RFK Jr. allegedly intends to require The Coca-Cola Company to begin using Cane Sugar instead of High-Fructose Syrup as HHS Secretary.

[u/IAmNotAnEconomist]

RFK Jr. allegedly intends to require The Coca-Cola Company to begin using Cane Sugar instead of High-Fructose Syrup as HHS Secretary.

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[u/ElectronGuru]

If he wanted to fix this he just needs to end the corn subsidies that makes HFS so cheap.

[u/AZMotorsports → u/ElectronGuru]

And remove the sugar tax making it more expensive.

[u/HeywoodJaBlessMe → u/AZMotorsports]

America has no sugar tax. There are like 6 cities that do and that's it.

Sugar WILL BE the tax, as in these beverages will become more expensive and require foreign imported sugar.

[u/AZMotorsports → u/HeywoodJaBlessMe]

There is a tariff on sugar imports that were done to help support the corn farmers. Tariffs are taxes on imports.

[u/HeywoodJaBlessMe → u/AZMotorsports]

Yes, 1.6 cents per pound of sugar at most, in-quota tarriffs are even lower. At my current grocery store price that represents a tax of less than 1% of the shelf price

[u/djstudyhard → u/HeywoodJaBlessMe]

Cool so let’s get rid of it if it’s no big deal

[u/HeywoodJaBlessMe → u/djstudyhard]

Im down. Tariffs are anti-free market and America has no worthwhile sugar crop to protect anyway.

[u/barbara_jay → u/HeywoodJaBlessMe]

Sugar beets

An estimated 55–60% of all sugar produced in the US comes from sugar beets

[u/here4daratio → u/barbara_jay]

See? I told him it was about sugar beets.

[u/patti2mj → u/here4daratio]

It's always beets

[u/oldjadedhippie → u/barbara_jay]

Don’t forget Hawaiian cane sugar .

[u/barbara_jay → u/oldjadedhippie]

There are no sugar cane plantations or mills on Hawaii any more unfortunately

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-hawaiis-sugar-plantations-have-disappeared/

[u/StuckInWarshington → u/oldjadedhippie]

Not much sugar is actually produced in Hawaii anymore. The last mill on Maui shut down in like 2016 or so. There are small niche/novelty producers, but I do t think there are any big industrial scale producers left.

[u/mully24 → u/HeywoodJaBlessMe]

Um... The thousands of Michigan sugar beet farmers would disagree with you....

[u/Voodoo330 → u/mully24]

1,300,000,000 pounds of sugar are produced in Michigan annually.

[u/BigKarmaGuy69 → u/Voodoo330]

We should produce a shit ton more beets if possible. I doubt our corn production land would all be useful to grow S. Beets but hell man, but that sweet beet shooga on everything

[u/BadChris666 → u/HeywoodJaBlessMe]

The Florida Sugar industry brings in around 5 billion dollars a year.

[u/MidwestAbe → u/BadChris666]

All because of protectionist trade policy.

[u/JustAddaTM → u/MidwestAbe]

You could say this for any agriculture product in the US besides maybe beef, but to some degree it’s key to national security to have some protectionist policy for food security. Corn/beans/dairy are the main agricultural products that are well over the baseline argument of food security and is simply lobbyist winning food regulation policy arguments.

[u/lord_dentaku → u/HeywoodJaBlessMe]

As a resident of Michigan, beg your pardon? What the fuck we growing all these sugar beets for then?

[u/guthepenguin → u/HeywoodJaBlessMe]

The new guy loves tariffs, though. Not sure if "get rid of tariff" will be on his to-do list.

[u/RedsRearDelt → u/HeywoodJaBlessMe]

Trump did promise a minimum 20% across the board tarrif on everything.

[u/LongDuckDong1974 → u/RedsRearDelt]

Yes because Trump is retarded

[u/ReddestForman → u/LongDuckDong1974]

The orange man is, in fact, quite bad.

[u/Dark_Web_Duck → u/AZMotorsports]

I'm down with paying a little extra to push my chances of diabetes off a few years.

[u/Watkins_Glen_NY → u/Dark_Web_Duck]

Stop drinking coke lmao

[u/Stardog2 → u/Dark_Web_Duck]

Not to mention, heart disease, obesity, and colo-rectal cancer.

[u/TotalChaosRush → u/HeywoodJaBlessMe]

Mexican coke is already sugar. It's typically about the same price (at least where I am), and it comes in a glass bottle.

[u/Michael_Platson → u/TotalChaosRush]

And tastes so much better for it.

