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Private emails between employees at the Coca-Cola Co. and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been exposed in a new research paper, raising questions about just how extensive of a relationship the soda company has had with the nation's public health agency. The paper, published Tuesday in the journal The Milbank Quarterly includes excerpts from emails and suggests that current and former Coca-Cola staff tried to influence the CDC by attempting to frame the debate around whether sugar-sweetened beverages play a role in America's obesity epidemic, as well as trying to lobby decision-makers. (Howard, 1/29)

The Milbank report says such exchanges underscore the need for greater transparency and conflict-of-interest guidelines at organizations involved in public health. It says there's still relatively little known about the extent of the food industry's influence, but that there is growing understanding of such dynamics. Gary Ruskin, one of the report's authors, said the increased awareness is partly the result of "the sheer enormity of the obesity epidemic." (1/29)