31 July 2025
Starting this fall, consumers in the U.S. will have the option to buy Coca-Cola’s signature soda sweetened with domestic cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup.
The move, confirmed by the beverage company in July, was hailed by White House officials as a major win for their “Make America Healthy Again” initiative.
“It’s just better!” President Donald Trump wrote in a July 16 post on X, saying he had been speaking with the company about the change.
Coca-Cola’s shift is the latest in a string of food reforms announced by U.S. companies in line with the Trump administration’s MAHA agenda. The growing list includes Kraft Heinz’s vow to remove artificial dyes from its products by 2027 and a similar pledge from cereal brand WK Kellogg Co., which Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called a move “toward common sense.”
“MAHA is winning,” Kennedy wrote on X, celebrating the restaurant chain Steak ‘n Shake’s plan to soon “offer Coca-Cola with real cane sugar in glass bottles.”
While studies have linked high-fructose corn syrup to conditions such as insulin resistance, nutrition experts told PBS News that cane sugar is not a healthier alternative.
“It makes no sense — health officials celebrating swapping high-fructose corn syrup for cane sugar as a win for public health,” said Eva Greenthal, senior policy scientist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. “It’s things like this that can make it hard to take the administration seriously.”
What is the difference between cane sugar and high-fructose corn syrup?
Cane sugar is refined from the crystallized juices of sugar cane, which is cultivated in warm climates around the world and in the southern United States.
High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is also derived from the refining of a U.S.-grown plant, corn, and gained popularity since the 1980s for being cheaper to produce. But while cane sugar, known scientifically as sucrose, is made up of 50% glucose and 50% fructose molecules, high-fructose corn syrup can contain variable amounts of fructose.
HFCS 42 (which contains 42% fructose and 58% glucose) is primarily used in processed foods, cereals and baked goods, whereas HFCS 55 (which contains 55% fructose) is often found in sodas, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
One 2014 study published in the journal Nutrition analyzed an assortment of sweetened beverages and fruit juices sold by retailers in California, and found that the amount of fructose in popular drinks that contained high-fructose corn syrup ranged as high as about 60% of the sugar content.
Those higher levels of fructose may be significant, some researchers say, because fructose metabolizes in the liver differently than glucose. Past studies have suggested that the differences can lead to metabolic problems, increasing risks for obesity and Type 2 diabetes.
But the subject is a matter of ongoing debate among scientists. One 2021 study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, tested drinks sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup and cane sugar against aspartame-based sodas and found that both the syrup and cane sugar increased fatty liver disease and decreased insulin sensitivity, a risk factor for Type 2 diabetes, with “no significant differences” between the two.
“The biggest difference to a consumer when they buy a sucrose soda versus a high-fructose corn syrup soda [is] they know what they’re getting with the sucrose: 50-50,” said Kimber L. Stanhope, a research nutritional biologist at the University of California, Davis, who contributed to the study.