Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have given millions of dollars to nearly 100 prominent health groups in recent years to silence critics of sugar, and spent millions more to defeat public health legislation that would reduce Americans’ soda intake, a new study finds.

The findings, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, indicate the beverage industry’s financial ties to the health community over the past five years were designed to downplay sugar’s impacts on health and gain scientific allies against soda regulations, The New York Times reports.

The study’s authors — Michael Siegel, a professor at the Boston University school of public health, and Daniel Aaron, a student at BU’s medical school — say the links were revealed by public records, media reports, and medical literature and information released by the beverage giants themselves.

The study tracked industry donations and lobbying spending from 2011 through 2015, at a time when many cities were mulling soda taxes or other regulations to combat obesity.

“We wanted to look at what these companies really stand for,” Aaron told The Times.
“And it looks like they are not helping public health at all — in fact they’re opposing it almost across the board, which calls these sponsorships into question.”