Coca-Cola will now make a cane sugar version in the US, but Americans were already moving away from corn syrup
The Trump-endorsed “new Coke” comes at a time when Americans are consuming less of lower-cost, more contentious syrups anyway.
Whatever you make of the “TACO” thesis, there’s another acronym that better describes President Trump’s approach to the US beverage industry: TRACC — Trump Really Adores Coca-Cola.
In a Cokehold
The president’s long and storied love for the soda — a love that, crucially, he shares with the rest of America — has now reached something close to poetic justice.
After announcing on Truth Social last Wednesday that Coca-Cola would use “REAL cane sugar” in its American recipe rather than corn syrup, the drinks giant officially confirmed plans in its quarterly update on Tuesday to expand its drinks range with a sweetener-switched version — though, notably, without replacing syrup in the original.
While this came as great news for Trump (who remarked, “You’ll see. It’s just better!" in the social media post), it was less pleasing for producers of corn syrup, like Archer-Daniels-Midland, which saw shares slump on the news.
America’s favorite soda has used high-fructose corn syrup in its recipe since 1984; now, Coca-Cola’s pivot to refined sugar could signal a change in attitudes surrounding ultra-processed food products more broadly.
Looking at the most recent USDA data, the average American consumed just under 124 pounds of caloric sweeteners in 2023, over half of which (55%) came from refined sugars like cane sugar. That total is actually lower than was being consumed in the late 1990s, when sugar consumption peaked at ~157 lbs per head — though the amount of refined sugar consumed has stayed pretty constant since that period.
Total sugar consumption ballooned after the rapid uptake of high-fructose corn syrups in the mid-1970s, as the corn-starch-derived ingredient was marketed at half the cost of table sugar at a time when prices were soaring.
Kernel of truth
In recent years, America has turned away from high-fructose corn syrup, with per capita consumption of the sweetener down 30% from 1999 at the last USDA count.
A notable critic of corn syrups is, of course, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who’s currently leading the charge against them as part of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement, citing its links to obesity and diabetes. However, some experts have pointed out that, whatever the format, sugar is still sugar: refined sugars and high-fructose corn syrups have a near identical chemical composition, and refined sugar is, like corn syrup, an ultra-processed product.
Beyond this, America simply can’t make enough refined sugar as it is anyway: per The Wall Street Journal, the US produces 4 million tons of cane sugar annually, which is already less than a third of what it consumes... and that’s without the most sold soft drink in the world needing it, too.
