US health official saw Coke as fitness ally

New York

AS health commissioner of Georgia, the state with one of the highest rates of child obesity, Brenda Fitzgerald faced two enormous challenges: How to get children to slim down and how to pay for it.

Her answer to the first was Power Up for 30, a programme pushing schools to give children 30 minutes more exercise each day, part of a statewide initiative called Georgia Shape. The answer to the second was Coca-Cola, the soft drink company and philanthropic powerhouse, which has paid for almost the entire Power Up programme.

Dr Fitzgerald is now in the spotlight as the Trump administration's newly appointed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, making her one of the nation's top public health officials. And she…