Tales from the Corporate University
By The story of the chocolate milk ‘study’ at the University of Maryland shouldn’t really be a surprise to anyone paying attention, unfortunately. There are two things I find particularly striking about it, though. First, the shamelessness of it; there didn’t seem to be much of an effort to make this look like serious research or otherwise disguise what was going on:
The first problem here is that the research itself is breathtakingly suspect. There was no comparison group or treatment in the study. The scientists didn’t even test another brand of chocolate milk. They only looked at a Fifth Quarter Fresh, which its maker claims comes from “super, natural cows.”
Worse, the scientists didn’t even bother to publish their results before publicizing them, according to an excellent probe of the release by the health news watchdog Health News Review.
Despite all these red flags, the university touted the study: “Fifth Quarter Fresh, a new, high-protein chocolate milk,” the release reads, “helped high school football players improve their cognitive and motor function over the course of a season, even after experiencing concussions.” The milk manufacturer also featured the “findings” on its own website.
The second element to the story I find particularly striking is the bargain-pricing strategy for their integrity:
As it turns out, the maker of Fifth Quarter Fresh chocolate milk — which comes from a dairy cooperative in Hagerstown, Maryland — funded 10 percent of the study, and the university funded the rest.