Sweetening soft drinks: What to know about sugar, high-fructose corn syrup and their alternatives

Article content

President Donald Trump teased the announcement last week, but the Coca-Cola Co. confirmed it Tuesday: a cane sugar-sweetened version of the beverage maker’s trademark soda will be released in the U.S. this fall.

Article content

For decades, Coke and the makers of other soft drinks have generally used high-fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners in their products manufactured in the U.S. But American consumers are increasingly looking for food and drinks with fewer and more natural ingredients, and beverage companies are responding.

Article content

Article content

Article content

PepsiCo and Dr Pepper have sold versions of their flagship sodas sweetened with cane sugar since 2009. Coca-Cola has sold Mexican Coke — which uses cane sugar — in the U.S. since 2005, but it’s positioned a trendy alternative and sold in glass bottles. Coke with cane sugar will likely be more widely available.

Article content

Article content

Here are some frequently asked questions about the sweeteners in U.S. sodas:

Article content

What’s the difference between cane sugar and high-fructose corn syrup?

Article content

Many consumers know that consuming too many sweets can negatively affect their health, but soda drinkers sometimes debate if either cane sugar or high-fructose corn syrup is better (or worse) than the other.

Article content

The short answer is that it doesn’t make a difference, said Marion Nestle, one of the nation’s top nutrition experts and professor emeritus at New York University.

Article content

High-fructose corn syrup is made of the simple sugars glucose and fructose in liquid form. Cane sugar, also known as sucrose, is made of glucose and fructose bonded, but quickly split, Nestle explained.

Article content

Both are still sugars, with about the same amount of calories.

Article content

Article content

Whether a can of Coca-Cola contains one or the other, it will still be a sugary drink with about the same amount of calories and the same potential to increase well-documented health problems from obesity and diabetes to tooth decay.

Article content

Why did soda companies switch from using sugar to high-fructose corn syrup?

Article content

High-fructose corn syrup costs less. According to price data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the wholesale price of HFCS-55, the type of corn syrup most commonly used in beverages, averaged 49.4 cents per pound last year. The average wholesale price of refined cane sugar was 60.1 cents per pound, while the average wholesale price of refined beet sugar was 51.7 cents per pound.

Article content

But high-fructose corn syrup has advantages beyond price. According to a 2008 paper in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, high-fructose corn syrup is more stable than sugar when added to acidic beverages, and it can be pumped directly from delivery trucks into storage and mixing tanks.

Article content

Why is high-fructose corn syrup less expensive that sugar?

Article content

Tariffs are one reason. The U.S. has had barriers on sugar imports almost back to its founding; the first went into place in 1789, according to the Cato Institute, a think tank that advocates free markets.