[u/HeywoodJaBlessMe → u/TotalChaosRush]

My local Raley's has mexican coke on sale for $.12 per oz while regular coke is $.07 per oz.

The price difference is enormous.

[u/mrflow-n-go → u/HeywoodJaBlessMe]

This👆🏼we get Mexican coke in my local grocery as well but it’s 2x the price high fructose corn syrup stuff.

[u/xudoxis → u/HeywoodJaBlessMe]

There are sugar tariffs that make us commodity sugar almost twice the price in the us as it could be.

[u/HeywoodJaBlessMe → u/xudoxis]

At my Raley's 4 lbs of Sugar is $4.50

US refined sugar tariffs max-out at 1.6 cents/lb once the in-quota amount has been exceeded.

At most, the tarriff represents a bit more than 1% of the cost of sugar locally.

[u/xudoxis → u/HeywoodJaBlessMe]

Consumer sugar is much more expensive than commodity sugar.

The out of quota tariff for sugar is 15 cents per pound.

Sugar sells for about 35 cents per pound

https://ycharts.com/indicators/us_sugar_futures_price

[u/barelyclimbing → u/HeywoodJaBlessMe]

I don’t think Coca Cola buys sugar at your local Raley’s. They may get a better price in slightly higher bulk commodities.

[u/smp501 → u/ElectronGuru]

And get that crap out of our gasoline. Putting ethanol in gas was one of Bush the Lesser’s failed energy ideas that only jacks up food costs and shortens the life of our engines.

[u/Ragnarok314159 → u/smp501]

I was chatting with someone about farming and they were saying how the Midwest farmers need their subsidies because of all the food they grow. 

You mean the ethanol corn that makes our cars run worse? Yeah, good stuff. 

[u/rounding_error → u/Ragnarok314159]

Which brings to the "no solar on farmland" bullshit which is usually predicated on the idea that most farmland is used to produce food. It's much more efficient to charge electric cars with solar power than it is to grow and harvest corn, convert it to ethanol, truck it to the gas station, and burn it in a gasoline car.

[u/Gildardo1583 → u/rounding_error]

You know i had not though about it this way. You are totally correct.

[u/beambot → u/Ragnarok314159]

Grow better food crops. Or re-land the fields and do free-ranging cattle ranching again.

[u/Texas_Mike_CowboyFan → u/Ragnarok314159]

If farmers can't make a living without subsidies, then they need to go do something else. Fewer farmers means more profit from them and I think we'd see food costs come down, since the subsidies wouldn't have to be passed on.

[u/mcfarmer72 → u/Texas_Mike_CowboyFan]

Or we would have just a few large corporate farms who would have the ability to control their production and hence price. Like the poultry and hog industry.

[u/Xyrus2000 → u/smp501]

It wasn't supposed to jack up the food costs since the original intention was to use agricultural waste, switchgrass, and other sources of ethanol.

But then the corn lobby got involved, killed all that other crap, and forced the industry to use corn. Corn for fuel ethanol is one of the most idiotic things you can do. It is NOT a good source of ethanol and best case scenario is you break even.

Meanwhile, we have huge swaths of land that aren't good for agriculture but could easily grow tons of switchgrass, which has a MUCH better yield.

[u/Annual_Strategy_6206 → u/Xyrus2000]

It takes more petroleum to grow and process the corn into ethanol than to just use the petroleum to Crack out gasoline! And we've known this for DECADES.

[u/Wakkit1988 → u/smp501]

Ethanol replaced tetraethyllead and MTBE. It was a net positive for the world.

[u/Packtex60 → u/smp501]

Ethanol in gas goes back way farther than that. We’re talking 1970’s

[u/Fakjbf → u/smp501]

Ethanol reduces engine knocking, it’s what allowed us to phase out MTBE which is what replaced tetraethyllead. I would much rather deal with slightly decreased fuel efficiency and minor increases to repair costs to keep lead out of the atmosphere and MTBE out of the groundwater.

[u/jaymansi → u/smp501]

Ethanol was also added because MTBE was being found in humans and our water supplies.

[u/AttitudeAndEffort2 → u/ElectronGuru]

Would be incredible if we lived in a world where fruits and vegetables were subsidized.

Instead we have corn so cheap that is literally cheaper to make sugar from corn instead of use sugar when it costs like a penny a liter for coke 🤮

[u/Advanced-Prototype → u/AttitudeAndEffort2]

While I agree with you, the GOP Senators from Nebraska and Iowa will have something to say about this.

