Sweet and Deadly: How Coca-Cola Spreads Disinformation and Makes Us Sick by Murray Carpenter

Book Review 

Title: Sweet and Deadly: How Coca-Cola Spreads Disinformation and Makes Us Sick by Murray Carpenter 

Genre: Non-Fiction, Health, Science  

Rating: 4 Stars 

Murray Carpenter’s Sweet and Deadly: How Coca-Cola Spreads Disinformation and Makes Us Sick is a thoroughly researched, compelling, and often infuriating investigation into one of the world’s most recognisable brands and the ways in which corporate power can influence public understanding of health. Published by MIT Press in 2025, the book examines Coca-Cola’s decades-long efforts to shape the scientific and political conversation surrounding sugar-sweetened beverages, particularly the company’s attempts to influence research, public-health messaging, and perceptions of what causes obesity and chronic disease. Carpenter, an experienced journalist who has written for publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wired, National Geographic, and NPR, approaches the subject as an investigative journalist rather than simply an anti-Coca-Cola polemicist. 

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The result is an eye-opening book that demonstrates just how complicated the relationship between science, industry, politics, marketing, and public health can become when enormous amounts of money are involved. Although some of Carpenter’s arguments occasionally feel repetitive and the book’s conclusion is hardly surprising to anyone already familiar with the history of food-industry lobbying, Sweet and Deadly succeeds in presenting a detailed account of how corporate influence can operate behind the scenes. Informative, accessible, and frequently disturbing, it earns a strong 4 out of 5 stars. 

At the centre of the book is a deceptively simple question: how did Coca-Cola manage to maintain its image as a symbol of happiness, friendship, refreshment, and everyday enjoyment while the scientific evidence surrounding excessive consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages became increasingly concerning? Carpenter’s answer is that Coca-Cola did not simply sell drinks; it helped shape the conversation surrounding those drinks. The book investigates a sophisticated network involving researchers, universities, scientific organisations, industry groups, public-relations campaigns, and front organisations that helped promote narratives favourable to the beverage industry. Carpenter’s central argument is that the company and its allies repeatedly sought to shift attention away from sugar and towards alternative explanations for obesity and chronic disease, particularly physical inactivity. 

One of the book’s greatest strengths is that Carpenter does not limit himself to explaining why sugary drinks can be harmful. The science of nutrition is important, but his real subject is information: who controls it, who funds it, how it is presented to the public, and how easily apparently independent scientific messages can become influenced by commercial interests. This makes Sweet and Deadly much more interesting than a simple book warning readers to drink less soda. Carpenter is essentially investigating the machinery behind public doubt. 

This becomes particularly compelling when he examines Coca-Cola’s relationships with scientists and health organisations. The book describes how industry funding could create networks of influence that were not always immediately obvious to the public. One particularly important example is the Global Energy Balance Network, an organisation that promoted the idea that physical activity deserved greater emphasis in discussions about obesity. The network was later revealed to have received funding from Coca-Cola, and the controversy surrounding it became a significant example of how corporate interests could become intertwined with apparently independent health advocacy. 

Carpenter’s discussion of these networks is one of the most effective parts of the book because he demonstrates that disinformation does not necessarily require outright fabrication. Sometimes influence operates through emphasis, omission, framing, funding, and the selection of which questions receive attention. A company does not necessarily have to convince people that sugar is harmless; it may be enough to convince them that other factors are equally or more important. This subtlety makes the book’s argument considerably more disturbing. 

The comparison between the beverage industry and other industries with histories of manipulating scientific debate is also effective. Carpenter repeatedly draws parallels with tobacco, trans fats, and opioids, showing how industries facing potentially damaging evidence can develop similar strategies for protecting their reputations and profits. The comparison is particularly powerful because it demonstrates that the tactics surrounding Coca-Cola are not necessarily unique. Instead, they form part of a much larger history of corporate influence over scientific and public discourse. 

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the book is how unsurprising some of its revelations may feel. Most readers already understand that drinking large quantities of sugary soda is not particularly healthy. The basic conclusion that Coca-Cola has a financial incentive to sell as much of its product as possible is hardly revolutionary. Some reader reactions have made precisely this criticism, arguing that the book spends considerable time establishing something that many people already intuitively understand. 

However, I think this criticism misses one of Carpenter’s most important points. The book is not really trying to reveal that Coca-Cola wants to make money. It is demonstrating how far a corporation can go to protect the cultural reputation of a profitable product, and how difficult it can be for consumers to distinguish genuinely independent scientific information from messaging influenced by industry interests. The details are therefore much more interesting than the conclusion itself. 

Carpenter’s journalistic approach is another major strength. Rather than relying entirely on secondary sources, he draws upon interviews with researchers and doctors, archival material, scientific literature, and court records. He also investigated a lawsuit involving two Washington, D.C., pastors and Coca-Cola and the American Beverage Association. This gives the narrative an investigative quality that makes it considerably more substantial than a general-interest book about the dangers of sugar. 

The book’s structure also reflects the investigative nature of the subject. Carpenter moves through different stages of the controversy, beginning with the broader history and gradually narrowing his attention towards specific campaigns, organisations, scientific disputes, and legal battles. The published contents include sections such as “CarboNation,” “A Balancing Act 2010–2015,” “Astroturf and Taxes,” “Coke in Court,” and “The Noose Tightens.” This organisation helps demonstrate how different elements of corporate influence fit together. 

