Dr. Mark explains how food industry funding skews research on sugar-sweetened beverages and obesity. Studies backed by soda companies downplay health risks, while the industry runs media campaigns denying the obesity epidemic exists.
Now you have to be careful when you listen to research because if a company that has a vested interest funded the research, guess what? The study often comes out skewed. Now there have been some studies that found little or no association between weight gain and sugar-sweetened beverages. However, most of these were funded by the food industry including The American Beverage Association, which actually changed its name from the American Soft Drink Association. In fact, a 2007 review of more than 206 scientific studies found that if the food industry funded the study, there was an up to an eight-fold likelihood that the study findings proved favorable to the food industry. Big surprise, right? A little known fact is that many of the food industry goliaths banded together to form this Center for Consumer Freedom. Doesn't that sound great? It's like an Orwellian name, Center for Consumer Freedom. And it's created a media campaign stating that the obesity epidemic is a hoax. Just go to your local fair and you're gonna see it's not a hoax. They tell us, Don't believe your eyes. Believe us. And you know what they said on the website? This really killed me. Due to privacy concerns, privacy concerns, the website won't reveal the funders. Now, investigators, people I know, discovered that Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Kellogg, Kraft, and others were behind this website, but they wanted to remain anonymous because as they reported on their website, they were afraid of the food fascists, those vegetable eating, organic gardening, militia groups. Oh my.