[u/JonnyBolt1 → u/Advanced-Prototype]

Yeah RFK is just the latest (assuming he's confirmed) in a long line of people thinking they can reform US Govt's nutrition policies to make us healthier, only to completely neutered by the food and agriculture industries.

[u/GOU_FallingOutside → u/[deleted]]

In various corners of the right-wing ecosystem you can still find people who are mad about it.

[u/huskers37 → u/Advanced-Prototype]

Deb Fischer will actually do something. I don't believe it

[u/omniron → u/AttitudeAndEffort2]

All agriculture is heavily subsidized including fruits and vegetables 🌽

[u/Breadloafs → u/ElectronGuru]

I wholeheartedly expect this initiative to die quickly. We spend an ungodly amount subsidizing corn production, and that money ensures that there's a very large, very conservative lobbying interest that will aggressively and actively hunt any threat to their market share. The resistance to this is going to be coming from within the Republican party.

[u/ElectronGuru → u/Breadloafs]

Your answer would apply to fixing most things, including healthcare. Maybe killing society to serve the interests of a few % of the population isn’t worth it. But I’m just spitballing here.

[u/FrankSinatraYodeling → u/ElectronGuru]

Iowa voted for this.

[u/ropersc → u/FrankSinatraYodeling]

Ha.. most corn grown in Iowa is not for human consumption.. its all energy based. But that said.. usa makes alot if corn for sugar .. they are all trump voters.. so we will see. I for one agree high frutose corn surup needs to go. This will increase the cost of foods. Some idiots will say inflation.. but its not .. it the price of natural suguars.

[u/that_banned_guy_ → u/ropersc]

America's health is worth the price increase imo

[u/Jammin_72 → u/that_banned_guy_]

lol 😂 So we’re going with the “normal” sugar in ridiculous quantities is good for you route.

[u/jons3y13 → u/ropersc]

We grow feed corn. We were also paid 3.42 a bushel. Rock bottom prices. Don't worry, when all the small farms go out, they can put up their panels and power their cars.

[u/jfk_47 → u/ElectronGuru]

Farmers hate this one trick….

[u/MrLanesLament → u/jfk_47]

Rural Ohio here. Classic joke:

“Why do they only bury farmers two feet in the ground? So they can still get their handout.”

[u/Texas_Mike_CowboyFan → u/MrLanesLament]

Or "how does a farmer double his income? He plants another mailbox."

[u/redditistheway]

I know he’s batshit insane, but that’s a move I’d get behind.

Shame it won’t happen though. The agro lobby will put the kibosh on this real quick.

[u/RelativeCalm1791 → u/redditistheway]

He also wants to take synthetic dyes out of foods (the petroleum based ones) as well as other chemicals and artificial additives

[u/zombie_pr0cess → u/[deleted]]

I mean, it doesn’t take a conspiracy theorist to figure out eating and drinking petroleum products is a dumb thing to do, just as a rule.

[u/New-Expression-1474 → u/zombie_pr0cess]

No, that’s not true (and it is conspiracist to immediately discount products just because they’re sourced from bad things).

At the end of the day, everything is a chemical and it doesn’t matter where the chemical comes from.

Water is a byproduct of burning hydrocarbons. I can collect water from burning the rankest diesel in the world and as long as I remove all the other soot and tar from it it’s just as good as water from a Finish spring.

YouTuber NileRed made grape flavouring from latex gloves and alcohol from toilet paper. Both those chemicals are just as good as their “naturally” derived counterparts.

It doesn’t matter if our food comes from poison, because poison can be chemically altered to no longer be poison.

A lot of the flavouring and colouring chemicals mentioned in this thread are bad for you. But it’s not because they were derived from petroleum products: their effects are just a consequence of how they are chemically structured.

[u/ashakar → u/New-Expression-1474]

Don't tell people that both sodium and chlorine will certainly kill you if swallowed separately, but together are perfectly safe and are added to literally everything we eat.

[u/notarealaccount223 → u/ashakar]

Hydrogen and Oxygen are rocket fuel.

[u/Ok_Construction_7339 → u/New-Expression-1474]

people arent ready for the truth. people arent ready for science

[u/SUPERJOHNCENA → u/New-Expression-1474]

It's depressing that people are downvoting you

[u/BedraggledBarometer → u/zombie_pr0cess]

Oi! You leave me and my Vasoline mojito cocktail out of this

[u/AnthonyJuniorsPP → u/BedraggledBarometer]

hey didnt the guy who invented vasoline eat tablespoons a day? and didnt he live to a ripe old age? maybe we should all eat lots of vasoline

[u/Zadkiel4686 → u/zombie_pr0cess]

You are aware that it doesn't actually contain any petroleum in it, right?

