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Coca-Cola To Fund Research That Shifts Blame For Obesity Away From Bad Diets

An anonymous reader writes: The NY Times reports that Coca-Cola is teaming up with influential scientists to support research into fighting obesity through other means than improving diet. They've provided funding to a new nonprofit called the Global Energy Balance Network. Its president said, "Most of the focus in the popular media and in the scientific press is, 'Oh they're eating too much, eating too much, eating too much' — blaming fast food, blaming sugary drinks and so on. And there's really virtually no compelling evidence that that, in fact, is the cause." Health experts say it's an attempt by Coca-cola to deflect criticism of the sugary drinks that are the lifeblood of its business. "This clash over the science of obesity comes in a period of rising efforts to tax sugary drinks, remove them from schools and stop companies from marketing them to children. In the last two decades, consumption of full-calorie sodas by the average American has dropped by 25 percent."

17 of 663 comments (clear)

  1. Already propagating by Dan+East · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yesterday on a radio I heard a DJ saying that there was a study showing that diet drinks didn't help people loose weight. So the propaganda is already flowing.

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    1. Re:Already propagating by TWX · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If I understand it correctly, the body reacts to some artificial sweeteners similarly to how it reacts to actual sugar though, so being sugar-free doesn't necessarily mean that the body won't experience some of the same results from overconsumption of sugar.

      You're right that weight loss is generally a matter of expending calories in as-great or greater a quantity than one consumes them. Soft drink companies seem to be in a do-or-die effort to convince us that their products, often some of the biggest single contributors of calories and sugar to our diets, aren't the problem, when all of the anecdotal evidence that I've seen indicates that simply dropping the soda without making any other lifestyle changes (ie, diet, exercise level, etc) actually causes weight loss. I've experienced it myself in switching from Mountain Dew to coffee, I lost about ten pounds without doing anything else.

      We've taken things that were treats and turned them into regular consumption and are surprised that we're having problems, and these companies can't afford for us to relegate these products back to where they belong, as occasional treats.

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    2. Re:Already propagating by Jaime2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not surprising, making one good choice (avoiding sugared soft drinks) isn't enough to make a good diet, just like one bad choice doesn't make a bad diet. You could lose weight on the "Coke Diet" by consuming nothing but 10 servings of Coca-Cola every day.

      It's simple math - calories in and calories out. There are "good foods" and "bad foods", but the effect of which food you eat makes less of a difference than how much food you eat on weight loss. Effect on overall health is a different story. A person on the "Coke Diet" above would almost certainly lose weight, but they would almost certainly suffer health problems if they stuck to it for too long. A lot of people give "healthy eating" advice as "weight loss" advice and vice-versa.

      The real problem is the "Silver Bullet" mentality. The soft drink industry didn't cause this problem all by themselves and telling people to stop drinking Coke isn't going to do any more good than telling people to eat less fat did over the past forty years. If people used the low fat campaign to buy Twizzlers (a low fat snack), then the no soda campaign will produce equally horrible outcomes.

    3. Re:Already propagating by Ronin+Developer · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This is correct. They also muck with your body's insulin production. This is problematic for someone with Type 2 diabetes who used to drink a lot of diet soda.

    4. Re:Already propagating by hairyfeet · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Then YOU find one that isn't behind a fucking paywall, because every medical article on the subject I found had a lovely "Pay X for access to this article" so unless you want to cough up for the class? Its the best I can do.

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  2. Can't hurt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You can always ignore what they have to say. Obviously, calorie intake (and coke sure is high in calories!) makes you fat. However, the body isn't a simple machine. Denying it calories results in a lot of negative reactions which are intentionally designed in to ensure the body keeps amassing calories. Most intelligent doctors know that just telling a fat guy to stop eating so much is worthless advice and just about never works (there's exceptions to every rule). Diets failing is the rule.

    If Coke figures out how to get fat people thin without going the diet route (how, well, hell, I don't know!) at least it gives the overweight a fighting chance. As one of the members of that category, if you could slice 100 lbs off me tonight, I imagine I'd have a HELL of a lot more energy for the physical fitness I desire.

    Or just keep making fun of fat people and telling them to diet. I mean, it's working pretty well right now, isn't it? I'm sure telling someone who already spends extra money on more calories that their food will cost even more is definitely going to make a big difference!

    They say to really know someone you need to walk 1000 miles in their shoes. Well, to really know what it's like to be overweight, you need to be overweight. It's pretty much that simple. If you are, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And if you're one of the few that beat it through the traditional diet and exercise (ie: Sheer willpower) approach, good for you! But you know as well as I do that it sure as hell was harder than stopping smoking or even putting down the drink. Yet society views those as things to offer support, rather than ridicule for.

    Sigh. I'm sure someone will just reply to this "LOL FATTY". Whatever. I'm in a taxpayer funded healthcare system. You're paying for not helping.

    1. Re:Can't hurt by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This is nothing more than a pre-emptive strike against the rising war on sugar. The tobacco companies did the same thing for years, despite the science being pretty fucking conclusive since at least the 1950s. But big money buys big influence, and allows companies to essentially peddle poisons for decades.

      Yes, calories are required for survival. But there's a helluva lot better source of calories than what amounts to a flavored sugar syrup in a carbonated water solution.

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  3. Fine by ichthus · · Score: 1, Insightful

    With the recent *cough* revelations that sodium and dietary fat aren't has harmful as we've heard for the past 40+ years, more research into nutrition is probably a good thing. Granted, this "research" will most likely be heavily biased toward specific conclusions, but maybe (fingers crossed) there's, at least, some new information to be gained. Obviously, nutrition is one area where 20th century "science" failed us.

