New research says a food industry-funded group undermined China’s efforts to keep obesity rates in check by overemphasizing the importance of physical activity rather than dietary habits.
The International Life Sciences Institute was created by a former Coke executive and is funded by companies, including McDonald’s, PepsiCo and Red Bull. In China, it organised obesity conferences focusing on physical activity, with speakers including Coke-funded researchers and a Coke executive. The group enjoyed close ties to government health agencies, according to papers in The BMJ and The Journal of Public Health Policy .
Susan Greenhalgh, a Harvard scholar who wrote the papers, sais ILSI’s activities show the difficulty in assessing how food makers could skew public policy around the world. ILSI says it “does not profess to have been perfect” in its 40-year history.
