In 2015, most people would raise an eyebrow, and maybe even protest, if a cigarette company like Philip Morris (which created brands like Marlboro) was funding research by a public health organization like, say, the American Lung Association.

The potential conflict is obvious, as organizations receiving large sums of money from a corporation could have their opinions, and, yes, even their research swayed to suit the needs of their corporate funders.

Yet, this type of blatant, you might say, pay off, occurs all the time in 2015, only it’s no longer the tobacco industry that’s doing all the funding. Nowadays, that title goes to many different players in the pesticide, pharmaceutical, food, and beverage industries, including what is considered by many to be an American icon – Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola Wants to Blame Obesity on Virtually Anything Other Than Soda

As the world’s largest producer of sugary beverages, Coca-Cola has quite strong motivation to keep soda in Americans’ good graces. Yet the research is becoming too abundant to ignore.

UCLA researchers found, for instance, that adults who drank at least one sugar-sweetened beverage a day are 27 percent more likely to be overweight or obese.¹ Even those who only drank soda occasionally had a 15 percent greater risk, and a growing number of studies have linked rising childhood obesity rates to increased consumption of sugary beverages as well.

But the link goes far beyond even obesity. A recent meta-review published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings found that once you reach 18 percent of your daily calories from added sugar, there’s a two-fold increase in metabolic harm that promotes pre-diabetes and diabetes.²

Moreover, research suggests sugary beverages are to blame for about 183,000 deaths worldwide each year, including 133,000 diabetes deaths, 44,000 heart disease deaths, and 6,000 cancer deaths.

Americans are catching on, with nearly two-thirds (63 percent) now saying they actively try to avoid soda in their diet.³ Rates of soda consumption have actually been dropping for decades, and Americans now consume about the same amount they did back in 1986.

Coca-Cola had to do something, but they couldn’t very well tell increasingly health-conscious Americans to drink more soda. So they went at it in a roundabout way instead, funding a front group by the name of The Global Energy Balance Network.

The New York Times broke this story in August 2015, and it turns out Coca-Cola donated $1.5 million in 2014 to start the organization.⁴ Their message? It’s not what you’re eating and drinking that’s making you fat, it’s a lack of exercise that’s the problem. The Times reported:⁵

“Health experts say this message is misleading and part of an effort by Coke to deflect criticism about the role sugary drinks have played in the spread of obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

They contend that the company is using the new group to convince the public that physical activity can offset a bad diet despite evidence that exercise has only minimal impact on weight compared with what people consume.”

What is perhaps most alarming is that this front group represents only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Coca-Cola trying to infiltrate public health opinions…