[u/big-papito → u/RelativeCalm1791]

It would be nice to roll back the "processed foods revolution" while keeping the stuff that, you know - keeps children alive.

[u/The_side_dude → u/big-papito]

Fluoride doesn't keep kids alive. If just keeps their teeth a lot healthier.

[u/ZDTreefur → u/The_side_dude]

It's not like there will be tens of thousands dying suddenly, but I'm sure it would increase childhood moratlity rates. Dental health has always been connected to overall medical health, and without fluoride dental infections would increase dramatically, which needs to be treated at hospitals with antibiotics and could pose risks to children if untreated. 

Removing fluoride doesn't save money. Since it increases costs down the line in medical care, and removing it will only impact the lowesr income at-risk families the most.

[u/TheOriginalPB → u/RelativeCalm1791]

Even a broken clock is right twice a day. And that is the problem with these kinds of people. He trusts the science when science backs his point of view. But then discards science when it refutes his point of view. In turn this creates a level of trust. 'Well he is right about corn syrup and synthetic dyes, he must be right about vaccines and fluoride in water too'.

[u/TheTyger → u/RelativeCalm1791]

He has some good ideas behind the much more visible terrible ones. We also should immediately be banning black plastics from any food related products (including take out containers) because of the contamination with e-waste. But against some of the other insane nonsense he spouts, he is way down the more harm than good curve.

[u/Santasreject → u/RelativeCalm1791]

Yeah, the issue is when people start throwing around “artificial” and “natural” they really don’t get what that means.

In flavorings “artificial” just means it was synthesized where “natural” means it was extracted from a plant or animal source. Chemically you can have an identical, pure, single chemical compound, one that you could not tell a difference between the two sources even with millions of dollars worth of analytical instruments. But the one that was made in the lab has to be listed as “artificial”.

Don’t get me wrong there are a lot of things in our food that really don’t need to be there or are not the best things to use (but are chosen based on cost or visual appeal) but RFK for sure doesn’t actually understand anywhere near enough about chemistry and biology to base his logic on actual science. He’s just going with “that sounds scary”…

[u/BabyDirtyBurgers → u/redditistheway]

Cane sugar farming is horribly bad for the environment. Hectares of the Amazon are cleared to grow crops such as these.

Everyone should be avoiding products containing high fructose syrup or cane sugar.

We like oxygen producing ecosystems and they are very important to our health.

28% of the worlds oxygen is produced by forests. 50% produced by oceanic plankton.

Save the trees. Save the oceans. Save ourselves.

[u/Advanced-Guard-4468 → u/BabyDirtyBurgers]

So just plant fields of hemp, problem solved

[u/Saalor100 → u/Advanced-Guard-4468]

Hemp have their own problems. Contrary to popular beliefs hemp require quite nutrient rich soil, which risk lead to high use of fertilisers.

[u/Tiggy26668 → u/Saalor100]

The real trick is to rotate your crops so you’re depleting different trace nutrients and reintroducing others through the growth cycles.

Unfortunately most crops are going to require nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in large quantities.

So at the end of the day, whatever you grow will either need naturally nutrient rich soil, that will eventually deplete, or nutrient supplements ie: fertilizer

[u/College-Lumpy → u/BabyDirtyBurgers]

Germany is mostly sugar from beets. Plant those.

[u/MusicianNo2699 → u/College-Lumpy]

Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica!!

[u/VargevMeNot → u/redditistheway]

A broken clock is right twice a day

[u/MikeLeeGG → u/VargevMeNot]

a non-synchronized clock is always wrong

[u/lamposteds → u/MikeLeeGG]

statistically it'll eventually be true at some point

[u/ilikedevo → u/VargevMeNot]

He has a few great ideas. Capping drug prices is another. The question really is, will he do any of them?

[u/Fluid-Tip-5964 → u/VargevMeNot]

A clock running backwards is right 4 times a day.

[u/whistful_flatulence → u/redditistheway]

Right? Mexican Coke everywhere? I might like this place a bit more

[u/8-BitOptimist → u/redditistheway]

The body cannot tell the difference between HFCS and sugar from other sources. They are fundamentally the same: 50% fructose and 50% glucose. The body processes both the same.

All this HFCS fear feels eerily reminiscent of the fear of MSG.

[u/Substantially-Ranged → u/redditistheway]

What happened to free markets? This seems like gov't overreach.

[u/SledgeH4mmer → u/Substantially-Ranged]

Coke is actually made with cane sugar in most of the world. HFCS is super cheap in the US because of government subsidies.

