Coca-Cola announced on Tuesday that it will introduce a new version of its flagship soda in the United States sweetened with domestically grown cane sugar, a move the company said was inspired by a request from President Donald Trump.
“We’re going to be bringing a Coke sweetened with U.S. cane sugar into the market this fall, and I think that will be an enduring option for consumers,” Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey told analysts during an earnings call.
The announcement follows Trump’s remarks last week claiming credit for the decision. “This will be a very good move by them, You’ll see. It’s just better!” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform. At the time, Coca-Cola had not confirmed the move, but acknowledged Trump’s “enthusiasm” for the brand.
Currently, most Coca-Cola sold in the U.S. is sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a cost-effective sweetener that has been criticized for decades by health advocates, including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as part of his “Make America Healthy Again” campaign.
The cane sugar version, Quincey clarified, will be offered as an alternative, not a replacement for the existing corn syrup formula. “The main Coke product will still be made with corn syrup,” he said.
In the U.S., Mexican Coca-Cola — made with cane sugar — is often seen as a premium product and favored by some consumers for its perceived more “natural” taste.
President Trump has not detailed why he pushed for the switch, though it will not affect his beverage of choice: Diet Coke. Since returning to the White House, Trump has reinstated the infamous “Diet Coke button” in the Oval Office, used to summon the sugar-free soda.
HFCS rose to prominence in the 1970s, largely due to U.S. agricultural policies that subsidize corn and impose high tariffs on imported sugar. A shift toward cane sugar could potentially face political resistance in the Midwest’s Corn Belt, a region that has long been a stronghold for Trump.
From a nutritional perspective, both high-fructose corn syrup and sucrose (cane sugar) are composed of fructose and glucose, though arranged differently at the molecular level. Research suggests these structural differences have little to no impact on health outcomes.
Ironically, Trump’s go-to Diet Coke is sweetened with aspartame — a low-calorie artificial sweetener recently classified as a “possible carcinogen” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
AFP
