(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Calley Means, co-founder of TrueMedicine Care, published a thread to Twitter detailing the relationship between soda companies and food regulation, and claimed that giant soda companies paid off several institutions to paint their opponents as racist.
Means claimed that he worked as a consultant for the Coca-Cola Company ensuring that proposals for sugar taxes failed by accusing them of racism and classism, and ensuring soda is included in food stamp programs.
“I say Coke’s policies are evil because I saw inside the room. The first step in playbook was paying the NAACP + other civil rights groups to call opponents racist,” Means explained.
“Coke gave millions to the NAACP and the Hispanic Federation—both directly and through front groups like the American Beverage Association. This picked up in 2011-2013—when the Farm Bill and soda taxes were under consideration.”
According to the Post Millennial, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, the American Beverage Association and Kraft Foods—which sells sugary drinks like Kool Aid and CapriSun—have gone to great lengths to paint people attempting to implement soda taxes and other health measures as racist and bigoted.
“The conversations inside these rooms was depressingly transactional,” Means explained. “‘We (Coke) will give you money. You need to paint opponents of us as racist.’ The effort was successful, and the message was carried in thousands of articles between 2011-2013.”
The Food and Drug Administration paid off professors, researchers and think tanks to create falsified research claiming that soda taxes hurt the poor and that soda does not cause obesity.
All of the companies also donate to anti-hunger groups, such as the Food Research and Action Center and Feeding America, pushing their product on poor people.
“Coke’s position was clear: soda is one of the cheapest ways to get calories – a flagrantly inaccurate statement when factoring in the health consequences.
“Despite high rates of obesity in the populations they work for, groups with a long history of funding by the beverage industry are now fighting measures like New York City’s stalled soda ban,” Means added, noting a 2013 article in the New York Times.
Means’ Twitter account is now under review for no apparent reason.
“Is this because @CocaCola is a huge advertiser on Twitter?” he asked.
I guess big sugar is after me.
Lost my check and account is under review.
Is this because @CocaCola is a huge advertiser on Twitter?
What’s going on @TwitterBlue @TwitterSupport @elonmusk
These are direly important issues… 50% of Americans are now at least pre-diabetic… pic.twitter.com/xIl59uSMGQ
— Calley Means (@calleymeans) January 3, 2023
