Does milk lower blood pressure? Does juice prevent heart disease? Beverage studies were four to eight times more likely to reach sweet conclusions about health effects when industry was footing the bill, a new report contends.

Its authors claim to have done the first systematic analysis of such studies published from 1999 through 2003 in hundreds of journals around the world.

"We found evidence that's strongly suggestive of bias," said Dr. David Ludwig, an obesity specialist at Children's Hospital Boston who led the work, which was published Monday in the online science journal PLoS Medicine. The consumer advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest also participated.

"I don't blame researchers for this problem. I think most are highly ethical and dedicated to science. The problem is that when government underfunds nutrition research, industry money becomes hard to resist," he said.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/thrive/2007/jan/08/010804168.html

[Who cares about bias? Wouldn't it be much more interesting to know the actual facts, e.g. how many people urinate on your beverages and what diet they follow to give the brilliant after taste?]