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  4. Fat? It's not your fault! by IMightB · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Remember, your not fat because you eat a bag of cheetos and 2 liters of coke everyday and never leave your house. You're Fat because of North Korea and Iran and you don't believe in the right God.

  5. Re:I'm torn.... by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Without changes to diet or doing any exercise I think your options are pretty much limited to violating the laws of thermodynamics.

    Just cut out as much of the processed sugar and other junk foods as possible and go walking for 30 minutes every day. The notion that you have to eat completely healthy and spend hours in the gym doing intense workouts is a pretty big misconception. Not eating crap foods and getting a small amount of exercise every day is enough to have a significant effect. That won't turn you into Mr. Universe, but it will improve your overall health by a lot.

  6. Simple on paper, but people are not paper by Tablizer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    To maintain healthy weight: Calories In ~= Calories Out

    It's not that simple for most people. The body prefers a certain caloric intake level. When it does not get its preferred level, the body "complains" loudly in terms of cravings and discomfort.

    And over time metabolism will slow down to catch up with the lower intake, so that one still gains weight even though they are eating less. And, still feel like sh8t.

    It usually backfires after about 4 years. Very few can maintain that level of discipline to suffer beyond 4 years. Evolution heavily shaped our bodies, genes, and cravings to error on the side of plump.

    Who knows, chubbies may better survive the apocalypse, having the last laugh. When nukes are flying, nobody will care about their slim figure.

  7. Migh as well get on it by future+assassin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Limit your calories per day say 2000 and go for a 30 Min walk or bike ride. You can easily lose 20LB in 4 months. Besides who wouldn’t want to have great cardio and not get winded when picking up a trash can.

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  8. Re:I'm torn.... by Jason+Levine · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm sorry to break this to you, but - as a fellow overweight individual - there is no substitute for diet and exercise. If you hear any "lose 10 pounds in one week without exercise or changing your diet" then either a) it's a scam, b) it's some kind of drug that will have horrible side effects, c) it's a fad diet that will indeed let you lose the weight but you'll gain twice as much back once you go off the diet, d) there's an asterisk with "results may vary" in the fine print because most people only lose half a pound but that one guy lost 10 pounds", or e) some combination of the above.

    If you want to lose weight, here are my recommendations:

    1) Drink Water: A lot of times, we mistake our body's "I'm thirsty" signals for "I'm hungry" and then we snack and snack and snack. To add insult to injury, we might snack on salty foods which ups the "I'm thirsty" signal more. So drink a lot of water. Not only will it turn off the "I'm thirsty" signal but it will help make you feel full. And don't drink soda instead of water or those sugar-added "flavored water drinks." Just drink regular water.

    2) Keep track of your calories: I use the MyFitnessPal app. It has a barcode scanner and lets me see just how many calories I've eaten and how many I have left in the day. Record EVERYTHING! Don't leave out that handful of potato chips or that bowl of cheese doodles.

    3) Weigh your food: Get yourself a food scale and actually weigh your food. It's amazing how much an "American Portion" differs from a real portion of food. If you're having a "serving" of pasta, you might eyeball a serving and assume you've got it right, but chances are you've just given yourself two or three servings.

    Obviously, there's more you can do like exercise more, eat more fruits and veggies, etc. These three make for a very good start, though.

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  9. Re:No compelling evidence? by FranTaylor · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Coke and Pepsi have been around well over a hundred years.

    100 years ago coca cola contained actual cocaine, it probably did promote weight loss

  10. Re:This is dumb by Daetrin · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Sure there is! There's also Dasani!

    But you're missing the point, instead of trying to bribe scientists into "proving" that sugary drinks are okay, which is terrible, they should be putting forth the stuff that is at least marginally healthier as an alternative. It shouldn't be Coca-Cola's job to convince you to consume the healthiest thing available, it should be Coca-Cola's job to convince you to drink their brand of whatever it is you want to drink. If you're concerned about the sugar in Coke they should want to convince you to drink Diet Coke, and if you're scared about both real sugar and artificial sweeteners they should want to convince you to drink Dasani. Their job should not be to convince scientists to lie to you.

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  11. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  12. Re:It's not bad diets, it's inactivity. Grant mone by areusche · · Score: 3, Insightful

    A common, but simple error. Muscle weighs more than fat. If you strength train, your muscles will constantly be repairing themselves well after you've done strength training. This repairing burns far more calories than the initial 900-1400. It will be far more than that.

    Phelps spent at a minimum of 5-6 hours in a pool a day. His routine (assuming what is listed is correct) highlights all of the stuff he does http://workoutinfoguru.com/mic... If you're spending 5-6 hours swimming then you need to consume 10,000+ calories. Looking at Phelps diet he's eating a lot of grains, an energy drink, and could most definitely eat those pizzas you're referring to.

    He also incorporate compound lifts into his training. Compound lifts include the bench, pull ups, push ups (really just a bench), squats, and deadlifts. These work the most muscles in your body and give you the most bang for your buck.

    Word of advice for you to help speed up your fat loss. Stop looking at your overall "weight" and saying I need to lose X. Weight is a cumulative number that fails to show the full picture. Instead, find out what your body fat percentage is. This number is what you really need to focus on and bring down. Muscle is infinitely more attractive than adipose tissue.

    Next eat a diet high in protein. Pick either animal fats or carbohydrates. If you pick both you will get fat. One of the other. If you lack self control, consider trying the paleo diet. This will force you onto a high protein and fat diet while lowering your carb intake.

    Good luck, personal fitness is a goal that every one should esteem to be the best at. People instinctively follow those who are in better shape.