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How Stupid Does Coke Think We Are?

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Leading nutrition experts have expressed alarm over a U.S. pressure group led by scientists that downplays the risks of junk food and sugary drinks in favor of exercise in the fight against obesity-–and is funded by Coca-Cola, according to Joanna Walters writing in The Guardian.

The Global Energy Balance Network, a non-profit group promoting research into the causes of obesity, focuses its message on the need for people to increase their physical activity as the key to achieving a healthy weight.

In a video announcing the aims of the organization, Steven Blair, a spokesman for the Global Energy Balance Network (GEBN) and a professor at the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina, says the world needs to be educated about getting the right amount of physical activity.

“Most of the focus in the popular media and in the scientific press is ‘Oh, they’re eating too much, eating too much, eating too much’ – blaming fast food, blaming sugary drinks and so on. And there’s really virtually no compelling evidence that that, in fact, is the cause,” Blair says in a promotional video issued by the group earlier this year.

The GEBN states on its website that it is supported financially by Coca-Cola, among others. The link to Coca-Cola was highlighted Monday in an article in the New York Times questioning the links between the nonprofit organization and the company.

The GEBN’s posts on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook concentrate heavily on various aspects of the importance of exercise in the weight and health debate, with less attention on food. Its website claims the group wants to be the “voice of science” in research on obesity. But manyprominent scientists have expressed concern over GEBN’s focus and funding.

“You cannot exercise your way out of overeating, that’s kind of a misguided idea,” said Scott Grundy, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Grundy was a member of the expert panel that devised the current clinical guidelines on obesity issued by the US government’s National Institutes of Health. Although they were published in 1998, Grundy said the findings and guidelines are just as accurate and relevant today.

A statement posted on the Coca-Cola website from Ed Hays, the company’s chief technical officer, included this statement: “At Coke, we believe that a balanced diet and regular exercise are two key ingredients for a healthy lifestyle and that is reflected in both our long-term and short-term business actions.”

Coca-Cola contributed $1.5m last year toward the creation of the Global Energy Balance Network and administers its website, according to the New York Times.

Barry Popkin, a professor of global nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, compared Coca-Cola funding scientists involved in obesity research to tobacco companies historically “enlisting” experts to become “merchants of doubt” about the harmful effects of cigarettes.

“Essentially, Coke is following the strategy used by the tobacco industry as they tried to create doubt among the general public and also politicians. It was very effective in the fights to regulate cigarettes and we have learned from this that it is essential to address these attempts and uncover what they are very rapidly,” he said. “We must change our diet. First and foremost this is sugary sweetened beverages.”

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SCOTLAND TO BAN FARMING OF GMO CROPS

Scotland is to ban the growing of genetically modified crops, the country’s rural affairs secretary has announced, the BBC reports. Richard Lochhead said the Scottish government was not prepared to “gamble” with the future of the country’s ($20 billion) food and drink sector.

Lochhead said that Scotland was known around the world for its “beautiful natural environment” and banning the growing of genetically modified crops would protect and further enhance its green status. There is no evidence of significant demand for GM products by Scottish consumers and I am concerned that allowing GM crops to be grown in Scotland would damage our clean and green brand.”

The move has been broadly welcomed by environment groups. But Scott Walker, chief executive of farming union NFU Scotland, said he was disappointed that the Scottish government had decided that no GM crops should ever be grown in Scotland. “Other countries are embracing biotechnology where appropriate and we should be open to doing the same here in Scotland,” he said.

Huw Jones, professor of molecular genetics at agricultural science group Rothamsted Research, said the announcement was a “sad day for science and a sad day for Scotland.” He said that GM crops approved by the EU were “safe for humans, animals and the environment.”

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NOT ONLY CAN’T YOU KNOW WHAT’S IN YOUR FOOD, YOU CAN’T KNOW ABOUT EFFORTS TO FIND OUT WHAT’S IN YOUR FOOD, OR ABOUT LAWSUITS TO STOP MONSANTO’S FALSE ADVERTISING ABOUT THE SAFETY OF ROUNDUP

What happens when one courageous attorney and a few citizens try to take down Monsanto? The mainstream media doesn’t cover it, claims Christina Sarich, writing for NaturalSociety.com.

Efforts to publicize a class action lawsuit against Monsanto for falsely advertising its best-selling herbicide Roundup, which was filed in Los Angeles County Court on April 20, 2015, have been rejected or ignored by almost every mainstream media outlet.

It’s no different than Fox, NBC, CNN, or ABC refusing to cover the DARK act that would prevent states from passing laws requiring GMO foods to be labeled, she says.

“You would think that every paper, radio station, and blog would want to spread the news. But wait. . . just six corporations own ALL of the media in America, so there isn’t much luck there. That’s why you have to go to sites like Russia Insider or Al Jazeera to find real news, outside of certain alternative news channels in the US, and even those are white-washed from Facebook pages, and given secondary ratings on Google pages,” she says.

