Soda

Aajonus described sodas as nothing but water and chemicals, with no food value of any kind. He stated this repeatedly and without qualification. The corn syrup that was previously used in colas was, in his words, "the nearest thing they got to anything food value in it," but even that was processed to the point of having no real benefit. Once the industry shifted to aspartame, even that marginal element was removed, replaced by what he called one of the most toxic substances in commercial food products.

He identified aspartame specifically as going by at least thirteen different names in commercial labeling, all of which he said reflect what it actually does to the body. He cited animal research showing that in 32% of animals tested, aspartame created kidney cancer or bladder cancer. The use of aspartame in diet sodas and as a standalone sweetener under the name Sweet and Low was, in his view, a direct continuation of the industry's willingness to cause cancer in its customers in order to preserve profit margins and the addictive quality of its products.

The King and Queen of England, he said, owned Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola through a network of approximately 82 trusts and blanket companies, making it functionally impossible to trace the ownership publicly. He noted that the Royal Family initially predicted that nobody would be "stupid enough to just drink chemicals," and that they were proven wrong. He used this as an illustration of how completely public behavior had been shaped by commercial conditioning.

In his newsletter writing, Aajonus addressed the specific issue of benzene formation in soft drinks at some length. He stated that benzene is classified as carcinogenic by the FDA, and that both the FDA and the soft drink industry had known since at least 1990 that sodium benzoate and ascorbic acid, when combined in a drink, produce benzene. He noted that the chemical reaction between these two ingredients also creates "the zing and addiction that appeals to soft-drinkers," meaning the industry had direct motivation to keep both ingredients in its products regardless of the health consequences.

He described a scenario in which a beverage industry whistle-blower paid for independent testing in approximately 2006 and found that some soft drinks still contained benzene levels considerably above the limit allowed in drinking water. The FDA reopened its investigation as a result. Despite an FDA chemist and the soft-drink association claiming that some firms might not know about the benzene formation potential, Aajonus rejected this completely. He wrote that anyone who believes a multi-billion-dollar-per-year industry does not know everything about the chemistry of its own products is naive.

He noted that the FDA set no maximum benzene limit for soft drinks specifically, while setting limits for drinking water, and that the agency had knowingly allowed consumers to drink carcinogenic benzene for fifteen years while keeping the public ignorant. He described this as a direct example of the FDA's captured relationship with industry.

For people who had consumed soft drinks and wanted to clear stored benzene from the body before it could cause cancer, he offered a specific protocol: drink one to two cups of raw mixed vegetable juice composed of 90% celery and 10% cilantro once daily around noon for five consecutive days; then eat one tablespoon of no-salt-added raw cheese and one tablespoon of unsalted raw butter or avocado approximately twenty minutes after drinking the juice. He recommended repeating this process every ten days for two to six years, depending on how much soft drink consumption had occurred over the person's lifetime.

Aajonus made a strict distinction between the carbonation in commercial sodas and the carbonation found in naturally sparkling mineral waters. In commercial sodas, including soda water used for alcoholic beverages, the carbon dioxide is chemically produced in a laboratory and then injected into the liquid under pressure. He described this as entirely unnatural and said it carries none of the benefits associated with natural carbonation.

In naturally sparkling mineral waters like Gerolsteiner, San Pellegrino (at the time of his earlier statements), Perrier, San Faustino, Apollinaris, and Ramusa, the carbon dioxide comes from the carbon layer at the top of the underground well and is pumped into the bottle together with the water simultaneously, so that the gas and water are combined as they come up from the ground rather than being synthesized and added artificially. He described this as a fundamentally different substance from laboratory-derived carbon dioxide.

Natural carbonation, in his framework, provides some natural hydrogen peroxide, increases nitrogen in the intestines which helps digestibility, helps neutralize alkalinity and other toxins that could interfere with digestion, and increases oxygen in the blood. He recommended naturally sparkling mineral water as the best option if someone was going to drink water at all, though he used it himself only in very small quantities.

He expressed concern about Gerolsteiner after it was purchased by a new company that began packaging it in plastic, at which point he stated he would no longer drink it. He also noted that San Pellegrino and Perrier had changed their bottle labels from "naturally sparkling water" to "sparkling natural water," and he interpreted this as likely indicating that they had begun adding synthetic carbon dioxide. He said he had attempted to get written confirmation from those companies and had received no response.

Aajonus observed that approximately 90% of adults, and increasingly children, were using some form of caffeine in the morning to become functional, whether in the form of coffee, tea, or soda pop. He included chocolate in this category as well, noting that candy bars had become heavily caffeinated because industry understood that the population was chronically fatigued and would only generate energy through drug stimulation.

