Indra Nooyi is subverting debate on obesity

Believe it or not, the Chief Executive Officer of one of world’s biggest food companies notorious for marketing its carbonated sugary drinks to children (thus contributing to the obesity epidemic) has been described as a leading obesity ‘ expert and policy maker’ by a top American public health outfit in its annual obesity report card.

Yes, Indra Nooyi — the bubbly CEO of PepsiCo — has earned this title in the report ‘ F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future’ released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Her two- page ‘ perspective’ on obesity in a major public health document is nothing short of a coup for food giants whose products are being blamed for the tsunami of lifestyle diseases all over. The ‘ perspective’ is motivated to water down the debate on obesity and the demands for imposing ‘ soda taxes’ to reduce consumption of fatty and sugary junk food — discussed in the very same report. This is not an isolated episode but part of a well crafted strategy by Big Food to masquerade as ‘ champion of nutrition and health’, basically to stall any regulation on junk food.

Nooyi cleverly hired some of the most ‘credible’ names in public health from the Center for Disease Control, Yale University, Mayo Clinic and the WHO, and gave them fancy titles like ‘ Head, Global Health Policy’, ‘ Vice- President, Global Nutrition’ etc. Her plan is to subvert scientific debate on obesity and lifestyle diseases and confuse consumers — what tobacco and alcohol industries have been doing for decades. PepsiCo’s health experts have begun infiltrating scientific journals.