and impotence.

When launched Coca-Cola’s 2 key ingredients were cocaine and caffeine. The cocaine was derived from the coca leaf and the caffeine from kola nuts.

Cocaine is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. It is both a stimulant of the central nervous system and an appetite suppressant. Because the way it affects the brain, cocaine is addictive. The addictive properties of cocaine was only discovered in the early 20^th century. At that point of time, The Coca-Cola Company was forced not to use cocaine in the production of the soft drinks. Therefore, till today the company uses cocaine-free coca leafs for her soft drinks. Nevertheless, cocaine is used in medicine as a topical anesthetic, specially in eye, nose and throat surgery.

As for another ingredient kola nut. Kola nut is a genus of about 125 species of trees native to the tropical rainforests of Africa. As the kola nut contains caffeine, it tasted bitterest. In medicine, Kola nuts are often to treat whopping cough and asthma. Due to the caffeine in kola nut, it also acts as a bronchodilator, expanding the bronchial air passages.

There are lots of criticisms on Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company has been criticized for its business practices as well as the alleged adverse health effects of its flagship product. A common criticism of Coke based on its allegedly toxic acidity levels has been found to be baseless by researchers; lawsuits based on these criticisms have been dismissed by several American courts for this reason.

Numerous court cases have been filed against The Coca-Cola Company since 1920s, alleging that the acidity of the drink is dangerous, no evidence corroborating this claim has been found. Under normal conditions, scientific evidence indicates Coca-Cola’s acidity causes no immediate harm.

Another famous criticism was the amount of calories in the soft drink. There are indications that “soda and sweetened drinks are the main source of calories of many people, most nutritionists advise that Coca-Cola and other soft drink can be harmful if consumed excessively. Studies have shown that regular soft drink consumers have a lower intake of calcium, magnesium and vitamin A. The drink has also aroused criticism for its use of caffeine, due to the possibility of physical dependence. A link has been shown between long-term regular cola intake, of which Coca-Cola is the most consumed brand worldwide and osteoporosis in older women. This was thought to be due to the presence of phosphoric acid and the risk was found to be the same in all colas, no matter for caffeinated, non-caffeinated or diet or sugared colas.

With this, I hope that everyone has a better understand ok Coca-Cola & consume moderately if love it. Thank You.

Time: 5min 48sec

Ah Counting: 3 repetitions

Evaluation:

- Easy to follow.

- Will be good if I could utitlise another 1min to talk more about the origin, evolution, when was criticisms started.

- Go without the notes

- Remember by pointers