By The Kansas City Star Editorial Board

Last year, a committee of experts published an alarming report on childhood obesity for a scholarly journal published by the American Academy of Family Physicians.

The committee listed a litany of dietary habits that cause children to pack on the pounds. First on the list: “Frequently consuming fast food and large volumes of sweet beverages (e.g., fruit juices, soft drinks).”

The report recommended eliminating sweet drinks entirely or severely limiting their consumption.

That requires willpower, of course. And unfortunately, the Leawood-based American Academy of Family Physicians has set a poor example when it comes to resisting the lure of the soft drink industry.

The academy has accepted a grant from Coca-Cola, reportedly in the neighborhood of $500,000. It will use the money to create educational materials about drinks and sweeteners for its consumer Web site, FamilyDoctor.org. Leftover funds will go into the academy’s general budget.

In return, Coca-Cola gets what? Legitimacy, for one thing. Consumers are less likely to consider a product unhealthy if it’s listed as a partner with a leading physicians’ alliance.

In a more shameful scenario, the soft drink manufacturer would succeed in muting the message that the academy puts out to its consumers.

Coca-Cola would love for the academy to adhere to the corporate line that sweetened drinks account for only a small percentage of the average American’s daily calorie consumption, and lack of exercise is the primary culprit in the obesity epidemic.
Academy leaders say they won’t allow the hefty corporate grant to compromise the organization’s integrity.

“We have total editorial control, as we always have, of FamilyDoctor.org,” said Executive Vice President Douglas Henley.
The academy will use the grant funds to update content on its Web site, he said, and will post studies and information about different beverages and, in particular, sugary drinks. The site should be upgraded in the first quarter of 2010.

One of the studies featured would be the one published last year in the academy’s own journal, Henley said. The research showed that diseases that once affected only adults, like type 2 diabetes, are showing up in children. Nearly 14 percent of children between the ages of 2 and 5 are overweight, and the percentages go up from there.

Henley added, “I would hope folks won’t rush to judgment but hold us to the content we’re going to put on FamilyDoctor.org.”

But consumers accessing that information will soon be informed that information about soft drinks is being sponsored in part by Coca-Cola, “a proud partner of FamilyDoctor.org.”

That’s a mixed message, regardless of the content.