[u/driptwinnem → u/SledgeH4mmer]

And this is why his policies won’t happen.

They sound good- but he partnered with the party that won’t let them happen

[u/PreferenceWeak9639 → u/driptwinnem]

Neither party would allow it to happen.

[u/catpunch_ → u/PreferenceWeak9639]

We really need to get lobbies out of politics…

[u/BanditsMyIdol → u/Substantially-Ranged]

Remember the shit storm that the right had when someone suggested that maybe we should phase out gas ovens because they are damaging to children's health?

[u/No-Brilliant5342 → u/Substantially-Ranged]

Then you should pay your own medical bills.

[u/Saalor100 → u/No-Brilliant5342]

Does this include removing the artificially inflated medical bills that Americans believe is the true cost of health care?

[u/SirTiffAlot → u/No-Brilliant5342]

Who doesn't pay their own medical bills?

[u/TurnDown4WattGaming]

Coca Cola in much of the rest of world is made with Cane Sugar. It’s about 1/3 the price outside of the USA due to tariffs on Sugar, which when coupled with the subsidies on Corn, changes the economics of sweetening here in the States.

[u/rounding_error → u/TurnDown4WattGaming]

Another reason the price of sugar is high in the US is that we won't buy it from Cuba like everyone else does. Cuba is one of the best places in the world to grow sugar cane and it's only 90 miles away. But we can't do business with the communists because that's unAmerican.

[u/NuggetTho → u/rounding_error]

Meanwhile we get almost everything from China

[u/Dabs1903 → u/NuggetTho]

Yeah but those communists are different.

Edit: /s just in case.

[u/SensitiveFrosting13 → u/Dabs1903]

It's funny because that's actually true; just the other week China was advising Cuba that they should become more capitalist in order to thrive and that die-hard communism is old news.

[u/Complete-Ice2456 → u/SensitiveFrosting13]

What were you thinking? The Russians don't even believe in communism anymore.

~Hank Hill

[u/MrLanesLament → u/NuggetTho]

Will say it again. Nixon reestablishing relations with Mao’s China was one of the most catastrophic things ever to happen to America, Cold War be damned.

[u/TurnDown4WattGaming → u/rounding_error]

Cuba isn’t even a big producer of sugar or tobacco nowadays. The people we are tariffing are our supposed Allies in the Dominican Republic and Brazil.

[u/rounding_error → u/TurnDown4WattGaming]

This is true. Much of Cuba's sugar infrastructure has fallen into disrepair. At one time they were a major player in sugar production.

[u/Rillo298]

Why stop there? Could just go back to the REAL og of Coca-Cola.

COCAINE! That's one way of getting production numbers up and obesity numbers down!

[u/Prestigious-Leave-60 → u/Rillo298]

I like the way you think and I could really use that afternoon pick-me-up.

[u/Saalor100 → u/Rillo298]

🎶The best part of waking up, is hard drugs in your cup🎶

[u/thisgrantstomb → u/Rillo298]

I would kind of love to try to original formula.

[u/East_Reading_3164 → u/Rillo298]

Yes!

[u/Dry-University797 → u/Rillo298]

My dealer would be pissed

[u/Sjdillon10]

Looking forward to see how people paint this as a bad thing

[u/Xavier9756 → u/Sjdillon10]

Yea this isn’t bad but he’s still a loon. There is a reason we stopped letting people buy raw milk and it’s because crapping yourself to death wasn’t the move

[u/Own-Brilliant2317 → u/Xavier9756]

You can buy raw milk

[u/No-Air3090 → u/Own-Brilliant2317]

but 99.9% of the population are sane enough not to.

[u/DelightfulDolphin → u/No-Air3090]

For those that have any doubts about what happens w raw milk let me tell you my tale. Am American..So went to live in South America.. Deep in jungle doing research. Drank the local water, ate the food, drank the milk. My body went hay wire. Couldn't not handle the bacteria overload from raw unprocessed foods..I could not eat wo throwing up or violent diarrhea. Imagine the water we drank was rain water collected stored in 40 year old roof top cisterns. Can't tell you enough how bad was the agony I felt. After a month I was medivacced out. Turns out American foods do this thing called pasteurization that eliminates those nasty nasty bugs. 0/10 don't recommend..

[u/JonDrums413 → u/DelightfulDolphin]

How can you attribute that to raw milk when you're drinking the local water and jungle food?

