Last month another brick in the stalwart battered wall of scientific and medical integrity in America was regretfully removed. The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) signed a sponsorship deal with the Coca Cola Company to promote Coke’s products, more or less:

The Consumer Alliance is a program that allows corporate partners like The Coca-Cola Company to work with the AAFP to educate consumers about the role their products can play in a healthy, active lifestyle.

What exact role do sugar laden beverages such as Coca Cola, Vitamin Water, and others play in a healthy lifestyle?

None. You don’t need an educational program to figure that one out. True, a soda pop here and there won’t kill anybody, but you don’t need the Coca Cola company to tell you that. And your physician should be telling you to cut down on your consumption, not explain how to fit a six pack into your busy schedule.

The exact 6 figure sum paid to the AAFP was undisclosed. It was, at most, $999,999, but likely much less, and puts a $10 price tag on each of  AAFP 95,000 members. That’s a good deal for Coke, but for the doctors it doesn’t sound so great.

So why is this deal, just like Coke’s sponsorship of the American Dietetic Association, so infuriating?

Because the people at Coca Cola are so…nice.

Yes. on a personal level, Coke’s execs are lovely, personable, and amicable. So are the leaders of McDonald’s, Mars, and the rest of the junk food industry. But their companies have a slight image problem. It seems that the public has caught on to the fact that they are selling us crap, which in turn is making us sick. That nagging public concern is bad for business.

So all these amenable execs, which get paid handsomely because they are also very sharp business people, figured out a solution. —> Lets convince the public that we are not selling crap. Or not too much of it. And the little that we do is “fine in moderation”.

—> Better yet, lets find people who are the most trustworthy in consumers’ eyes, and have them tell our story. Enter the funding strapped dietitian organization and the AAFP. These organizations get to fill their coffers with much needed funds, and in turn acknowledge their newly found industry buddies.

Here’s what AAFP CEO Dr. Douglas Henley says:

…the deal won’t influence the group’s public health messages, [Coke] will have no control over editorial content. read more…

We STRONGLY DISAGREE.

It’s a question of human psychology more than anything else. On a personal level, once you get to know someone, talk with them, and then take lots of money from them, you are no longer objective. Your behavior changes because you don’t want to be rude towards your benefactor.

On an organizational scale, it’s not different at all. As Harvard Nutrition Professor Dr. Walter Willet said:

“Coca-Cola, like other sodas, causes enormous suffering and premature death by increasing the risks of obesity, diabetes, heart attacks, gout, and cavities. [The AAFP] should be a loud critic of these products and practices, but by signing with Coke their voice has almost surely been muzzled.”

Thankfully, a few brave physicians from Northern California agree, and about 20 of them have decided to quit the AAFP in protest.

What you need to know:

Unfortunately for us consumers, this is not the first or last case of companies swaying scientists into their camps. The next time you read about a scientific study and its results, ask yourself who funded it. If industry is behind the numbers, there’s a 400-800% increase in the likelihood that the results are favorable to the funder.

What to do at the supermarket:

While abstaining from soft drinks may be too hard for some people, try to gradually reduce your dependence on soft drinks. By switching to tap water, a family of 4 can save $500 a year and 10-15 lbs. of body weight per person.

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Benjamin Franklin once said that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Let’s frame that quote into the context of this country’s current obesity crisis.

According to recent reports, obesity is responsible for about 10% of healthcare costs in the US, an estimated $147,000,000,000 (that’s 147 billion) annually.

And while our highly trained, very capable doctors can help cure, fix, and medicate a patient, a good dietitian may help a client avoid the illness in the first place. (Notice the nomenclature – patient vs client).

If you think your doctor can give you some diet tips, know this – the average physician does not receive a single credit’s worth of nutrition education while at medical school.  So when a doctor tells you to lose some weight, she does not necessarily have the tools to help you make it happen.

The US has over 550,000 doctors but less than 70,000 dietitians. The average annual salary of a physician in the US is $200,000, but the average dietitian will see less than a quarter of that amount, $49,000.

Using some very crude math, let’s assume that 10% of healthcare cost translates to 10% of doctors or 55,000 MDs. What if we magically retrained those doctors and added a nutrition degree to their quiver of skills? Would this reduce  the number of obesity related diseases by 10%?

This is all wishful thinking, because in the US today there is no direct incentive to engage in even half an ounce of prevention. It’s much more profitable to create health problems (fast food industry, junk food manufacturers) and then spend billions to cure them (Medical bills, pharmaceuticals). It’s a profitable business cycle for corporations, but not a sound proposition for consumers.

This is not in any way meant to be a lash out at doctors, who do their jobs tirelessly and loyally. It’s just that doctors are great at helping sick people, mostly after the fact. Pre-emptive care is undervalued today because there is no financial incentive in the current business ecosystem to help keep people lean and fit. In fact, dietetic consultations are not necessarily covered by health insurance.

What can be done?

Policymakers should create financial incentives for industries to prevent people from getting fat and sick. Medical schools should see find ways to integrate nutrition education into their syllabus.

If you are a young, talented and ambitious college student who wants to help people be healthy, where do you think you’ll have more impact? Shoot away in the comments below.

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