"Multinational food, drink and alcohol companies are using strategies similar to those employed by the tobacco industry to undermine public health policies, health experts said on Tuesday," Reuters reports. In a study published in the Lancet, "[t]he researchers said that through the aggressive marketing of ultra-processed food and drink, multinational companies were now major drivers of the world's growing epidemic of chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes," the news agency writes (Kelland, 2/11). "Multinational firms have distorted research finding, paid large sums to build relationships with health bodies and lobbied governments to block health regulations, according to the paper published in the Lancet," the Independent states (Brown, 2/12). "The researchers were unable to find any health benefit to industry involvement in voluntary regulation or public-private partnerships," the Guardian writes, adding, "Industry documents, they say, reveal how companies shape public-health legislation and avoid regulation" (Boseley, 2/12).