Mia McIntosh from Australia shared a viral video on TikTok where she showed how much sugar was in McDonald’s sugar-free Coke.
Mia has Type 1 Diabetes and often shares diabetes-related content. In the first video, she had a message for the fast food chain. It simply said, “Do better.”
The teenager, who will soon be 16, removed the lid and the straw from her fizzy drink. She then dipped a blood glucose monitor while explaining, “This is supposed to be a zero-sugar Coke from McDonald’s. I’m a type-one diabetic, so I got zero sugar, so my blood sugars don’t go crazy.”
Within seconds the monitor showed 33.3, indicating that the sugar-free Coke was one-third sugar.
The comments on this video were not allowed, though the blood glucose monitor is not commonly used to measure the fizzy drink’s sugar content.
In a follow-up video, Mia explained how McDonald’s did not give her a sugar-free but a regular Coke.
She also shared she was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at four years old, though she was a healthy and active child.
Others related to her experience as Mia gave some insightful knowledge about Type 1 Diabetes (Diabetes Mellitus), otherwise known as Juvenile Diabetes.
Type 1 Diabetes is an autoimmune condition, usually triggered in the early years. Diabetes UK ads that type 2 is mainly lifestyle-related, and it takes time to develop the disease fully.
For example, type 2 is caused by a bad diet, stress, lack of exercise, and excessive drinking. Type 1 simply shows up as other autoimmune diseases. However, type 2 can also be a genetic disease.
@heyyitsm1a Replying to @crazy_honest and no i will not be ordering a water as my treat meal if i don’t want to 🥰 #t1d #t1diabetes #t1diabetic #fyp #foryou #xyzbca #viral #diabetesstigma ♬ original sound – mia
People have a hard time understanding the difference, as one TikTok user shared, “I have type 1 too, and people look at me ’cause I’m small. I always have to say it’s not caused by obesity or old age.”
Another spoke about the Coke experiment, writing, “As a type one diabetic, I get so frustrated about it. Especially with the frozen cokes because I literally can’t taste the difference.”
The third chimed in: “As a fellow type 1, thank you for addressing this! Constantly infuriating how many people are so convinced that they know better than you.”
The best-rated comment said, “Why are people so pressed like it’s advertised as sugar free it should be end of story.” Mia replied with “exactly, adding “exactly, what you order should be what you get.”
Mia addressed why she turned off the comments in the original video, which surpassed 1.1 million views. In an overlay text, she wrote, “Turned off the comments on that vid cause you morons are just embarrassing yourselves (at this point).”
Commentators were full of understating, as one wrote, “Some people aren’t educated girl, honestly, I feel you.” Mia replied that it was tiresome, most likely talking about constantly explaining the differences between the two types of diabetes while trying to manage her disorder.
McDonald’s told Yahoo News Australia: “Our employees follow strict processes and procedures to ensure the quality and accuracy of customer orders.”
They concluded, “We are disappointed to hear of the customer’s experience and encourage them to contact our customer service team so we can look into it in more detail.”
Mia shared, “The stigma around all types (of diabetes) is ridiculous, and more education definitely needs to be done.”
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