A new study suggests that people who frequently drink sugar-sweetened drinks, including soda, increase their risk of death from cardiovascular diseases, and to a lesser extend, cancer.
We think that’s all the more reason it’s time to investigate recent allegations that Coca-Cola is colluding with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to downplay the negative health consequences associated with drinking Coke.
Your tax dollars fund the CDC, a federal agency that bills itself as “the nation’s health protection agency, working 24/7 to protect America from health and safety threats.”
But emails between the CDC and Coca-Cola executives reveal a cozy relationship, which Coke used to “to gain and expand access, to lobby and to shift attention and blame away from sugar-sweetened beverages,” according to a study published in The Milbank Quarterly.
The study based its findings on emails and documents obtained by U.S. Right to Know (USRTK), under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
You probably don’t drink Coke or other effects of sugary soft drinks, which scientists link to type 2 diabetes and heart disease, among other health problems. Still, shouldn’t America’s “health” authorities protect public health? Not the profits of big corporations and their health-harming products?
Julie Wilson is communications associate for the Organic Consumers Association (OCA). To keep up with OCA news and alerts, sign up for our newsletter.