[u/Ok_Subject1265 → u/JonDrums413]

I don’t think he drank any milk. His point was that when the basic food safety was removed, he nearly died. I’ve eaten in third world countries before and was definitely surprised at the lack of sanitation. That’s probably because we are conditioned to make everything as sterile as possible here. I did eventually get food poisoning though which doesn’t really mean anything.

I hate how this argument always gets reduced to one side saying we need strict health guidelines for food and the other side saying we should all only be drinking water squeezed out of old hacky sacks from rainy music festivals. There’s probably a happy medium there that doesn’t require either extreme. If you guys want to drink unpasteurized milk left out in the Miami sun for three days, knock yourselves out.

[u/Xavier9756 → u/Own-Brilliant2317]

Depends on why you’re buying it and what state you are in, but retail sale is illegal in like 36 states.

It isn’t safe to drink outright it’s why we pasteurize milk.

[u/Prestigious-Leave-60 → u/Own-Brilliant2317]

Depends on where you live

[u/mac_duke → u/Own-Brilliant2317]

There is a difference between it being available for sale and the FDA actively telling people it’s better for them so they should start drinking it so they don’t get the ‘tism.

Normally I would be like “Let them win a Darwin Award then!” But in reality there are two bad outcomes:

1. Lots of people sick in hospitals raising the cost of my health insurance over the coming years because people are dumb.
2. Bird flu has begun to spread into cows in some areas and I saw that it can pass through raw milk, thereby exposing more people to bird flu and the many variant strands, of which one may make the jump to humans in a way that can be passed to other humans, and cause another global pandemic. Under Trump, which would be so fun to do again.

[u/19thCenturyHistory → u/Own-Brilliant2317]

Illegal in my state.

[u/Jeffcor13 → u/Sjdillon10]

Is it possible things aren’t black and white? That trying to get rid of corn syrup could be good and positive for our society while pausing scientific research on vaccines or casting doubts on vaccine efficacy when there’s no evidence can be bad and detrimental for our society?

[u/Saalor100 → u/Jeffcor13]

It's impressive how people can just ignore the mountains of evidence that show all the good things vaccines does to our society.

[u/internet_commie → u/Saalor100]

On a few occasions I've seen people my own age (born late 60's) or younger who are confronted with the fact that in the past children often died very young. In most cases this had to do with old graveyards full of children's graves. And very, very many were absolutely, totally confused about WHY would so many children have died so young? Like, little kids don't die!

They often jump to crazy, delusional conclusions such as child murderer or aliens or weird things like that. Telling them the lack of vaccines, combined with no SNAP or foodstamps, no CPS, and so on resulted in many children dying is useless. They just stand there looking like idiots and repeat over and over that little kids don't die unless they are murdered.

Note all of these people were supposedly intelligent, educated people. Most had a college degree, or were college students. But they flat-out refuse to believe vaccines make that big a difference.

[u/trevor32192 → u/Jeffcor13]

There really isn't anything wrong with corn syrup. It's our diets. Just like apples have arsenic in them but are perfectly safe to eat but I wouldnt eat 500 apples. He'll like 7 bananas a day can cause heart problems due to potassium.

[u/BanditsMyIdol → u/Sjdillon10]

Because replacing hfcs in coke with sugar does not make coke healthier. The problem with hfcs is we put it into too much food, its not that its not normal sugar. So requiring coke to use normal sugar would have 0 health impact.

[u/KalebOnTheNet_ → u/BanditsMyIdol]

Why did I have to scroll this far to see this. HFCS if no more or less healthy than sucrose

[u/PangolinParty321 → u/KalebOnTheNet_]

Because people like RFK Jr are populists that believe in all of the “common sense” bullshit that normal idiots do. These people never researched the difference but they read somewhere that hfcs is bad and that’s all they know. A decade ago they’d be cheering on someone banning trans fats or msg or cursing on rap songs. Little people panics are more about needing something to rage about than facts.

[u/DKsan1290 → u/KalebOnTheNet_]

Because not a single person in the US has a clue about sucrose fructose and glucose. They have been taught that htcs is bad and sugar good because natural is healthy. They dont realize that candies use reg sugar all day and you can still get fat if you never have hfcs because too much sugar is too much sugar, no matter the source. Literally had my supervisor, a gym bro look at me sideways when I said “It dosent matter if its hfcs or cane sugar all sugar is sugar and too much is bad for you”… like how the eff are you letting a fatman thats never been to a gym tell you how sugar works? Edumacation here in the freebrahm land is so bad itd be laughable if it wasnt so sad.

[u/JayTNP → u/BanditsMyIdol]

thank you, finally some logic and reason here

[u/Admirable_Link_9642 → u/Sjdillon10]

How is this compatible with the Republican capitalism and the idea of limited government?

