Soda Science

Reviews / Votes

"Greenhalgh's book is a painstaking . . . exercise using interviews, internal emails, and other source documents to trace the evolution and impact of what she terms 'soda science,' funded by corporations. . . . Greenhalgh's objective is to illustrate the way the food and drink industry has pushed its agenda and to hold companies to account. Pressure from her and others seems to have had an effect." * The Lancet * "The story [Greenhalgh] tells here is fascinating in its own right and a great read. It also makes one other point: social science methods are really useful in getting information unavailable any other way." -- Marion Nestle * Food Politics * "Soda Science is a critical contribution to a growing body of literature on corporate influence in science and public health. Greenhalgh's compelling narrative not only exposes the tactics used by Coca-Cola to protect its interests but also serves as a broader warning about the dangers of corporate-funded science. By shining light on how global corporations like Coca-Cola can shape scientific research and public policy to serve commercial rather than public interests, Greenhalgh has produced a work that is both timely and essential. This book is a must-read for anyone concerned with the intersections of science, policy, and corporate power in the modern world." * H-Sci-Med-Tech * "Study after study has shown that consumption of sugar sweetened beverages poses clear health risk. So how have the big soda companies, Coke and Pepsi in particular, reacted to this news and to public health policies that have aimed to restrict their business dealings like marketing, labeling, and even taxes? A fascinating and important part of this history has been told in a new book by [Greenhalgh] called Soda Science: Making the World Safe for Coca Cola." * Leading Voices in Food * "Greenhalgh's dogged research pulls from open records requests and ILSI tax forms to trace how Coke used its deep pockets to influence ostensibly independent researchers, offering multimillion-dollar grants to 'scientists whose research was friendly to corporate interests' and whom the company would then call on to represent its favored outlook at medical conferences across the globe." * Publishers Weekly * "In a deeply researched and engagingly written volume, Greenhalgh tells the story of the Coca-Cola Company's role in placing scientific emphasis on exercise (not diet) as the best means of weight control and reduction. Soda Science takes us from Coke's corporate headquarters to schools of public health in US universities and to China to explain the development and spread of a particular brand of product-defense science. . . . In Soda Science, Greenhalgh does something social scientists should do. She uses her training and her position as a faculty member (emerita) to investigate and document what are clearly abuses of corporate power." * American Ethnologist * "Greenhalgh's book is not simply about the manipulation of science by Big Food. It is also a groundbreaking analysis about the differences in the practice of science in the US (and other democracies) and in China (an authoritarian state-centrist regime). . . . Soda Science is an important book for understanding science and policy making in China." * China Quarterly * "Soda Science is not just a vivid expose, though it is that. It is also a toolkit. Greenhalgh equips the reader with a more-precise vocabulary for describing scientists' roles (e.g. quasi-corporate scientists), organizations such as ILSI (product-defense nonprofits), and the effect of a funding source on a scientist's thought process (incentivized reasoning). . . . Anyone who cares about science, integrity, and global capitalism should read this book, accessible and clearly written as it is." * Ambix * "Soda Science offers fruitful ground for exploring how emerging and current researchers might better protect their science from "serving two masters", to riff on Matthew 6:24's warning." -- Christy Spackman * Food Anthropology * "Soda Science is a fascinating, well-researched and important book. It is also inspiring. Greenhalgh illustrates how humanists and social scientists can do work that generates significant scholarly insight while also helping to address urgent social challenges." * British Journal for the History of Science * "For those of us who have long followed ILSI's efforts in the United States, the findings of this book are revelatory about how this organization operates on the ground. It is hard enough to get information about ILSI's actions in the United States, but even less is known about its actions in low- and middle-income countries. Because of Soda Science, we now know more about ILSI in China than we do about how this group operates anywhere else. This book is a compelling account of how Coca-Cola used ILSI to keep China from considering policies that might affect its profits. As an in-depth qualitative study, it makes an invaluable contribution to our understanding of how food companies use front groups to achieve policy objectives." * Pacific Affairs * "Through research on soda-defense science, Greenhalgh demonstrates a strong sense of social responsibility as a scholar and raises insightful questions about scientific research in contemporary society, where corporate funding remains a primary resource for researchers worldwide. Soda Science effectively reveals how business interests and state power can distort food science, thereby negatively affecting public health." * Global Asias * "Recommended." * Choice * "There is a secret world of corporate science out there, where powerful companies and allied scientists shape research to serve industry interests. Susan Greenhalgh, an anthropologist and specialist on contemporary China, exposes this hidden world in her book, Soda Science. Blending investigative storytelling with scholarly analysis, this book reveals how Coca-Cola used front groups to distort science and manipulate public policies to protect its profits." * Down To Earth * "Brava! Greenhalgh's Soda Science is a deeply researched, well-documented expose on how Coca-Cola and other major food corporations hired mercenary scientists to mislead the public into believing that as long as you exercised, you could consume plenty of calories and not gain weight. That initiative fell apart in the United States, but Coca-Cola and its accomplices were able to infiltrate the public health system of China, helping stop the world's most populous country from instituting programs that would make its people healthier." -- David Michaels, author of The Triumph of Doubt: Dark Money and the Science of Deception "Soda Science is a brilliant story of corporate science, carefully researched and compellingly told. When the US obesity epidemic was a set of statistical warning signs, Coca-Cola and other makers of ultraprocessed food and drink started up scientific research programs focused on exercise. A squad of industry-supported scientists and research organizations steered discussions away from calories consumed and toward calories spent. They taught people to think in terms of small changes in daily activity-ten or fifteen minutes of moderate exercise each day. Through seemingly independent non-profits, the industry then exported the model, to Mexico, Latin America, and especially to China, the world's biggest market and biggest fan of science-based policy." -- Sergio Sismondo, author of Ghost-Managed Medicine: Big Pharma's Invisible Hands