'Front group': Coca-Cola funds scientists who stress exercise not diet to avoid obesity

Coca-Cola has pumped millions of dollars into the founding of a new nonprofit that claims there is "strong evidence" that lack of exercise is mostly to blame for obesity, not poor diet.

Coke, the leading producer of soda and sugary drinks across the world, has invested heavily in the Global Energy Balance Network, a nonprofit run by a handful of university scientists who were offered $4 million by Coke to fund various research projects, according to the New York Times.

Halting weight gain should be less about dieting and more about "maintaining an active lifestyle and eating more calories,"the group said on its website. The group's proof of this claim comes down to two research papers, both of which end with the same footnote: “The publication of this article was supported by The Coca-Cola Company.”

The organization calls itself “the voice of science” on its website. It ultimately bills itself as a "not for profit dedicated to reversing the obesity & chronic disease epidemics through healthy lifestyle behaviors."

Read more here.

Coca-Cola Paid $1,000,000 to Make Sure You Don’t Know This

Coca-Cola has been having a rough time. The company owns Honest Tea, Odwalla, Powerade, Vitamin Water, Simply Orange, and other products marketed to health-conscious consumers. But it is best known for making Coke, a product that is utterly devoid of nutritional value and is often blamed for contributing to the obesity epidemic — an epidemic that is costing hundreds of billions of dollars and causing hundreds of thousands of deaths each year.

With demand for the company’s carbonated and artificially flavored sugar water declining, hope for Coca-Cola’s profitability has been increasingly resting on the brands it markets as healthier alternatives. Bloomberg.com reports that sales of Coca-Cola-owned brands like Honest Tea, Powerade, and Simply Orange are the company’s new profit center.

But there’s a problem.

In October, campaign finance reports revealed that Coca-Cola had secretly contributed more than a million dollars to the fight against GMO labeling in Washington. It took the state’s Attorney General suing the Grocery Manufacturers’ Association (GMA) for what turned out to be an $11 million violation of the state’s campaign finance laws to reveal these secret contributions. But now that the truth has been exposed, some healthy food activists are fighting back.

Read more: http://www.wesupportorganic.com/2014/02/coca-cola-paid-1000000-to-make-sure-you-dont-know-this.html

Coca-Cola's switch to plant-based bottles not as green as may be thought

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

You may have heard and seen the news that Coca-Cola is increasing its production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) made with plant-based glycol instead of petroleum-derived glycol. In the language of sustainability, this would be described as replacing a non-renewable feedstock with a renewable feedstock.

In some ads it has been claimed by Coca-Cola that their bottle is 100% plant based but when anyone looks at the bottle itself it says up to 30% plant-based plastic. That, in my book, is not 100%.

While plant-based PET sounds very green, doesn't it, it, in fact, is not for it is still PET, that is to say polyethylene terephthalate, no more no less. And it is a PET now, that does have a mix of oil-based and plant-based plastic, making is more difficult to recycle, according to some sources. There’s no easy way (yet) to separate the different constituents and put them in their respective preferable recovery systems.

Even if they would be making PET entirely from plant-based materials (which is not truly possible today, considering all the catalysts and polymer chemistry whatsits that are not made from plants), the PET would still be an inherently non-biodegradable material.

If we really want plant-based plastic then we must (1) ensure that it can be recycled and (2) better still that it actually would be compostable, albeit in commercial composters rather than the backyard compost heap.

Despite the fact that someone from the company has been threatening me should I continue telling the truth about their plant-based PET not being as green as they are painting it I will continue to do so.

Greenwash is greenwash regardless of who is doing it and Coca-Cola does not have a good record as far as the environment is concerned.

So, don't let anyone fool you and research everything you are told...

© 2012