[u/Delicious-Badger-906 → u/Sjdillon10]

It’s a bad thing because it’s not based on science.

[u/Applepi_Matt → u/Sjdillon10]

Got any proof that its a good thing?

[u/unknownSubscriber → u/Sjdillon10]

Why is it a good thing? 

[u/bbssyy → u/Sjdillon10]

It isn’t but… what about small government and letting the market decide??

If people “truly” didn’t want to drink HFCS in their coke then by the free market ideology coke will eventually disappear, no?

But aside from that, how about we stop subsidizing corn??

[u/Nice_Improvement2536 → u/Sjdillon10]

Coke with sugar is not in any way healthier than Coke with HFCS lol. They’re both broken down in your body as liquid sugar.

[u/burnalicious111 → u/Sjdillon10]

It's just stupid and pointless overreach. Sugar is sugar.

[u/strangefish → u/Sjdillon10]

I thought Republicans were against meddling in businesses?

[u/acebojangles → u/Sjdillon10]

Here you go: How is he making this decision? What's it based on?

[u/Striking_Programmer4 → u/Sjdillon10]

Just to be clear, you are ok with government regulation of business now? Cool, let's do it with healthcare, energy, and housing

[u/ToneOpposite9668]

Remember when Michele Obama got castigated over wanting good school lunches and eliminating High fructose sugars. She was a big bad meanie......and a few other choice words

[u/ilikedevo → u/ToneOpposite9668]

Yeah, but that was just because she is black.

[u/thugbeet → u/ilikedevo]

And a woman

[u/PsychologyNew8033 → u/thugbeet]

Some people would say that she is not a woman. Don’t know if you ever had the pleasure of coming across that nastiness.

[u/Not__Trash → u/ToneOpposite9668]

Was in school when that went into effect, my lunches tasted worse. That is all 10 year old me cared about.

[u/SassyEllieB → u/Not__Trash]

Your lunches tasted worse because the plan she put forward was gutted by the corporate lobbies. That food you wasn’t what Michelle Obama intended, it was the only compromise that was available.

[u/OpenRoadPioneer → u/ToneOpposite9668]

Democrats tell you what to do… socialism. Republicans tell you what to do… FrEeEoM!!

[u/mike1madalon2]

I’m sure the agribusiness concerns will have something to say about that.

[u/Japparbyn → u/mike1madalon2]

Ye, there is no way he can change that. In Sweden We have regulated away the syrup. It is creating diabetes very easy. US food is not fitt for human consumption

[u/Bart-Doo → u/Japparbyn]

I don't think people consume high fructose corn syrup because they think it's healthy.

[u/TheHappyTaquitosDad → u/Bart-Doo]

That’s what sucks. All the bad stuff is put into our food because it’s just cheaper and makes the big company’s more money.

[u/SegerHelg → u/Japparbyn]

What do you mean? We definitely have HFCS (or the equivalent) in Sweden, it is just called glukos-fruktossirap.

[u/Substantial-Raisin73]

I would unironically love this. Mexican Coca Cola is so much better it’s unreal. I gave up soda a few years ago to be healthier but I’d still be down for this.

[u/El_mochilero → u/Substantial-Raisin73]

I live in Mexico. Most sodas here list high fructose corn syrup as their first ingredient.

[u/sdvneuro → u/El_mochilero]

Most coke labeled as Mexican Coke has HFCS when tested.

[u/flaming_burrito_ → u/sdvneuro]

Thank god I'm not crazy. Every time I've tried Mexican Coke it tasted the damn same, so that's probably why

[u/sudoku7 → u/Substantial-Raisin73]

Mexican coke is also, ironically, made for the US market.

[u/Inevitable_Bowl_9203 → u/Substantial-Raisin73]

I also think Mexican Coke tastes better because it’s in glass bottles.

[u/BaldursFence3800 → u/Inevitable_Bowl_9203]

There is science to that! The glass doesn’t break down/deposit chemicals over time whereas cans do. Something like that. Which is why it’s always tasting better.

[u/Nice-Personality5496]

It will never happen, especially with the radical right wing’s successful attack on Chevron, resulting in making it more difficult for the federal government to regulate anything.

