Foodwatch accuses Coca-Cola of funding doctors and associations to confuse the debate on obesity and diabetes.
Almost 7 million euros. This is the amount spent by the Coca-Cola group in 2015 for research on the health impact of sweeteners, the financing of associations of diabetics or nutritionists, or for the National Center for the Development of Sport ( CNDS). Transparent donations for the American company, but a sum used “to confuse the debate on obesity and diabetes”, estimates the association of consumers Foodwatch, which clearly accuses Coca-Cola of aggressive lobbying, even of distributing jars -of-wine.
She reproaches the multinational, engaged in a campaign of dietary demonization of its products, to put “the means so that the consequences of sugary or sweetened drinks on health are minimized, and to escape its responsibilities”. Researchers, doctors, nutritionists and dieticians would have pocketed “big sums” to praise the merits of sweetened drinks (Coca-Cola Zero, Light, Life).
The war on sweeteners
The stakes are high for the soda giant, recalls Foodwatch. In 2011, the National Health Security Agency (ANSES) decided to assess the possible benefits and risks of sweeteners. An evaluation made in early 2015 which did not allow us to conclude either on the interest of substituting sugar with sweeteners in the context of a public health policy and the fight against type 2 diabetes, or on the dangers of cancer, development of diabetes or premature births. ANSES nevertheless underlines “the need to deepen knowledge between the consumption of intense sweeteners and certain risks. “
According to the association, “for the giant of sodas, French scientists have thus crisscrossed congresses and conferences and multiplied the publications, singing the praises of sweeteners”. Several institutes and associations, such as the French Federation of Diabetics, the French Association of Dieticians and Nutritionists, are targeted in their press release for the grants they have received.
Undercover research?
Research organizations are also concerned. The European Institute of Expertise in Physiology (IEEP) received 719,200 euros from Coca-Cola France “to counter, one might think, the threat represented by the ANSES report and, perhaps, the tax on sugary drinks, introduced in 2012, estimates Foodwatch. We find the IEEP behind a comparative study on drinks with or without sweeteners and their influence on insulin conducted since 2012 by Fabrice Bonnet of the Rennes University Hospital, [qui] spoke openly at Dietecom about sweeteners. He extols the “benefits” in a video Featured on the Sweetener Manufacturers (ISA) YouTube channel. “
The Research Center for the Study and Observation of Living Conditions (CREDOC) also received 85,000 euros, and published a study showing that the best hydrated people were those who drank anything other than water, and who insisted that French adolescents did not hydrate enough. A suspicious correlation for the consumer association.
Taken together, all of this funding would fall under the attempt to forcefully introduce drinks with sweeteners for Foodwatch, which in the process accuses certain renowned organizations, associations and doctors. Charges which should not go unnoticed and provoke strong reactions from the world of medical research.
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