Behind Scenes at Health Dept: "What Can We Get Away With?"

The city's Health Department seems willing to do whatever it takes to get you off the soda pop, even if it means glossing over certain facts about soft drinks' potential to fatten you up. According to e-mails obtained by the Times through the state's Freedom of Information Law, Health Department officials, including Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley, decided to overrule objections from some experts who said the "Pouring on the Pounds" campaign was misleading. At one point, the department's chief nutritionist simply asked Harvard and Columbia professsors, "What can we get away with?"

At issue was the campaign's assertion that "drinking 1 can of soda a day can make you 10 pounds fatter a year." As officials were working on the video component of the campaign, which shows a guy drinking globs of fat from a can of soda, the Health Department's marketing campaign manager raised doubts about the takeaway, writing, "I think Dr. Farley really wants to say something about 'gaining 15 pounds of fat in a year.' We know gaining and losing weight isn’t that cut and dry — some people can drink and eat whatever they want and still maintain their weight without doing an incredible amount of exercise to burn off the extra calories. I think going this route would raise a lot of skepticism within the public about our message."

Another doctor consulted by the department said their underlying premise was seriously flawed, because "you would need to make the case that you are talking about a can of soda more per day relative to energy expenditure." But in the end, it was decided that going viral was more important than going accurate. "I think what people fear is getting fat," Farley concluded in one e-mail. The man sure knows what keeps us up at night (lying in a pile of potato chip crumbs)! Here's the video, which is, as the DOH's nutritionist put it, "deliciously disgusting."

In a statement, the Health Department tells us, "We included the fact that drinking even one can of soda a day can make you 10 pounds fatter in a year in this anti-obesity campaign after vigorous internal discussion among many staff of the agency. This kind of discussion is part of any scientifically sound decision-making process, but usually occurs outside of public view. The link between sugar-sweetened beverages and obesity is well established in the scientific literature and widely accepted among nutrition experts."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in Food on October 29, 2010 3:05 PM

Comments [rss]

random transplant

Idiots.

Didn't any of you live life in Highschool?

The second a kid suspects 'The Man' is lying, said kid will consume more of the substance in question.

Far, far many people loose weight despite a soda habit for this to appear credible to its critical target audience.

insidetheapple

At the end of the ad, they promote low fat milk as an alternative to soda. But just FYI, a 12-oz can of Coke has 120 calories; the same amount of low fat milk has 180 calories. I'm not pointing this out to say that soda is better for you than milk, merely to draw attention to the fact that if a person substitutes an equal amount of low fat milk for their daily can of Coke they will be consuming an extra 21,900 calories a year.

juliec

We're in the middle of an obesity epidemic, where a large percentage of the population is on its way to becoming so fat that their bodies no longer function properly -- if they're not there already. If we assume this is the target audience of this ad campaign, then yes! they are more likely to gain 15 pounds than 0 pounds per year because of their soda drinking. Cater to your audience, right?

It seems what we can get away with is placating an already-fat nation that they're doing the right thing by drinking sugary beverages and giving them to our children.

And let's not even start on the addictive qualities of these drinks, the rampant misreporting of their contents (including caloric information), the negative effects they have on your appearance and look at the most important thing: Who stands to gain the most money by convincing people that soda is good for you?

hotstepper

who exactly is promoting soda as a healthy beverage? and why is it too much to ask that our government is at least honest in its taxpayer funded propaganda?

juliec

Anyone who gains money from the 'soda' industry is in/directly promoting it as a healthy beverage by condoning its distribution to people. (The same way tobacco profiteers indicate that smoking is not that bad for you.)

The government is being honest in this instance with its taxpayer-funded propaganda: drinking 1 can of soda a day can make you 10 pounds fatter a year. That is patently true.

I've passively read your comments for a while, hotstepper, and I like how confrontational and honest you are. However, your contributions to government-related issues tend to be inflammatory and poorly-researched, based on generalized knowledge that doesn't necessarily apply to the topic at hand. I know I'm in no position to make this request, but you would be far more useful if you referenced particular instances of government corruption instead of applying it to everything. You just sound angry.

healthstudent

Exactly.

healthstudent

Why is this news? Because the boss overruled his subordinates or because he made a "controversial" ad?

Yes, weight gain calculations vary depending on your basal metabolic rate, but the basic message is still the same, and it should be promoted by the health department: If you drink soda, you will gain weight.

One can of Coke is 140 calories. Multiply that times 365 days, and you're looking at 51,100 extra calories. It's thought that on average, an extra 3,500 calories are needed to gain a pound. So, if you're average, you're gaining 14.6 pounds. (JDS, if you're counting, that's more than 10.)

juliec

Nice math! Now imagine if the caloric count were 85% higher than the nutritional information indicates.

And! that the concentration of fructose was significantly higher than reported.

Eek!

http://bk.ly/vmp

Ed

Unfortunately, this happens more than people think.

Bureaucrat or office holder X gets it into their head to discourage people from consuming some food or drug, for whatever reason. Since the scientific evidence doesn't support their claims, they ordered it "sexed up" to appear that it does.

If it happens with wars, it can happen with other stuff.

BDS=(Boycott.Divest.Sanction)

skewing the facts

misleading, manipulating

being unethical

these are tacticts you'd expect from a shady businesses, not your elected goverment. Shame.