From this fall, a version of Coca-Cola sweetened with sugarcane sugar will be on the shelves of US stores, announced in July.
The news arrives several days after President Donald Trump published in the Social Truth that he had been talking to Coca-Cola Company about the use of “real sugarcane sugar in Coca-Cola in the United States” instead of high fructose corn syrup, which the company had been so far.
The new Coca-Cola does not replace the formulation of the original Coca-Cola currently available. It was “conceived to complement the company’s strong main portfolio and offer more options on all occasions and preferences,” says the company.
Fructose -rich corn syrup was one of the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in recent months.
Kennedy called the common and cheap sweetener a “formula for making him obese and diabetic” in one of the Jordan Peterson podcast. Kennedy and the “Make America Healthy Again” movement (making America again again), which leads, have been pressing the food and beverage industry to remove various ingredients from product formulas, including and.
While Coca-Cola is made of fructose-rich corn syrup in the United States, its Mexican counterpart is made of sugarcane sugar, an important export in the country.
Is a sugarcane sugar soda better for you?
A sugar soda is not good for you, regardless of the sugar used to sweeten it, according to health experts.
“Excessive consumption of sugar from any origin harms health,” says Eva Greenthal, senior scientist at the Center for Science in the public interest, a non -profit group of consumer protection by e -mail. “What makes soda harmful to health is the fact that it is liquid sugar, providing empty calories without nutritional benefits. Changing one type of sugar for another does nothing to make the soda healthier.”
“To make US food supplies healthier, the Trump government should focus on less sugar, not different sugar,” adds Greenthal, noting that the CSPI and the New York City Health and Mental Hygiene department have pressured US Food and Drug Administration to set up US food supply reduction targets, “similar to existing FDA sodium reduction goals for FDA for industry ”.
Greenthal urged management to implement this policy, while veteran nutrition researcher Walter C. Willett warns that there is still more to do.
“If we really want to reduce the adverse effects of sugary soft drinks, there are many measures we can take, including warning labels in these beverages, limit sales in schools and other public places and tax, then using these taxes to support health and nutrition programs for children,” says Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard H Chan School of Public Health, by email.
The corn refining industry is opposed to exchange, denying any nutritional benefit.
“Replacing the high sugarcane sugar fructose corn syrup makes no sense,” says John Bode, chairman and executive director of Corn Refiners Association, a commercial association that represents the US corn refining market in a statement released on July 16.
“President Trump advocates jobs in the American transforming industry, American farmers and the reduction of commercial deficit. Replacing high sugarcane sugar fructose corn syrup cost thousands of jobs in the American food industry, would reduce the performance of agricultural explorations and increase foreign sugar imports, all without any nutritional benefit.”
What is corn syrup with high fructose content?
Sugarcane sugar is produced from sugarcane and is sucrose, a type of sugar naturally composed of two simple sugars, glucose and fructose, in equal measure. Fructose is commonly referred to as “fruit sugar” as it occurs naturally in fruits and berries, according to FDA.
Fructose -rich corn syrup, on the other hand, is made from processed cornstarch. Starch is a chain of united glucose molecules, according to FDA. “When cornstarch is decomposed in individual glucose molecules, the final product is corn syrup, which is essentially 100% glucose.”
To transform this product into fructose -rich corn syrup, enzymes are added to convert part of glucose to fructose. Different fructose -rich corn syrup formulations contain variable amounts of fructose, but the most common forms contain 42% or 55% fructose, while the rest is glucose and water, according to FDA. The 42% formulation is often used in processed foods, including cereals and pastry products, while the 55% version is mainly used in soft drinks.
Western food supply has not always included fructose -rich corn syrup. Sugarcane and Beet Sacarina sucrose was the main sweetener worldwide until 1957, according to the Britannica. It was at this time that these enzymes allowed a turning point in the sweetener industry, overloaded with increased cost of sugar, scarcity and sugar rations during World War II and the Cuban revolution and technological advances in sweetening production in Japan.
The consumption of this cheap sweetener in the US began to increase in the 1970s, coinciding with government subsidies to corn producers. Coca-Cola began to use it in the early 80’s to lower costs except Mexico.
The new sweetener was also more stable than sugar, which helps to increase the expiration date of the products, according to Sue-Eellen Anderson-Haynes, a registered dietary nutritionist, certified diabetes educator and owner of 360girls & Women.
Sugar vs fructose -rich corn syrup
Most studies have supported the idea that “from a nutritional point of view, there is no difference between fructose -rich corn syrup and sucrose,” says Marion Nestle, Professor Paulette Goddard of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health, Emerite, at New York University.
“They have the same number of calories,” he says. “They have the same flavor.” And there is a long time ago there is the idea that the body does not know the difference between the two.
However, some recent research challenges this longtime conclusion, according to Anderson-Haynes, spokesman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. “In terms of the way the body metabolizes it, it’s a little different from pure sugar,” he says.
Fructose-rich corn syrup consumption has been more associated with weight gain, obesity and dyslipidemia, abnormal lipid levels, or blood fats, added Anderson-haynes. But it is also true that, despite a decline in ingestion in the last 26 years, according to Britannica, diabetes and obesity rates have continued to rise.
In addition, some studies refer that “fat liver or inflammation of the liver generally increases in individuals who consume fructose -rich corn syrup compared to individuals who consume sucrose,” he says.
Another study concluded that fructose-rich corn syrup is associated with higher levels of C-reactive protein, a substance that the liver produces in response to inflammation of various causes or origins.
Scientists also discovered links between consumption and insulin resistance, says Anderson-haynes. It is a condition in which muscle, adipose and liver cells do not respond correctly to insulin, which helps sugar to enter cells to be used as energy. Insulin resistance can lead to a high level of blood sugar and type 2 diabetes.
Recent studies have also revealed that babies who consumed sweetened milk powder with corn syrup were a higher blood sugar level and a higher risk of obesity at 4 years of age than those who drank lactose -based breast powder or breast milk.
And the herbicides in the corn?
Most of corn cultivated in the United States is and almost half is, a commonly used herbicide that is from the Maha movement.
Glyphosate has been more conclusively associated with, and some researchers are investigating potential links to infertility and insulin resistance, Anderson-Haynes said.
