Sugar Association

So there's also, like, this conspiracy that big sugar manufacturers and popular products that have a lot of sugar funded scientific studies that would show fat is worse for us than sugar.

I mean, look, we learned on our Coca-Cola episode in season two that in the '60s, a group called the Sugar Research Foundation, they had paid Harvard scientists a lot of money to publish a study that blamed saturated fat for America's heart disease problem, coincidentally.

Ain't that funny? Isn't that weird? Weird they didn't consider sugar.

That's so weird.

I actually bought into that.

And it wasn't until sometime later that I learned that the original premise for that paper in the New England Journal was funded by the Sugar Research Foundation.

To be clear, the data shows there's no correlation between dietary cholesterol from animal products and dairy and increased cardiovascular risk.

Many still believe that dietary fat leads to heart disease, but the data shows otherwise.

The first is Merisant, the Chicago-based company that now makes Equal.

And the second, the Sugar Association, the lobbying group for America's ten billion dollar natural sugar industry.

For years, sugar producers and artificial sweetener manufacturers have been enemies, but Splenda threatens them both.

And in two separate lawsuits, they latch on to the same target, Splenda's made from sugar claims.

In November 2004, Merisant files a lawsuit arguing that the made from sugar tagline deliberately deceives customers into believing Splenda is a natural product rather than a synthetic compound.

Merisant is seeking more than one hundred and seventy million dollars in compensation for lost sales.

The following month, the Sugar Association also sues, claiming the slogan confuses consumers and is damaging its sales.

McNeil issues a countersuit, accusing the Sugar Association of defamation by running a malicious smear campaign against Splenda.