Sell Out: Using Research for the Wrong Reasons

"Sell out, with me oh yea
Sell out, with me tonight
Record company's gonna
give me lots of money and
everything's gonna be all right"

The above chorus is from the ska band Reel Big Fish's 1997 hit song, "Sell Out," from their album, "Turn the Radio Off." In the song, the singer sarcastically relates the plight of a musician who is tired of "flipping burgers" and is willing to get "lots of money" by playing "what they want you to hear" in order to get a recording contract.¹

A similar song could be sung today by nutritional researchers in the United States. A recent viewpoint article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association highlights the trend of sponsored nutrition research beginning to dominate the landscape.²

The paper was written by Marion Nestle, PhD, MPH, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University and the author of a number of books on related issues.³ In her paper, Dr. Nestle notes, "The longstanding influence of food industry funding on nutrition research, researchers, and professional societies threatens the credibility of nutrition science. So much research is sponsored by industry that health professionals and the public may lose confidence in basic dietary advice."

Dr. Nestle cites several efforts by large corporations to shape the opinions of the American public through nutritional research. One such example was an effort by Coca-Cola to create a nonprofit organization called the Global Energy Balance Network (GEBN). As outlined in an article published by The New York Times:

"Coke has made a substantial investment in the new nonprofit. In response to requests based on state open-records laws, two universities that employ leaders of the Global Energy Balance Network disclosed that Coke had donated $1.5 million last year to start the organization.

"Critics say Coke has long cast the obesity epidemic as primarily an exercise problem. ‘The message is that obesity is not about the foods or beverages you're consuming, it's that you're not balancing those foods with exercise,' Dr. Freedhoff of the University of Ottawa said."

According to the article, Kraft Foods, McDonald's, PepsiCo and Hershey's are also involved with reported partnerships with the American Society for Nutrition and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics⁴ – partnerships that are garnering a certain amount of negative attention.

Public scrutiny, led by articles in The New York Times, ultimately caused the Global Energy Balance Network to shut down. Coke had given both the University of Colorado School of Medicine and the University of South Carolina grants for the $1.5 million to start the organization. Under considerable pressure, the University of Colorado returned its $1 million on Nov. 6.⁵

On Nov. 30, 2015, GEBN removed all content from its website and replaced it with this notice: "Effective immediately, GEBN is discontinuing operations due to resource limitations." Not exactly accurate, given the resources Coca-Cola could potentially expend.

While GEBN disappeared relatively quickly, this is probably not the last of this sort of marketing. The frightening issue is how easy and attractive it has become for major corporations to utilize research as part of a marketing campaign, drawing conclusions that are clearly not in the best interests of the public. From drugs to food, any commodity sold to consumers in large amounts is ripe for the misapplication of seemingly scientific information that is easy to fund and hard to refute.

References / Notes

1. Ska is an up-tempo fusion of jazz and rock that gave birth to a number of artists including No Doubt, headlined by Gwen Stefani.
2. Nestle M. Corporate funding of food and nutrition research: science or marketing? JAMA Intern Med, published online Nov. 23, 2015.
3. See a list of Dr. Nestle's publications on her website.
4. O'Connor A. "Coca-Cola Funds Scientists Who Shift Blame for Obesity Away From Bad Diets." The New York Times, Aug. 9, 2015.
5. O'Connor A. "Research Group Funded by Coca-Cola to Disband." The New York Times, Dec. 1, 2015.