<em>They may seem like odd couples, partners from opposite poles with a passion to help you lead a healthier life.</em></p><p><em>Or maybe it&rsquo;s about money.</em></p><p><em>Soda-pop makers courting medical groups. Potato-chip producers curling up with dietitians. Beer companies linking arms with traffic-safety advocates.</em></p><p><em>These marriages of convenience have become an increasingly common part of corporate America. That leaves consumers and government regulators wondering if we can trust all the advice coming from organizations that buddy up with industry. </em></p><p>The latest tryst with a twist involves the American Academy of Family Physicians. The Leawood-based organization represents about 94,000 doctors who struggle to get their patients to shed excess pounds.</p><p>From across the room, Coca-Cola bats its eyelashes. The queen of carbonated drinks is fending off attacks that its sugar-sweetened products promote obesity and should be taxed.</p><p>The two organizations last month sealed a deal that had Coca-Cola giving the academy a grant in the mid six figures to come up with health messages for the public about beverages and sweeteners. </p><p>The academy and Coca-Cola said the information would be based on objective science.</p><p>But doctors, nutrition experts and consumer advocates charge that Coca-Cola is proffering the money just to improve its reputation and possibly to buy the academy&rsquo;s silence.</p><p>In various toasts to our health, bedfellows of the strangest kind are everywhere and go back decades. The study of alcoholism owes much to the distilled-spirits industry, which teamed with Cornell University and the National Institute of Health on research as early as the 1940s.</p><p>Now an increasingly skeptical and health-conscious public, with so much information at its fingertips, isn&rsquo;t sure whose advice to trust, said Shelly Rodgers, a University of Missouri researcher of strategic communications: &ldquo;Consumers instantly see the conflict and go, &lsquo;What?<em> What?&rsquo;</em>&ensp;&rdquo;</p><p>The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently announced it would take aim at questionable health claims on food packaging. Some logos that attest to a product&rsquo;s nutritional value &mdash; such as the &ldquo;Smart Choice&rdquo; checkmark on Froot Loops &mdash; are backed by reputable professional associations in partnership with cereal mills and snack makers.</p><p>For companies such as Coca-Cola, it&rsquo;s about &ldquo;innocence by association. They want to look good,&rdquo; said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer group that ties soft drinks to obesity. </p><p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no better way to burnish their health image than to stand shoulder to shoulder with a respected medical organization.&rdquo;</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Ties to drug companies</span></strong></p><p>Soft drinks have been blamed for contributing to tooth decay and the obesity epidemic. Health advocates propose taxing sugar-sweetened drinks by the ounce so that fewer people swallow big gulps.</p><p>Coke and other soft drink companies have frequently associated themselves with medical groups that advocate exercise, good oral hygiene and healthful diets.</p><p>Coca-Cola is a founding partner of the American College of Sports Medicine&rsquo;s &ldquo;Exercise is Medicine&rdquo; program. </p><p>In 2003, the Coca-Cola Foundation gave the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry&rsquo;s foundation a reported $1 million for research and education. </p><p>The American Academy of Family Physicians made its deal with Coca-Cola as it looked for ways to raise money without boosting membership dues, said the academy executive vice president, Douglas Henley.