Your Doctor's Health Advice, Brought to You by Coke

by Gillian Hubble

categories: Doctors and Nurses, public health

Published November 06, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT

• 4119 Views

We are on the eve of a historic House vote for a healthcare reform bill that, while it addresses some healthcare issues, carefully avoids the profit elephant in the sector. Now would be timely for another exposé, yes? This time it has nothing to do with greedy insurers. No, the latest absurdity comes straight from those who generate the vast majority of healthcare charges. Lo and behold, a sugar-sweetened baby elephant just turned up in your doctor’s office.

The American Academy of Family Physicians recently announced a six-figure deal with Coca-Cola Corporation. The alliance deals with (of all things) consumer educational materials on soft drinks for the AAFP health and wellness website. AAFP CEO Douglas Henley of course assures us that the deal won’t affect family physicians’ public health messages. I’ll bet.

Harvard nutrition expert Dr. Walter Willett begs to differ. He says the AAFP has muzzled itself when it should be a vocal critic of products like Coke. Sodas “cause enormous suffering and premature death by increasing the risks of obesity, diabetes, heart attacks, gout, and cavities.” Well, cigarettes have similar negative public health effects, and that didn’t stop paid physicians advocating mild cigarettes as safe in 1960s advertisements.

Fortunately this time there has been more outcry. Twenty-one doctors near San Francisco resigned their AAFP memberships in protest. Another 22 health specialists sent a protest letter to Henley urging him to abandon the Coke deal, as they question the safety of artificial sweeteners and feel the AAFP should be strongly speaking out against sugary drinks.

Coke spokeswoman Diana Garza Ciarlante says all this criticism "misses the point of the partnership which is to provide education based on sound science." Yep, just like the Healthy Choices program was all about promoting healthy eating via Froot Loops. The AAFP’s president-elect Dr. Lori Heim confirms it: the idea is to “to develop educational materials to help consumers make informed decisions so they can include the products they love in a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle."

All of this is pretty ironic, given the latest Commonwealth Fund study released. The survey of over 10,000 primary care doctors in 11 developed countries (US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom) again repeated that the US spends more than twice what other countries do, while lagging on quality measures. But more specifically, it found cost and access to care were the major primary care barriers in the US – 58% of doctors say their patients struggle to pay for medications and care.

So why doesn’t the AAFP suggest Coke sponsor medication subsidies, health fairs, or free health clinics? It could hand patients free samples of new Coke Zero on their way out the door. I guess that wouldn’t send the same subliminal “AAFP wants you to incorporate Coke products into your diet” message as educational pamphlets. I keep forgetting, it’s about profits, not health.

Photo http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3632/3559771258_5bac2c6891.jpg // CC BY 2.0