They're asking a valid question everyone should have in the back of their minds when reading study results, no need to eye roll. It's not some crazy conspiracy theory that corporations will happily fund studies in the hopes of cherry picking results in their favor. It's bad science and it happens all the time unfortunately. Sometimes bad science makes it into good journals, and it can take years to figure out that the study was flawed due to bias.

I was just reading this morning about the immunologist Jacques Benveniste who got his study published in Nature, he claimed that water had memory and that antibodies imprinted on diluted water. It was such a bold claim that it made international news and quacks everywhere ran with it. It took some investigation to determine the scientists Benveniste was working with were paid off by a company that sold homeopathic products. There's also the douche who got the MMR vaccine linked to autism. Despite the study being debunked, it's an idea that pervades mom groups across the globe and has resulted in a resurgence of measles that never had to happen.

Are you not aware that "big sugar" is a massive offender of cherry picking data and funding studies that make their competition look bad? It's a large contributor to the obesity problems of the Western world

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/13/493739074/50-years-ago-sugar-industry-quietly-paid-scientists-to-point-blame-at-fat

Ah ha! I don't know why you were down-voted here because this explains a lot. One must always consider the source of the research funding. It's best to have as independent and objective research as possible. Clearly Big Sugar is concerned about the loss of revenue from the recent improvements in taste and mouth feel of artificial sweeteners.