One particularly effective subject is the fight over soda taxes. Carpenter illustrates how public-health initiatives designed to discourage excessive consumption can provoke considerable opposition from beverage companies and industry organisations. What initially appears to be a straightforward political debate about taxation becomes a much larger battle involving lobbying, public relations, advertising, scientific messaging, and community politics. This section demonstrates particularly well that the influence of a corporation extends far beyond what appears on the supermarket shelf. 

The book is also strongest when Carpenter examines communities disproportionately affected by the health consequences associated with sugar-sweetened beverages. He discusses the greater burden experienced by Black, brown, and low-income communities, adding an important social dimension to the discussion. The issue therefore becomes about more than individual consumer choice. Advertising, product availability, economic inequality, and targeted marketing can all influence who consumes these products and who ultimately bears the greatest consequences.

This is an important distinction because one potential weakness of books about nutrition is that they can place too much responsibility on individuals. It is easy to say that people should simply make healthier choices, but Carpenter asks readers to consider the environment in which those choices occur. If a company spends enormous resources ensuring that its products are affordable, ubiquitous, heavily advertised, associated with happiness, and surrounded by favourable messaging, then individual decision-making does not happen in a vacuum. 

Carpenter’s writing style is generally clear and accessible. Despite dealing with scientific research, corporate structures, and legal disputes, he avoids burying readers under excessive technical language. This makes Sweet and Deadly suitable for readers who have little prior knowledge of nutrition science or corporate lobbying. His background in journalism is apparent in the way he introduces complex issues through individual stories before connecting them to the larger argument. 

However, the book does occasionally become repetitive. Because Carpenter returns repeatedly to the central theme of corporate influence, some sections begin to feel as though they are reinforcing conclusions that have already been established. The pattern of corporate funding, favourable research, public-relations, messaging, and political influence becomes familiar quickly. A slightly tighter edit might have made the argument even more powerful by allowing the strongest examples to carry more weight. 

There are also moments where Carpenter’s language becomes sufficiently forceful that readers may question whether the book is maintaining enough distance from its subject. This is an exposé, and Carpenter is clearly critical of Coca-Cola, so a degree of indignation is entirely understandable. Nevertheless, investigative nonfiction is at its most persuasive when the evidence speaks for itself. Occasionally, the rhetoric feels stronger than necessary when the documented evidence is already damning enough. 

This is perhaps the main reason I would give the book four rather than five stars. I found the research convincing and the subject fascinating, but I occasionally felt that Carpenter was making the same point multiple times. Some readers may also find the conclusion somewhat predictable, particularly if they have already read books about the food industry’s manipulation of nutritional science. 

Nevertheless, the book’s greatest achievement is that it makes readers think differently about how knowledge is produced. After reading Sweet and Deadly, it becomes difficult to view nutritional advice as entirely separate from the financial interests of the organisations funding research, sponsoring conferences, supporting scientists, or lobbying governments. That does not mean that every industry-funded study is automatically false, nor does Carpenter’s argument require such an extreme conclusion. Instead, the book encourages a healthier scepticism: ask who funded the research, what questions were asked, which questions were ignored, and who benefits from the resulting narrative. 

That lesson extends well beyond Coca-Cola. The book is ultimately about corporate power and the manipulation of uncertainty. Coca-Cola happens to provide an extraordinarily effective case study because of the cultural importance of its brand and the enormous scale of the soft-drink industry. Carpenter’s investigation therefore has implications for pharmaceuticals, food manufacturers, alcohol companies, technology firms, and any other industry whose profits depend upon persuading consumers that its products are safe, desirable, or beneficial. 

Perhaps ironically, one of the most effective things Sweet and Deadly does is make Coca-Cola itself feel strangely fascinating. The company is no longer simply a manufacturer of fizzy drinks, but a case study in branding, lobbying, public relations, scientific influence, and corporate power. The contrast between the cheerful image Coca-Cola has cultivated for generations and the darker history Carpenter describes is central to the book’s impact. 

Ultimately, Sweet and Deadly is an important and highly readable piece of investigative nonfiction. It does not merely tell readers that sugary drinks are unhealthy; it asks why the public has historically received such confusing messages about them and who benefits from that confusion. Carpenter’s extensive research, interviews, archival work, and examination of court records give the book considerable credibility, while his accessible writing makes a complicated subject surprisingly easy to follow. 

The book is not perfect. Its central conclusion will hardly surprise anyone already familiar with the relationship between Big Food and public health, and some sections repeat the same argument often enough that the narrative occasionally loses momentum. Carpenter’s strongly critical tone may also feel somewhat one-sided to readers looking for a more detached academic treatment. Nevertheless, these shortcomings do little to undermine the book’s overall value. 

Overall, I would give Sweet and Deadly: How Coca-Cola Spreads Disinformation and Makes Us Sick 4 out of 5 stars. It is an illuminating, meticulously researched, and often infuriating examination of how one of the world’s most powerful consumer brands has influenced public conversation surrounding nutrition and health. Murray Carpenter succeeds in showing that the most dangerous form of corporate misinformation is not necessarily an outright lie, but the carefully constructed narrative that causes people to doubt, overlook, or misunderstand inconvenient evidence. Whether or not every reader is persuaded by every aspect of Carpenter’s argument, the book leaves behind an important lesson: when enormous financial interests are involved, understanding the science is only half the battle, the other half is understanding who is paying to shape the story. 

Buy it here: 

Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk                                amazon.com  

Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk                                   amazon.com