Matthew Phillips, the attorney suing Monsanto in California for false advertising on Roundup bottles, has asked the LA Times, New York Times, Huffington Post, CNN, and Reuters, one of the world’s largest news agencies, to report on the lawsuit (Case No: BC 578 942), yet most enforced a total media blackout.

“When I spoke with Phillips over the phone, he said that he has tried posting the suit in Wikipedia’s Monsanto litigation section, but it keeps disappearing. He says that he has also noticed posts on Facebook about this lawsuit get removed,” Sarich said.

If other attorneys were to follow his template-style lawsuit, then suddenly the plaintiff count could extend to all the citizens in the US who have purchased a bottle of Roundup from their local DIY store (Lowe’s, Home Depot, or Ace Hardware, for example) in the last four years, not suspecting it could demolish their gut health.

Another possibility, according to Phillips, is that Monsanto could try to bump the case up to federal court in order to try to side-step a likely adverse judgment. But in this case the class action suit would also be open to residents other than those of just California. This is surely an idea that Monsanto doesn’t want seeded in the American psyche.

Phillips is extremely confident he has the goods on Monsanto in this case, and barring a sold out judge:

“This is a slam-dunk lawsuit that exposes Monsanto for LYING about Roundup. Contrary to the label, Roundup does indeed target and kill enzymes found in humans — in our gut bacteria — and this explains America’s chronic indigestion!”

Many well-known scientists and professors emeritus have offered to be key witnesses in this suit when it goes to trial. The attorney says he refuses to settle the case and hopes that 49 additional attorneys in 49 states will use his case as an example. “When we allege that Roundup’s targeted enzyme is found in humans, it’s like alleging that the Golden Gate Bridge is found in California,” Phillips said.

Phillips also states that ‘false advertising’ and ‘misleading’ are synonyms in California law, so the fact that Monsanto has stated that the glyphosate in Roundup doesn’t target humans goes beyond just misleading. This misjudgment by Monsanto is a well-known secret among many anti-GM scientists. The enzyme that glyphosate targets is definitely found in humans.

Monsanto states, “Round Up targets an enzyme only found in plants and not in humans or animals.”

EPSP synthase, also known as (3-phosphoshikimate 1-carboxyvinyltransferase) is found in the microbiota that reside in our intestinal tracts, and therefore the enzyme is “found in humans and animals.” It is partly responsible for immunity activation and even helps our gut and our brain communicate with one another.

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WHY SHOULD INDIAN FARMERS FACE HUNGER AND COMMIT SUICIDE?

Vandana Shiva, a world-renowned spokeswoman for ecological agriculture, wrote the following for EcoWatch on August 16, 2015:

There is no reason why India should face hunger and malnutrition and why our farmers should commit suicide. India is blessed with the most fertile soils in the world. Our climate is so generous we can, in places, grow four crops in a year—compared to the industrialized west where sometimes only one crop is possible per year. We have the richest biodiversity of the world, both because of our diverse climates and because of the brilliance of our farmers as breeders. Our farmers are among the most hardworking, productive people in the world. Yet India faces an emergency in our food and agricultural system. This emergency is man-made.

Firstly, the poor and vulnerable are dying for lack of food. According to the Deccan Herald, Lalita S. Rangari, 36, a Dalit widow and mother of two children of the Gondiya tribal belt, allegedly died due to starvation. Justice Bhushan Gavai and Justice Indu Jain of the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court have served notice to the government of Maharashtra seeking its reply to the starvation death of the Dalit widow.

Even as India gets richer, we have emerged as the capital of hunger and malnutrition. According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), 42.5 percent of children under five years old were underweight. This is more than double the African average of 21 percent, which until recently was the face of hunger.

The second tragedy is that our food producers, the small farmers who have provided food to more than a billion Indians and hold the potential to provide healthy food for all, are themselves dying because of agriculture and trade policies which put corporate profits above the rights and well-being of our small farmers. More than 300,000 farmers have committed suicide in India since 1995, when the rules for the globalization of agriculture of the World Trade Organization (WTO) were implemented, transforming food into a commodity, agriculture into corporate business, and shifting control over seeds and food from farmers to a handful of giant multinational corporations.

The third tragedy is that even those who get food are being denied their right to healthy and nourishing food. The explosion of junk food, of pesticides and toxics in our food, have created a disease epidemic that is a human tragedy and an economic burden. There is an epidemic of diseases related to our lifestyle and food, such as diabetes, cancer, hypertension, infertility, and cardiovascular diseases.

The recent Maggi noodle scandal highlights the rapid invasion of junk food in the Indian diet. We are what we eat. When we eat food full of toxic chemicals, we pay the price with our health. India has emerged as the epicenter of diabetes.

In extensive studies reported in “Poisons in Our Food” by Navdanya, elevated levels of PCBs, DDE, and DDT have been found in the blood of women suffering from breast cancer. Studies show that 51 percent of all food commodities are contaminated by pesticides.

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