Sweet talk filled with junk

MULTINATIONAL food companies are continuing to fund research that can manipulate government taxes on junk food.

Deakin University researcher Dr Gary Sacks said leaked email communication between former executives at multinational drinks giant Coca-Cola was evidence of attempts to influence public health policy for commercial gain.

“If there is an incentive for the research to show otherwise, research sponsored by the industry results are much more likely to be in favour of the industry,” Dr Sacks said.

A 2014 study showed City of Greater Geelong overweight and obesity rates dropped by 6.9 per cent over three years while the daily consumption of sugarsweetened soft drink consumption dropped 7.7 per cent.

Dr Sacks, who has released a report examining Coca-Cola’s emails, said companies tried to manipulate obesity research by generating their own evidence relating to the causes of obesity, both through directly commissioned work and their influence on external organisations.

“It’s a major risk to efforts to try and prevent obesity if the evidence is influenced by industry which has close relationships with policy makers,” Dr Sacks said.

“Although companies that profit from the sale of unhealthy food have a role to play in obesity prevention efforts, they have a clear conflict of interest when it comes to the generation of evidence and government policy in the area.”

Dr Sacks said medical professionals needed to be wary of doing research funded by food companies and this was sometimes challenging in a research climate with little funding.