When a health organization takes on a corporate partner…batten down the hatches

It’s the Real Thing

You. Average Consumer. You need help. And you probably didn’t even know it.

You need help making informed decisions so you can include the products you love in a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle.

Just about word for word, that’s how a top executive at the American Academy of Family Physicians puts it.

And here’s the good news. Next January, that help will be available – absolutely free – on the AAFP website.

Where’s the catch? No catch. Unless you consider very lucrative partnerships with deep-pocket corporations to be some kind of silly “catch.”

Howdy, partner!

Kowtowing to corporate America is actually pretty easy.

First you accept a big check with a long line of zeros. That part is a breeze. Then you take a little heat from those who trusted you not to sell out. That’s harder, but eventually the dust settles and everything’s fine (as long as your mission doesn’t stray too far from your corporate overlord’s mission).

Right now we’re at that “dust hasn’t quite settled yet” phase for AAFP.

Last month, AAFP execs announced the launch of their new Consumer Alliance program. Their first partner, Coca-Cola, has provided a six-figure check to help provide “consumer-oriented beverage and sweetener content.”

And with that, several AAFP members hit the ceiling. They still haven’t come down. In fact, some long-time members called it quits. And they did it in a big way, telling the press they don’t want to be associated with an organization that promotes soda consumption.

Of course, AAFP execs say their partners will have no sway over editorial control. So don’t you worry about a thing! AAFP CEO, Dr. Douglas Henley, told the Associated Press that the website information will include “research linking soft drinks with obesity and will focus on sugar-free alternatives.”

Oh! You ALMOST slipped that one by us, Dr. Henley! But I’m pretty sure you don’t mean water.

You can see it coming three months away. The research will be “inconclusive,” and will “suggest” that soft drinks “may contribute” to obesity. But diet sodas will make it all better.

I wonder, though, if the new content will include research presented earlier this month with some not-so-upbeat news about diet sodas. In a Harvard Medical School study, women who drank two or more diet sodas every day had a significant decline in measures of kidney function compared to women who drank less than two diet sodas a day.

Here’s another study that just might not make the AAFP cut. Two years ago I told you about research that followed more than 6,000 soda drinkers for four years. Subjects who drank one or more sodas each day were nearly 45 percent more likely to develop obesity, high triglycerides, impaired fasting glucose, and high blood pressure.

And the kicker: These results were nearly identical among regular soda drinkers and diet soda drinkers.

Uh oh. This partnership business might turn out to be along, hard slog for the AAFP.

And it won’t get any easier with guys like Harvard nutritionist Dr. Walter Willett tossing up quotes like this to the AP: “Coca-Cola, like other sodas, causes enormous suffering and premature death by increasing the risks of obesity, diabetes, heart attacks, gout, and cavities.”

Yikes! Suffering and death might not have been what the AAFP had in mind when they decided to get cozy with corporations.

But then, it’s not like AAFP is a babe in the woods when it comes to schmoozing corporation fat cats. The AAFP Foundation (described as a philanthropic group, separate from AAFP) has an impressive list of “partners,” including several major drug companies (Merck, Pfizer, Lilly, etc.) as well as General Mills, PepsiCo, and McDonald’s.

Well, I guess one way to “balance” a diet of Coca-Cola and Diet Coke is with sugar cereals, more soft drinks, and plenty of drive-thru dinners.

To Your Good Health,
Jenny Thompson

Sources:
“Coca-Cola Grant Launches AAFP Consumer Alliance Program” AAFP News Now press release, 10/6/09, aafp.org
“Family Doctors Group Loses Members Over Coke Deal” Lindsay Tanner, Associated Press, 11/5/09, ap.org