“If you look at just the independent studies, it becomes exceedingly clear that these drinks are associated with diabetes and obesity,” said Dean Schillinger, the lead author of the report and chief of the University of California, San Francisco, division of general internal medicine at San Francisco General Hospital. “Yet there are pockets of society that believe that they don’t cause these diseases because of the controversy that industry has created.”

The notion that sugary drinks play a major role in the spread of obesity has prompted authorities and health officials to increasingly call for soda taxes and similar measures aimed at curbing their consumption. But the industry has pushed back, calling soda taxes discriminatory and arguing that there is no proof that sugary drinks have played a disproportionate role in the obesity epidemic.

The U.C.S.F. findings are the latest evidence that the beverage industry has supported research to downplay the health hazards of sugary drinks. Nutrition experts say the industy-funded science has been used to influence public policy and nutrition recommendations.

Last year, an article in The New York Times reported that Coca-Cola was providing millions in funding to scientists who sought to downplay the link between sugary drinks and obesity. Other reports revealed that the beverage industry was paying dietitians and health experts to write social media posts opposing soda taxes and encouraging consumers to drink soda as a healthy snack.

As a result of those reports, Coca-Cola, the world’s largest sugary drink producer, announced that it would pull back from its funding of health experts and obesity research as part of an effort to be more transparent.