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[Sums up disease charities.  See: [2011 June] DIET DRINKS MAKE YOU FAT.]

Obesity charity paid £50k in secret by Coca-Cola to promote sweeteners

By Jo Macfarlane

Last updated at 2:50 AM on 10th July 2011

A charity which criticised the Government for accepting money from junk food companies was itself secretly paid £50,000 by Coca-Cola to promote low-calorie sweeteners.

The National Obesity Forum signed a deal with Coca-Cola in January, a few months after trustee Tam Fry had said he was ‘horror-struck’ at plans for such companies to provide cash to back public health campaigns.

Mr Fry, 75, is understood to have brokered the Coca-Cola deal, despite accusing the Government last July of being ‘bribed’ by fast food giants.


Education: Tam Fry, a trustee of the National Obesity Forum, made a deal with Coca-Cola

The money is to develop part of the charity’s website devoted to low-calorie artificial sweeteners.

Many of Coca-Cola’s drinks, such as Diet Coke, Fanta Orange Zero and Lilt Zero, include sweeteners like aspartame, acesulfame-K and saccharin, which have been linked to health concerns.

Recent studies linked aspartame to pancreas damage, cancer and premature births.

Coca-Cola can, with 10.6g of sugars

Sweetened: Coca-Cola can, with 10.6g of sugars

A senior charity source said: ‘In July Tam Fry was horror- struck at the government handing the anti-obesity brief to the likes of Coca-Cola and by the following month he was holding out the begging bowl.

‘Yet it has been known for years that diet drinks are bad in relation to obesity.’

A Coca-Cola spokeswoman said: ‘We provided the charity with an educational fund to support its communications regarding low and no-calorie sweeteners during 2011. There is no product endorsement as part of this affiliation.’

The charity’s chairman David Haslam said: ‘We have an independent board assessing the health benefits of artificial sweeteners. Coca-Cola has no influence over our findings.’


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2013062/Obesity-charity-paid-50k-secret-Coca-Cola-promote-sweeteners.html#ixzz1RsDk9eeT