THE NEW YORK TIMES - November 6, 2015
The University of Colorado School of Medicine announced Friday that it was returning a $1 million gift from Coca-Cola after it was revealed that the money had been used to establish an advocacy group that played down the link between soft drinks and obesity.
Coca-Cola
donated the money in 2014 to help establish the Global Energy Balance
Network, a nonprofit group of scientists that urged people to focus more
on exercise and worry less about what they eat and drink. Coke’s
financial ties to the group prompted criticism that the soft drink giant
was supporting scientists as a way to shape obesity research, an issue reported by The New York Times in August.
In
response to the article, Coke’s chief executive, Muhtar Kent, disclosed
that the company had spent almost $120 million since 2010 to pay for
academic health research and for partnerships with major medical and
community groups involved in curbing the obesity epidemic. Recipients
included the American Academy of Pediatrics, which accepted $3 million
from Coke to launch its healthychildren.org website, and the Academy of
Nutrition and Dietetics, the country’s largest group of dietitians,
which had received $1.7 million from Coke. After the disclosure, both
groups said they were ending their relationships with Coca-Cola.
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