The Coca-Cola Company, the largest producer of sugary beverages, is recently facing a handful of controversies because the company has been reportedly caught funding a current research that deflects blame for obesity away from sugary drinks.

Just too recently, most of the well-known newspapers and journals in the United States and Britain, such as the Telegraph, Daily Mail, Medical News Today, the Wall Street Journal as well as the New York Times, were flooded with stories on how Coca Cola was funding scientists who shift primary blame for obesity away from unhealthy diets, The Guardian reported.

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The said study emphasized the importance of exercise over diet to a person's well-being -- also stating the cause for America's obesity epidemic is not about diet but a lack of exercise.

The said study was allegedly funded by Coca-Cola Company in response to many studies that have identified sodas as the primary contributors to chronic health conditions like Type 2 diabetes, obesity and even coronary artery disease.

The issue, as reported by the New York Times, is that the analysis is misleading and meant to draw away attention from recent studies about sugary drinks and their link to obesity as well as Type 2 diabetes.

According to Marion Nestle, a nutrition professor at New York University, "Coca-Cola's agenda here is very clear: Get these researchers to confuse science and deflect attention from dietary intake."

The studies funded by Coca-Cola almost implied in its findings and reports that sugary drinks have no involvement with diabetes, and they even questioned the validity of studies that do find such associations to such claim or conclusion. They also recognized that physical activities and exercises are the most important determinants of body weight, as in the case of Global Energy Balance Network investigators.

Analyses of the studies funded by the beverage giant expressed that they have 83 percent probability of producing results suggesting that there is no harm from soda consumption.

On the other hand, the research conducted by the government agencies stated that the same percentage of studies found clear linkages between sugary drinks and such conditions.

Clearly, the results of the study favor the sponsor's interest. Nevertheless, disclosure is really important.

TagsCoca Cola, Sugary drinks, Research, obesity, diet