Research details how junk food companies influence China’s nutrition policy

The close relationship with the highest government health policymakers goes significantly beyond what the companies have been able to achieve in the West.

China, China nutrition policy, Coca Cola, Coca Cola China, China public health, public health china, indian express, world news, latest news — Coca-Cola cans on store shelves in Beijing, Sept. 16, 2011. A pair of new studies document how Coca-Cola and other Western food and beverage giants have helped shape decades of Chinese science and public policy on obesity, minimizing discussion of the importance of cutting back on calorie-laden junk foods. (Shiho Fukada/The New York Times)

(Written by Andrew Jacobs)

Happy 10 Minutes, a Chinese government campaign that encouraged schoolchildren to exercise for 10 minutes a day, would seem a laudable step toward improving public health in a nation struggling with alarming rates of childhood obesity.

But the initiative and other official Chinese efforts that emphasized exercise as the best way to lose weight were notable for what they did not mention: the importance of cutting back on the calorie-laden junk foods and sugary beverages that have become ubiquitous in the world’s second-largest economy.

China’s fitness-is-best message, as it happens, has largely been the handiwork of Coca-Cola and other Western food and beverage giants, according to a pair of new studies that document how those companies have helped shape decades of Chinese science and public policy on obesity and diet-related illnesses like type 2 diabetes and hypertension.