The bright red bottle of Sting, an energy drink, catches Sunita Devi’s eye when she finds her local shopkeeper has run out of the biscuits she hoped to buy to fuel her son through his homework. She cannot read the English label, but 10-year-old Ajit says it sounds healthy.
“Stimulates mind, energises body,” the bottle proclaims. It’s the type of marketing that helps shop owner Vasu Gupta sell energy drinks – mostly to families who have migrated from the countryside to a slum in Govindpuri in the Indian capital, Delhi.
But the drink, which is made by PepsiCo India, is not quite as beneficial as it sounds. A 250ml bottle contains 17g of sugar – a third of the daily intake recommended by the World Health Organization, although there is
