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Coca-Cola defends cans as obesity row rages

Coca-Cola Amatil has said it would prefer to see more Australians drinking less of its products instead of a few people drinking a lot amidst a renewed push against the soft drink industry to tackle obesity.

CCA maintained its high-sugar products, like a 375ml can of Coke are not harmful if one can is consumed a week.

According to CCA managing director Alison Watkins, one can a week is not necessarily considered to be unhealthy.

"We would much rather have lots of people drinking small amounts of our product than to have a small number of people drinking a lot of our product," Ms Watkins said

"We are really wanting to make sure that we are part of solving what is undoubtedly a big problem for society -and that is obesity."

Coca-Cola Amatil was responding to criticisms by leading researcher Professor Marion Nestle from New York University.

Professor Nestle is on sabbatical with the University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre and delivered a lecture on Tuesday night to a packed theatre.

She claimed soft drink companies around the world were distorting the truth about their products to keep profits growing.

"There is so much evidence now that drinking sugars in form of liquids is not good for health," she said.

Official figures show that more than half of Australians are overweight or obese. More than a quarter fall into the obese category.

Coca-Cola Amatil told the ABC it will be disclosing details of its funding to research organisations in a couple of months. 

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