Limit the influence of the food industry on public health issues

NEW YORK (AP) – The tweet of a group that funds development in Latin America was straightforward: sodas offer neither beauty nor joy, but a lot of sugar.

There was a problem for the organization. Coca-Cola was a funder.

The management of the Inter-American Development Bank told Coke that she was unaware of the tweet and then invited the company to write an article on her blog explaining how the beverage giant was helping to fight Obesity, according to an email from a Coca Presse Associate manager via a request for public registrations.

The exchange offers another insight into the lure of the food industry for the formulation of messages regarding its products. As obesity becomes a growing global problem, two scientific journal reports call for policies that limit the influence of the industry and reignite the debate over the role that food businesses should play. play in public health efforts.

In the Lancet medical journal, a report indicates that skepticism about the motives of ultra-processed food manufacturers is warranted, highlighting how sweet drink manufacturers have fought government efforts to reduce soda consumption. According to the report, reducing the industry's influence in policy-making will help governments solve the interlocking problems of obesity, malnutrition and climate change.

A separate report in Milbank Quarterly describes Coke's links with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, relying in part on previously published e-mails obtained through registration requests. In an exchange, a CDC official told a Coca-Cola executive that her colleague was interested in working in the beverage business and was sending out her resume. A representative of the CDC stated that the agency did not comment on personnel issues, but emphasized its ethical resources for employees.

The Milbank Report indicates that such exchanges underscore the need for greater transparency and conflict-of-interest guidelines within organizations involved in public health. He says that the influence of the food industry is still relatively poorly known, but that this dynamic is becoming better understood.

Gary Ruskin, one of the report's authors, said the heightened awareness was partly the result of "the enormity of the obesity epidemic".

"We are just starting to seriously tackle this problem," said Ruskin, co-founder of the American organization Right to Know, an advocacy group funded by the Organic Consumers Association.

Ruskin said that Coca-Cola in particular has been the subject of many recent revelations because of its unusually deep links with regulatory and scientific issues. Earlier this month, a Harvard researcher conducted a study on how a group founded by a former Coca-Cola executive had helped steer China's efforts to control obesity.

Yet Coke is far from alone. Many other food companies finance studies that are favorable to their products and part of the scientific literature. And last year, the University of California at San Francisco launched an archive of food industry documents for researchers, including records detailing the role of the sugar industry nutrition research.

Yoni Freedhoff, who teaches family medicine at the University of Ottawa, said the health industry's public health commitments should be viewed with caution, given its financial factors.

"This gives the smoke and blanket to the industry to try to pretend," Hey, we are part of your team, "said Freedhoff.

Everyone does not think that all links with the industry should be discarded. Bill Dietz, author of the Lancet Report and researcher at George Washington University, said the Partnership for America's healthier efforts with food companies regarding public health commitments were commendable.

"What worries me is that the problem has become so complex that any relationship with the industry is being abandoned," said Dietz, a board member of Partnership for a Healthier America.

Regarding the tweet of the Inter-American Development Bank, a representative of the bank said that the message had been removed because it included an image with brand names in violation of its policies. The representative said Coca-Cola's article had been posted on the bank's blog for information and partnership purposes, and that the institution had continued to promote the debate on consequences of sugar consumption for health.

In a statement, Coca-Cola, based in Atlanta, said it was working to be more transparent and better understand how it can help fight obesity.

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Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi

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The Health and Science Department of the Associated Press is receiving support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.