Corn syrup, present in Coca-Cola, will now be replaced by Cannes sugar after a request from Donald Trump.
illustration / Photo Jim WATSON
War in Ukraine, customs duties, floods … The United States is shaken by an intense news wave. And yet, the American president has found time to visit Coca-Cola for a very special demand: replacing corn syrup with high fructose (SGHF) with cane sugar also called sucrose.
“I discussed Coca-Cola with the use of real cane sugar in coca in the United States, and they accepted“wrote Donald Trump on his Truth Social network.
“I would like to thank all the managers of Coca-Cola. It will be a very good decision on their part, you will see. It is simply better!”, He was delighted. “We appreciate the enthusiasm of President Trump for our emblematic brand”briefly reacted the American company on its site.
Consequences on corn producers
The SGHF (COME syrup) spread to the United States in the 1970s thanks to government subsidies granted to corn producers and high customs duties on cane sugar.
Coca-Cola’s decision could affect corn producers from the “Corn Belt”, a midwest region, which however represents an important pool of Donald Trump voters.
Few differences between the two types of sugar
SGHF and sucrose, more commonly called “Table sugar”, are both composed of fructose and glucose, but their chemical structure differs. However, these structural differences do not seem to have a significant impact on health.
In 2022, clinical studies made it possible to find the lack of difference between the two in terms of weight gain or heart health. The only notable difference, an increase in an inflammation marker in people consuming SGHF.
American consumers sometimes have access to the Mexican Coca-Cola, already produced with cane sugar, sold more expensive in certain stores because it is best deemed better in terms of flavor. Donald Trump is him an inveterate drinker of Coca-Cola Light, watered down to aspartame, a compound considered as “Maybe carcinogenic” by experts from the World Health Organization.
