In the United States today, more and more people are becoming obese and are at high risk for heart disease and other illnesses. A lot of the media has even claimed obesity to be an epidemic. Food companies such as Coca Cola perpetuate problems relating to obesity and heart disease. Their distracting pseudo agenda promotes helping Americans consume less overall calories and live healthier lives by providing research money in studies, when in fact, their underlying objective is their quest to make a profit. In 2015 Coca Cola created a nonprofit called the Global Energy Balance and funded research surrounding obesity. Research created by Coca Cola and other large companies for their own agenda are deeply detrimental to American people’s lives because research that is posed as unbiased leads Americans into believing that their products are a healthy choice. This topic is interesting to me because as a consumer, I am constantly seeing studies enacted that suggest what to eat, what is healthy, and what is not. So how do companies like Coca Cola exacerbate problems such as obesity in the United States?
As new evidence plasters headlines indicating a link between sugary drinks and obesity linked diseases, the companies must fight back. Companies such as Coca Cola invest their money into creating low-calorie, zero sugar, “better for you” soft drinks. Zero sugar soft drinks still include artificial sweeteners so the product will retain the same flavor without the calories and negative impacts of traditional sweeteners. In a study done by the USDA economic research service, sugar intake is decreasing but artificial sweetener consumption steadily increases. The study concluded there is a positive correlation between the rise in obesity and usage of artificial sweeteners.
Figure 1: This graph shows the correlation between sugar intake daily, the percent of people using artificial sweeteners and the percentage of adults with obesity from 1980-2013. This correlation was further validated by The Growing Up Today Study done by the University of Texas Health and Science Center involving almost 12,000 adolescent boys showed long term weight gain with diet soda.
Not only do companies such as Coca Cola say they create better products that will not negatively affect a person’s health, but they pay researchers to say the same. Coca Cola supports the idea of living a healthy and active life, and that calorie counting is not as important. An article from the New York Times described new research that conveyed the following: “Last week, the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana announced the findings of a large new study on exercise in children that determined that lack of physical activity ”is the biggest predictor of childhood obesity around the world.” The news release contained a disclosure: ”This research was funded by The Coca Cola Company.” This example is certainly not an individual case. Consumers are being fed supply information with evidence from research studies, that big companies have funded. Food giants much like Coca Cola are shaping consumers minds about what choices in the supermarket are healthy. People rely on the common idea that companies value the public’s health. Whereas the harsh reality is that these companies’ bottom line is earning a profit. For example, if Coca Cola stated that Coke is actually harmful, it would negatively affect their profit. It is much more cost effective to add “zero sugar” on a label even though it does not improve the nutrition of that product. Nevertheless, there continues to be a rise in obesity rates and chronic disease relating to obesity rates in the United States.
It is not a coincidence that food corporations are gaining profit and obesity rates are still inclining. Money is the underlying theme in the bridge between what consumers hear is good for them, and what these companies want them to hear. Food corporations are not concerned with the “obesity epidemic.” The data concludes that large companies have more of a priority in continuing to sell product, rather than reducing the risk of chronic disease in consumers.
References:
https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statistics/overweight-obesity
Data/Society/Decision-making Spring 2019 