Cocaine

Many of you may know that cocaine, derived from the coca leaf, was present in the original version of Coca-Cola in 1861, and was taken out from the recipe nearly 50 years later.

Why ! Cocaine was legal in that era, and Sherlock Holmes was one of the most famous habitual users. It took several decades before it became clear that the substance is addictive and is detrimental to our health.

Alas, that's natural. Who knows without a hindsight ? As George Berry, formerly the dean of Havard Medical School, said: Half of what we are going to teach you is wrong, and half of it is right. Our problem is that we don’t know which half is which.

Even if we take our Coca-Cola as the example at hand, without cocaine, it remains addictive (for it contains caffeine). As to any possible detrimental effect to our health, it may take another 50 years before the effect of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS, the sweetener that it uses since 1985) is completely clear.

By that time, it may be plain obvious that McDonalds in Tokyo is the most terrible revenge for Pearl Harbor.

PS. The famous statement of George Berry implies that there exists objective right or wrong - a courageous assumption in itself.