I just heard about a six-figure Consumer Alliance between the Coca-Cola Company and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP).
The Consumer Alliance is a program that allows corporate partners like The Coca-Cola Company to work with the AAFP to educate consumers about the role their products can play in a healthy, active lifestyle. As part of this partnership, The Coca-Cola Company is providing a grant to the AAFP to develop consumer education content on beverages and sweeteners for FamilyDoctor.org, an award-winning consumer health and wellness resource.
You’ve got to be kidding me? The scary part is the term “award-winning.” Who’s passing out the awards?
For those of you who don’t know this, Coca-Cola is not a food! It’s a chemical concoction full of HFCS and caffeine that is highly addicting and contributes to obesity and disease.
Its high calorie content also displaces nutrients in food. In other words, if you drink 600 calories a day of Coke, then that’s a potential 600 calories of nutrient-dense food you won’t be eating. Additionally, converting the sugar to usable energy takes up vitamins and minerals from your reserves, so it’s an anti-nutrient.
Yes, it tastes good, but chemists could make my cat’s crap taste good by adding flavor chemicals.
Dr. Rhona Applebaum, vice president and chief scientific and regulatory officer at The Coca-Cola Company, said:
Our partnership will help provide Americans with credible information on beverages and enable consumers to make informed decisions about what they drink based on individual need.
Credible information? At least reading this article is good for my health because it makes me laugh, which makes my nervous and immune systems happy.
But what happens when an organization receives funding from another organization? Well, it doesn’t want to risk offending its contributor by posting negative information and the information it does post is largely informed by the one with the money. You know, like politics and lobby groups.
A Harvard University nutrition expert, Dr. Walter Willett, wrote in an email:
Coca-Cola, like other sodas, causes enormous suffering and premature death by increasing the risks of obesity, diabetes, heart attacks, gout, and cavities… [the academy] should be a loud critic of these products and practices, but by signing with Coke their voice has almost surely been muzzled.
(Where’s Frederick Stare when you need him? He was the former head of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health and was dubbed “The Sugar King” because of his support of the sugar industry. Maybe there’s hope yet for Harvard.)
In response, AAFC CEO Dr. Douglas Henley said that the deal won’t influence the group’s public health messages, and that the company will have no control over editorial content. He said the new online information will include research linking soft drinks with obesity and will focus on sugar-free alternatives.
HFCS or Aspartame? Pick your poison, folks. Of course, everyone just knows there’s nothing wrong with Aspartame, right?
The Coca-Cola Company is the world’s largest beverage company, refreshing consumers with nearly 500 sparkling and still brands.
“Refreshing” is not the word I would use.
Hey, do you like soft drinks? Why settle for the run-of-the-mill, artificial, mass-produced, chemical concoctions. Here’s a great video I saw on the different soft drinks available to consumers. If I hadn’t given up sugar, I’d happily try some of these for a rare treat. Now this guy knows his soda! Check it out:
References:
American Academy of Family Physicians Launches Consumer Alliance With First Partner: The Coca-Cola Company
Family doctors group loses members over Coke deal
