Coca-Cola is funding a new “science-based solution” to the problem of obesity to America: one that focuses largely on getting in shape through exercise and less on cutting calories, such as its sugary soft drinks that many experts blame for widespread obesity.

Coca-Cola, which is the largest producer of soft drinks in the entire world, is teaming up with some scientists and is hoping to get the message out through medical journals, conferences, and social media by funding them through a nonprofit organization called the Global Energy Balance Network, according to a New York Times report.

This organization promotes exercise over fixating on how much and what people eat and drink, with vice president Steven N. Blair mocking the tendency in the scientific press to focus on diet and thereby blaming sugary drinks and fast food, he said according to the report, despite the fact that there is “no compelling evidence that that, in fact, is the cause.”

However, the vast majority of health experts appear to agree that diet is the most important factor when it comes to obesity, and that this attempt by Coke to downplay its role in the obesity epidemic is false and misleading, and that exercise has a minimal impact on weight compared to diet, the report states.

Why is Coca-Cola making this move? It could be due to the fact that there are more efforts to place a tax on sugary drinks like their beverages, and to remove them from schools, or even to stop marketing to children. Consumption of non-diet sodas has dipped by 25 percent in the last 20 years or so, according to the report, indicating that Coca-Cola may be losing significant market share due to this public health push.

With the political and public backlash against sugary soft drinks growing, Coca-Cola may be trying to reverse that trend, much like tobacco companies have done in the past.

Coke has donated a total of $1.5 million last year to the Global Energy Balance Network.