He connected this dependency to a specific biological mechanism. When the body goes more than five hours without protein, the bloodstream becomes protein deficient and red blood cells begin consuming other red blood cells to obtain protein, creating a temporary mild anemia every morning upon waking. He identified this morning anemia as the underlying cause of 80% of the caffeine dependency pattern, since people wake in a slightly anemic and exhausted state and reach for a stimulant to compensate rather than addressing the protein deficiency directly.

Soda pop specifically was named as one of the primary caffeine delivery vehicles used at breakfast, including by children. He viewed this as a continuation of the broader pattern in which industry profits from manufacturing the very fatigue it then sells chemical solutions for.

In his newsletter writing, Aajonus discussed Coca-Cola's acquisition of Odwalla juices as an example of the company's approach to eliminating competition through criminal means. He described a situation in which Coca-Cola, wanting to acquire the fastest-growing raw juice company in the country, set up a smokescreen involving Procter and Gamble making beverages for Coca-Cola as a public distraction while secretly working to defame Odwalla. He stated that Coca-Cola targeted an area in Washington State where many people drank Odwalla juices and worked to bring the company into ill repute. He described this as a deliberate commercial sabotage operation intended to destroy a raw juice competitor.

Aajonus recounted a story about an Indian company associated with a Hindu nationalist organization called the Cow Protection Department of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, run by Sikhs, who were developing a soft drink made from cow urine in order to compete directly with Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola in India. The only thing they intended to filter out was the ammonia. The drink was to be flavored with molasses and maple syrup, both less processed than commercial sweeteners and neither chemically produced in the way American commercial sweeteners are, though still processed.

He used this story as a vehicle for illustrating the absurdity of social conditioning around bodily fluids. His argument was that drinking urine, which contains real biological compounds and has nutritional value, is considered disgusting, while drinking laboratory chemicals in the form of soda is considered normal and desirable. He said that Coca-Cola and other commercial sodas are "purely chemical" and that "you need to be locked up in an institution to drink that stuff," while cow urine at minimum "is at least nutritious." He also noted that cow urine naturally contains substances that have biological activity, that it can be made into a carbonated drink using natural carbonation, and that the Indian company was carbonating it using natural gas rather than synthetic carbon dioxide.

He stated that feces and urine are not inherently toxic substances, but become toxic when the body consuming them is already full of toxic chemicals, because the waste products then carry those chemicals.

A large portion of what Aajonus said about sodas and commercial sport drinks was framed in contrast to his own Sport Formula, which he explicitly named as distinct from any commercial "sport drink." He called Gatorade and all commercial sport drinks "all chemical," giving people "a false sport high" through corn sugar, caffeine, and other stimulants rather than providing real nutrients. He said the electrolytes in Gatorade are "chemical electricity" that is not healthful and is short-lived, requiring constant consumption without ever producing anything sustainable.

He renamed his formula specifically to avoid confusion with commercial sport drinks, calling it the Sport Formula rather than the Sport Drink, and said he wanted it posted on WeWantToLive.com under that name so people would not associate it with Gatorade or the colas. He described his formula as providing real electrolytes that are nutrient-bound rather than chemically derived, and said his champion tennis players could sustain five to six hours of intense competition on one quart of the formula while their competitors were going through a gallon to a gallon and a half of water or commercial sport drinks and still getting weaker.

The Sport Formula evolved through multiple versions over the years. In its most refined form as of May 2012, it consisted of three cups composed of at least two of the following foods: cucumber (pureed, not juiced), tomato (pureed, not juiced), watermelon (pureed, not juiced), raw whole milk, or fresh raw liquid whey (the liquid byproduct of cheesemaking, not powdered whey from health food stores). The remainder of the formula was: one tablespoon of raw apple cider vinegar, two tablespoons of lime juice, two teaspoons of lemon juice, two tablespoons of coconut cream, two tablespoons of dairy cream, two to three eggs, and one to two tablespoons of unheated honey (optional). This made approximately one quart when blended, to be sipped throughout the day.

Earlier versions documented in the source materials include variations with different proportions and additional ingredients depending on the individual. A version given on February 22, 2009 used two cups cucumber puree, one cup tomato puree, one tablespoon vinegar, one tablespoon lemon juice, one to four tablespoons honey, two to four tablespoons coconut cream, two to four tablespoons dairy cream, and two and a half ounces of sparkling mineral water, with an egg added into each cup just before drinking for athletes in active tournament play. A December 14, 2008 version used two to two and a half cups cucumber puree, one cup tomato puree, one tablespoon vinegar, one tablespoon lemon juice, two to four tablespoons coconut cream, two to four tablespoons dairy cream, and two and a half to four ounces of sparkling mineral water, with the option to substitute whey for the sparkling water. A version from January 9, 2011 used one cup tomato puree, one cup cucumber puree, one cup whey, one tablespoon raw apple cider vinegar, one tablespoon lemon juice, two to two and a half tablespoons honey, two tablespoons dairy cream, and two to three eggs. A version from July 10, 2011 used one cup whey, one cup watermelon puree, and one cup tomato puree (or substitutions among cucumber, tomato, and watermelon interchangeably), with two tablespoons lemon juice, two tablespoons lime juice, one tablespoon raw apple cider vinegar, one to two tablespoons honey, one to two tablespoons coconut cream, one to two tablespoons dairy cream (up to two to four tablespoons for intense athletes), and half a cup sparkling mineral water. A version from March 18, 2012 used three cups of any combination of cucumber, tomatoes, and watermelon, three tablespoons coconut cream, three tablespoons dairy cream, two tablespoons lime juice, one tablespoon lemon juice, one tablespoon apple cider vinegar, two to three tablespoons honey, and four eggs.

