Public health critics have called Coca-Cola research funding a flawed message because the company has allocated millions into funding research that suggests exercise, not diet, provides the best way to lose weight and fight obesity.
Steven Blair, nutrition expert and vice president of the Global Energy Balance Network, posted on the network's website his opinion about what makes, according to him, a mistaken assumption about the cause of obesity.
The obesity expert declared in a video posed on the website that people use to eat too much and then blame sugary drinks or fast food for their weight issues, however, in his opinion "there's virtually no compelling evidence that that, in fact is the cause."
The Global Energy Balance Network is funded by Coca-Cola. The source of the website funding was disclosed recently, when Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, an Ottawa-based obesity expert, started asking questions. He is the author of a daily blog on healthy lifestyle and nutrition.
Freedhoff declared that he contacted a journalist at the New York Times to express his side of the story. In his opinion, in the context of obesity "the words energy balance is a red flag". In an interview for New York Times published on Monday, in Freedhoff also declared that actually exactly for the reason that "it's not a fair balance" we encounter so great difficulty to lose weight efficiently.
Freedhoff explained that the scientific consensus is that when it comes to weight, in our body's metabolism the energy input matters far more than the energy output. For this reason, exercise can, at best, only slows down weight gain.
When Coke sponsored ads with a pro-exercise message two years ago, Freedhoff affirmed his beliefs that the campaign was Coke's way to avoid legislation such as cup size limits and soda taxes that would affect their sales and bottom line profits.
According to Freedhoff, Coke's message that you can balance your input and your output is "a flawed message". He is also critical of industries funding science and he might have a strong point here. He is comparing Coke's funding research with similar efforts from the tobacco industries at a time when tobacco brands were tightly intertwined with charity, public health, research, and the arts.
