July 11, 2011; Source: thegrocer.co.uk | When the core business of a funder directly conflicts with your mission, it is probably time to stop and think about the tainting possibilities, but when you deride others for their lack of integrity in taking similar funding while still accepting it yourself . . .

This is the case for a U.K. charity, the National Obesity Forum, which took £50,000 from Coca-Cola in January to promote low calorie sweeteners. The donation was accepted just shortly after the organization had expressed that it was horror struck over the government’s policy of accepting funding from companies for its national health program. The NPQ Newswire has documented a number of such “charitable” endeavors on the part of junk food companies in the area of obesity prevention.

It is worth repeating what many of you have heard over the years from study after study –not only are some sweeteners in use by Coca-Cola suspected to carry health risks of their own, but a more recent study suggests that those who drink two or more diet sodas a day actually gain waistline inches at five times the rate of those that do not.

It is also worth repeating that your reputation is a huge and sometimes unrecognized part of your asset base. Guard it well.—Ruth McCambridge

We ask readers to finish this statement: Coca Cola funding obesity prevention is like…