Obesity is diet-related? Nonsense, say these Coke-funded 'experts'

It’s a page right out of the cigarette companies’ playbook.

Coca-Cola is buying up scientists and non-profits to claim its products aren’t bad for you.

Its latest venture is a group of researchers from around the world called the Global Energy Balance Network (GEBN) who want you to believe you can practically eat (or drink) anything you want as long as you exercise.

But there’s a big secret that these media-friendly scientists — from some of the largest universities around the world — are a little less eager to talk about.

They’re taking millions in Coke cash. And the advice they’re handing out could be dangerous — or even deadly — for anyone who follows it.

“Confusing the science”It’s a no brainer: Eating junk food, and especially drinking soda, will pack on the pounds.

But ask the Coke-backed scientists as GEBN and you’re bound to get a whole different story.

“The media tends to blame the obesity epidemic on our poor eating habits,” the group claims in a news release, “but are those French fries really the culprit?”

Translation? If you’re fat, don’t blame fast food, Coke or the high fructose corn syrup in its products that is destroying your liver, pancreas, heart and waistline.

In fact, Dr. Steven Blair from the University of South Carolina, a vice president of GEBN, claims that there’s “virtually no compelling evidence” that junk food, soda and overeating are causing the obesity epidemic.

You’re kidding me, right?

Unfortunately, there’s plenty of compelling evidence that Coke has been underwriting this entire campaign — and its dangerous, phony claims — from the start.

It probably would have stayed a secret, except some astute reporters from the New York Times noticed that the GEBN website was actually being run by Coke. GEBN’s president claimed that only happened because the group’s founders and members — scientists at major researcher universities — didn’t know how to register a simple web address.

I’m having a hard time buying that. Especially because it turns out that Coke has been providing GEBN and its scientists with a lot more than technical support.

Last year, the beverage giant gave $1.5 million to get GEBN off the ground. And over the last seven years, Coke has handed over $4 million to fund projects by Dr. Blair and Dr. Gregory Hand of the West Virginia, founding members of GEBN.

“The Global Energy Balance Network is nothing but a front group for Coca-Cola,” said Dr. Marion Nestle of New York University, one of the top nutritionists in America. “Coca-Cola’s agenda here is very clear: Get these researchers to confuse the science and deflect attention from dietary intake.”

Confusing the science — and telling people they can eat or drink whatever they want as long as they exercise — may be great for Coke’s bottom line. But it’s going to have real-life health consequences for anyone who gets taken in by this terrible advice.

Look, we all know exercise is important. But all the exercise in the world can’t make up for bad dietary choices. In fact, a study by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center asked 200 overweight participants to work out for nearly an hour a day, but not change their eating habits.

After a year, these people lost hardly any weight — and they were nearly all still obese.

And that makes sense when you consider that it takes an insane amount of exercise to burn off just one 12-ounce can of Coke. I’m talking about:

22 minutes of aerobics;
37 minutes mopping your floor; or
53 minutes of rowing.

It’s no wonder that when Harvard researchers looked at 40 years’ worth of studies, they found that people who drank the most high-calorie drinks like soda were the most likely to be overweight.

That’s just common sense. And it’s a lot more “compelling” than Dr. Blair and his GEBN colleagues would like to admit.

Sources:

“Coca-Cola funds scientists who shift blame for obesity away from bad diets” Anahad O’Connor, August 9, 2015, The New York Times, well.blogs.nytimes.com