A specialized version given to a woman in a Q&A session on September 11, 2011 used two cups watermelon (pink and red from the seeds down to the rind), one cup milk, one tablespoon apple cider vinegar, one and a half teaspoons moist Terramin clay, one tablespoon lime juice, one tablespoon lemon juice, two tablespoons coconut cream, two to three eggs, and twenty blueberries to pull out metals.

A version described for people with parasite-related fatigue who still needed to work used approximately three ounces of lime juice, two tablespoons of lemon juice, approximately three ounces of honey, and four to five tablespoons of coconut cream, blended together and poured into half a cup to one cup of naturally sparkling mineral water. He specified that the mixture should be poured into the water rather than the water into the mixture, because pouring water into the mixture causes uneven separation, whereas pouring the mixture into the sparkling water allows it to react and distribute evenly.

A variation described as the dehydration formula from "We Want to Live," which he converted into the sport formula because the original was too acidic for many people especially athletes, used one cup tomato puree to two cups cucumber puree, one tablespoon vinegar, two tablespoons honey, one tablespoon lime juice, one tablespoon lemon juice, two tablespoons coconut cream, two to four tablespoons dairy cream, one to three eggs for athletes, and two to three ounces of naturally carbonated mineral water, all blended together to make approximately one liter.

He also described a version that functioned as a sparkling drink specifically to help dissolve certain internal buildups, using one cup of whey (or if no whey was available, one cup of tomato puree plus one and a half cups of cucumber puree), half a cup of naturally sparkling mineral water, one and a half tablespoons of vinegar (reduced to one tablespoon), one tablespoon of lemon juice, one teaspoon of lime juice, three tablespoons of honey (up to four for some people), two tablespoons of coconut cream (up to four), one and a half tablespoons of dairy cream (up to three), and optionally a small amount of grated ginger root if intestinal stimulation was needed. For this version, he instructed that the drink be sipped no more than two sips at a time every ten to fifteen minutes, not gulped, and that it be used once daily, continuing over approximately one year during summer months or whenever the mouth was dry.

He emphasized throughout all versions that the formula must be sipped and never gulped. Gulping causes the water component to rush into the kidneys before the nutrients can attach to it, resulting in the nutrients being urinated out rather than carried to the cells, which he said actually causes dehydration rather than preventing it. He used his own past behavior as an illustration, describing a time when he drank two gallons of water per day and found that the more he drank the more he needed to drink, entering a cycle of increasing thirst and fluid consumption. Sipping the sport formula in small amounts, by contrast, allowed the fluids and nutrients to remain integrated long enough to reach the cells.

He noted that whey tastes like yellow urine on its own but that when mixed with sparkling water, it tastes like soda, and that this made the sport formula palatably similar to a carbonated soft drink without containing any of the chemicals. He framed this as the natural, nutritious version of what the commercial soda industry had made into a chemical product.

Aajonus consistently placed the history of soda and the history of the eight-glasses-of-water-per-day recommendation within the same commercial narrative. He said that before 1961 to 1962, nobody drank significant amounts of plain water. In school, children went to the fountain and took one or two sips per day. Athletes might drink a half cup during heavy exercise. The primary liquids were milk, orange juice, and vegetable or fruit juices. Then soda pop entered and began displacing those more nutritious liquids. He said that soda "wasn't a good choice, but that's what they started offering."

The eight-glasses recommendation appeared simultaneously with the commercial bottling of water, and he said this was not a coincidence. He described it as a direct marketing tool: Pepsi-Cola executives made a bet that they could sell water for as much as or more than their sodas, hired doctors and writers to produce literature saying that everyone needed eight cups of water daily, and succeeded so completely that bottled water now costs more than Coca-Cola or Pepsi-Cola. He connected this to Trading Places, the film, as a cultural parallel to the bet structure of the scheme.

He described the entire trajectory as a sequence of commercial manipulations: first sodas displaced real food liquids, then commercially bottled water displaced sodas in price and prestige while sodas were already making the population sick, and throughout both periods the underlying dynamic was industry creating the conditions of poor health and then selling the population chemical solutions or rebranded water at premium prices.