By Jordan Heller
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — In the run-up to last year's New York City media campaign warning that drinking one can of soda a day "can make you 10 pounds fatter a year," Health Department officials argued over the scientific validity of such a claim, according to internal e-mails obtained by The New York Times.
The e-mails, acquired through the state's Freedom of Information Law, include one where nutritionist Cathy Nonas warns that the scientific community "will make mincemeat out of us," according to the paper.
"As we get into this exacting science, the idea of a sugary drink becoming fat is absurd," she wrote.
Two of Nonas's colleagues joined her in dissent over the ad's message, arguing that the conversion of calories into fat depends on many varying factors, such as exercise, genes, gender and age, the Times reported.
"Basic premise doesn't work," Dr. Michael Rosenbaum, a professor of pediatrics and clinical medicine at Columbia, wrote in an e-mail, according to the paper.
But Dr. Thomas A. Farley, the city's health commissioner, overruled his colleagues, arguing that the chief concern was effectively motivating people to change thier behavior.
"I think what people fear is getting fat," Farley wrote, according to the Times.
The video was released late last year. It shows a soda can pouring fat into a pint glass and then a young man drinking it down as the greasy, gelatinous substance dribbles down his chin.
As of Thursday, the video has been viewed more than 700,000 times on YouTube.
