If you thought the effects of Coca-Cola in the short term were bad weight until you see what happens in the long term.

That was an intentional typo, grammar police, all will make sense soon.

We know that soft drink companies have been hauled over the coals for years now regarding their high sugar content, a backlash that has seen a mind shift amongst consumers who are consciously trying to avoid their sweet offerings.  This has resulted in a sustained campaign from the big guns at discrediting the science that has warned consumers off regularly consuming their products. Coca-Cola are leading the way and they’re not pulling any punches, The Guardian reports:

This week’s revelation of Coca-Cola’s funding of the Global Energy Balance Network is only the latest example of this strategy in action. The Network promotes the idea that to prevent obesity you don’t need to bother about eating less or drinking less soda. You just have to be more active…

A reporter who looked into this group discovered that Coca-Cola had funded the research of the scientists behind it, and generously. The network’s website was registered to Coca-Cola. None of this, however, had been made explicit…

Studies sponsored by Coca-Cola almost invariably report no association of sugary drinks with diabetes, they question the validity of studies that do find such associations or, as in the case of Global Energy Balance Network investigators, they find activity to be the most important determinant of body weight.

Of course the results from independent, non-corporate funded studies tend to show something rather different, the intake of sugar-laden soft drinks having a causal link to obesity and diabetes. Strange that…

What is this craziness? Next thing someone will be trying to discredit global warming to further their own financial agendas, or telling us we need to buy more material things to increase our happiness.

Sorry, say what now? Oh, looks like it’s not just Coke that are playing dirty then.

[source:guardian]