Coke thinks exercise is more important than diet; why that’s bull

This weekend the New York Times reported that Coca-Cola was funding studies and marketing efforts to convince the American public that when it comes to losing weight — it’s not about what or how much you eat but rather how much you exercise.

“The beverage giant has teamed up with influential scientists who are advancing this message in medical journals, at conferences and through social media,” The Times wrote. “Coke has provided financial and logistical support to a new nonprofit organization called the Global Energy Balance Network, which promotes the argument that weight-conscious Americans are overly fixated on how much they eat and drink while not paying enough attention to exercise.”

Many of those in the health and science community say that this is misleading. Here’s just two reasons why:

1) Cutting calories is far easier than burning it off through exercise.

Business Insider interviewed: Philip Stanforth, a professor of exercise science at the University of Texas, in regards to what was more important, exercise or dieting. Although Prof Stanforth conceded that both were highly important he laid it out pretty simply with the following:

“Keep in mind you’d have to walk 35 miles to burn 3,500 calories. That’s a lot of walking. But if you look at eating, a Snickers bar might have, say, 500 calories. It’s going to be a lot easier to cut the Snickers bar than to do 5 miles of walking every day.”

2) Sugary drinks and fast foods are proven to be bad for you.

An article from Harvard Univesity’s medical school puts it plain and simple that those ate too much sugar had an increased risk of dying with heart disease. Citing a 15 year long study, Harvard Medical School wrote that “participants who took in 25% or more of their daily calories as sugar were more than twice as likely to die from heart disease as those whose diets included less than 10% added sugar. Overall, the odds of dying from heart disease rose in tandem with the percentage of sugar in the diet.”

What’s one of the leading sources of all this sugar in the American diet? You guessed it soda.

Matt Lee is a Web producer for Metro New York. He writes about almost everything and anything. Talk to him (or yell at him) on Twitter so he doesn’t feel lonely@mattlee2669.