Sense about Science  Singh, Simon  Coca Cola

Coca-Cola’s spin doctor quits after emails leaked

December 3rd 2015

https://www.wddty.com/news/2015/12/coca-colas-spin-doctor-quits-after-emails-leaked-2.html

The senior Coca-Cola executive who arranged donations to Simon Singh’s Sense About Science—a charity that subsequently published a report that sugary drinks don’t cause obesity—has been forced to step down after her emails were made public

Rhona Applebaum, Coca-Cola’s Chief Science & Health Officer, has taken “immediate retirement” after the Associated Press published her emails to another lobby group, the Global Energy Balance Network (GEBN), which had received $1.5m donations from the drinks conglomerate.

Sense About Science had been given donations of £20,000. GEBN promotes the idea that lack of exercise, and not sugary drinks and colas, is the primary cause of obesity. A similar line was taken by Sense About Science, which discredited a major study that had found that 184,000 deaths a year are directly attributable to sugary drinks.

Its conclusions were tweeted by Applebaum, who had attended a Sense About Science meeting in the US. The group also ‘corrected’ a newspaper columnist, who had said—rightly—that sugar causes and feeds cancer. Again, Ms Applebaum re-tweeted the group’s comment.