The credentialing arm of the ADA approves a continuing professional course sponsored by Coca-Cola. Here’s a direct quote from the course promotion:
“Learning Objectives: After completing this self-study learning module, health professionals will be able to identify the most common misconceptions among parents regarding the safety and effectiveness of nutrients and food ingredients such as fluoride, sugar, artificial colors and nonnutritive sweeteners in children’s diets.”
The ADA accepted McDonald’s as a major sponsor of an Israeli nutrition conference in June 2012.
The ADA receives about $1 million a year in payments from the pharmaceutical industry and won’t say how much it gets from Coca-Cola, Hershey, the National Dairy Council, Mars, PepsiCo, and other sponsors!

The ADA has allowed promotion of poor nutrition choices at their conferences:
“Smart Choices” program called Fruit Loops a better choice for parents and kids in Oct. 2008.
While in 2007, GlaxoSmithKline was allowed to promote their first over-the-counter diet pill, Alli, even though the drug’s side effects such as hard-to-control bowel movements are common. The FDA has since issued warnings to Alli, noting the possibly of severe liver damage and consumer groups are asking the FDA to remove Alli from the market.

Its gotten so bad Rob Herring has written a song about the ADA’s conflict of interest!
And now the ADA, renamed the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND), is launching a campaign to have states restrict all nutrition consulting exclusively to members of the ADA/AND even though non-AND members may have Master’s degrees and PhDs in nutrition!