Nutrition experts alarmed by nonprofit

downplaying role of junk food in obesity

This article is more than 6 years old
‘You cannot exercise your way out of overeating’ say scientists, who
compare Coca-Cola’s funding of the Global Energy Balance Network to
that of big tobacco and its ‘merchants of doubt’

Cutting junk food is still the most effective way to cut back on obesity, according to nutrition
experts. ‘Obesity scholars and the World Health Organization and many other bodies have
all realized we must change our diet.’ Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian
Joanna Walters in New York
@Joannawalters13
Tue 11 Aug 2015 08.00 EDT

Leading nutrition experts have expressed alarm over a US pressure group led by
scientists that downplays the risks of junk food and sugary drinks in favor of exercise
in the fight against obesity – and receives funding from soft drinks giant Coca-Cola.

The Global Energy Balance Network, a non-profit group promoting research into the
causes of obesity, focuses its message on the need for people to increase their
physical activity as the key to achieving a healthy weight.
In a video announcing the aims of the organization, Steven Blair, a spokesman for
the Global Energy Balance Network (GEBN) and a professor at the Arnold School of
Public Health at the University of South Carolina, says the world needs to be
educated about getting the right amount of physical activity.

“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,” Blair says in a promotional video issued by the group
earlier this year.

He speaks while the video shows images of a man eating a can of Pringles potato
chips, a serving of french fries with ketchup and plastic bottles of soda with the
labels turned away, but one of which clearly resembles Coca-Cola.

The GEBN states on its website that it is supported financially by Coca-Cola, among
others. The link to Coca-Cola was highlighted Monday in an article in the New York
Times questioning the links between the nonprofit organization and the company.

The GEBN’s posts on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook concentrate
heavily on various aspects of the importance of exercise in the weight and health
debate, with less attention on food.

The group’s president is James Hill, a professor at the University of Colorado school
of medicine, and listed as a founding member is Gregory Hand, dean of West
Virginia University’s school of public health. Its website claims the group wants to
be the “voice of science” in research on obesity.

But other prominent scientists have expressed concern over GEBN’s focus and
funding.

“The more food intake and the more calories the more weight you gain, and the less
you exercise the more you will gain. But in the bigger picture it’s food intake over
exercise that dominates as a cause of obesity – you cannot exercise your way out of
overeating, that’s kind of a misguided idea,” said Scott Grundy, director of the
Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern medical center,
told the Guardian.

Grundy was a member of the expert panel that devised the current clinical
guidelines on obesity issued by the US government’s National Institutes of Health.
Although they were published in 1998, Grundy said the findings and guidelines are
just as accurate and relevant today.
“It’s sad not to see children out playing as much as they used to, running around and
burning up calories, and a lot of obesity in kids is related to lack of exercise. But by
and large it’s still about eating too much,” said Grundy.

James Hill was also a member of that panel and has served on committees on weight
loss for the World Health Organization (WHO). The Guardian requested comment
from Hill, Blair, the GEBN and Coca-Cola.

A statement posted on the Coca-Cola website on Monday, from the company’s chief
technical officer Ed Hays, included this statement: “At Coke, we believe that a
balanced diet and regular exercise are two key ingredients for a healthy lifestyle and
that is reflected in both our long-term and short-term business actions.”

GEBN sent a statement from James Hill, which said: “Recent media reports
suggesting that the work of my colleagues and me promotes the idea that exercise is
more important than diet in addressing obesity vastly oversimplifies this complex
issue … I can say unequivocally that diet is a critical component of weight control, as
are exercise, stress management, sleep, and environmental and other factors.”

Grundy said the issue of funding for obesity research by Coca-Cola was “a difficult
topic” and “extremely complicated”.

“People are going to ask questions,” he said.

Coca-Cola contributed $1.5m last year toward the creation of the Global Energy
Balance Network and administers its website, according to the New York Times.

GEBN has “assembled a distinguished group of scientists from around the world” to
serve as its founding leadership, according to the group’s website. And it lists
members of an international executive committee, which “operates independently of
its various funders”.

Barry Popkin, a professor of global nutrition at the University of North Carolina at

Chapel Hill, compared Coca-Cola funding scientists involved in obesity research to
tobacco companies historically “enlisting” experts to become “merchants of doubt”
about the harmful effects of cigarettes.

“Essentially, Coke is following the strategy used by the tobacco industry as they tried
to create doubt among the general public and also politicians. It was very effective in
the fights to regulate cigarettes and we have learned from this that it is essential to
address these attempts and uncover what they are very rapidly,” he said.

Popkin said the role of physical activity is important in the issue of obesity and non-
communicable diseases (NCD) associated with being overweight or obese –
conditions which affect two-thirds of American adults, according to the US
government.

“However, obesity and NCD scholars and the WHO and many other bodies have all
realized that for prevention, we must change our diet,” said Popkin. “First and
foremost this is sugary sweetened beverages.”

Barbara Hansen, another member of the expert panel that devised the clinical
guidelines on obesity for the National Institutes of Health, and director of preclinical
research at the University of South Florida, specializing in obesity and diabetes, said
that overall calorie consumption is more relevant than exercise or type of food.

“Two cans of Coke is only a small amount out of a 2,000-calorie diet – it’s not Coke,
it’s the total calories counted in a day that’s the critical point,” she said.