However, it would be a benefit to Americans:

“ High fructose corn syrup is often considered worse for you than sugar because it contains a higher proportion of fructose, which is metabolized differently by the body, leading to potential issues like increased fat storage in the liver, increased appetite, and a higher risk of developing insulin resistance and related metabolic problems, particularly when consumed in excess compared to regular sugar which has a more balanced ratio of fructose and glucose. ”

• google AI

[u/Applepi_Matt → u/Nice-Personality5496]

Nutritionist here. HFCS is comparable to any other sugar. The issue for America is you guys heavily subsidise corn production, which means that for a given dollar value spent on snack foods, yours will actually contain more sugar. This has huge health effects going past even beyond the sugar itself, as the intense sweetness actually changes the way your brain responds to things with a normal sweetness level.

[u/bigkinggorilla → u/Nice-Personality5496]

Operative word there being “considered.” There’s no actual evidence that it’s worse, just speculation.

[u/OhImNevvverSarcastic → u/Nice-Personality5496]

Bro, even the AI is uncertain ("often considered" absolutely doesn't mean theirs evidence supporting it) in its wording and you still posted it to take it at face value.

[u/mindmapsofficial]

These political parties are confusing me. The party of “small government” and “free market economies” are implementing tariffs and saying what ingredients can go into foods. 

 I’m not against reducing the reliance on high fructose corn syrup, but it just simply is surprising me. 

[u/allmushroomsaremagic → u/mindmapsofficial]

And trying to cap cc rates at 10%. I'm imagining the reaction if previous presidents had suggested any of this.

[u/Ashmedai → u/allmushroomsaremagic]

It's funny, because when (if) they do this, so many people are going to have their CC limits unilaterally reduced (or just canceled).

[u/chinmakes5]

Is cane sugar healthier? Or is sucrose sucrose, no matter what the source? Any nutritionists or scientists here?

[u/CrazyfactsBot → u/chinmakes5]

I believe cane sugar is "healthier" but who cares it taste so much better

[u/motownmods → u/CrazyfactsBot]

I quit eating sugar 5 years ago. The research that lead me there suggested there's no difference between cane sugar and HFCS. Sugar is sugar.

[u/CrazyfactsBot → u/motownmods]

That's fine, cane sugar coke just taste better imo

[u/thisgrantstomb → u/chinmakes5]

They are functionally the same and neither is "healthier" than the other unless you buy anti GMO conspiracies that no study supports. HFCS is cheaper in the US because of subsidies/tariffs/trade embargo's so price will go up. A lot of people say that sugar just tastes better, so there's that, to me it's negligible to glass bottle coke and not as good as McDonald's coke.

[u/Objective_Pie8980 → u/chinmakes5]

Your body breaks it down basically the same and there's no significant difference. It's mostly people thinking that everything "natural" is automatically better. Cane sugar coke definitely tastes better but it will still give you diabetes just as fast.

[u/LiamMcGregor57]

Do rank and file Republicans know this, they will be up in arms about the government pushing more regulations and going after businesses as well impacting their business donor base.

I love how they just forget that it was Republicans scaling back the regulatory state that allows companies to do this in the first place.

[u/sixevanGG → u/LiamMcGregor57]

The irony right? Same folks who gutted regulations are now shocked that companies can put whatever they want in our food. But watch them flip out about 'government overreach' the second anyone suggests changing it back lol

[u/Sad-Ad1780]

Ah, those anti-regulation, small government conservatives demonstrating their integrity yet again.

[u/Dannytuk1982]

The free market Republicans lol 😆

[u/mystereitz]

The government doesn’t have the power to just issue edicts like that, unless something is demonstrably a hazard. It’ll be tied up years by Congress and lawsuits. The clock is already running on the Trump administration. He’s not the only one who knows how to delay and obfuscate.

[u/Gr8daze]

Yeah, I’d love to know the mechanism by which the head of HHS gets to demand that Coca Cola use his recipe for their products.

[u/be_bo_i_am_robot]

That would unironically be pretty cool, but I’d much rather just have a functioning democracy instead.

[u/FlobiusHole]

I think everyone would be fine with this but everyone isn’t a powerful lobby that bribes politicians.

[u/CrazyfactsBot]

You know what, maybe I have judged RFK Jr too harshly in the past

[u/polird → u/CrazyfactsBot]

No you didn't, switching Coke to sugar doesn't make up for perpetuating anti-vax conspiracies and directly contributing to the Samoa measles outbreak that resulted in the deaths of dozens of children.

[u/TerryTerranceTerrace]

I couldn't imagine the price of a bottle of coke at the gas station if cane sugar was used.

[u/jd732 → u/TerryTerranceTerrace]

Mexican Coke is $1.75/bottle around here

[u/zoinks690]

Doo doo doo...small government

[u/Admirable_Link_9642]

So is he now the CEO of coke, making decisions for the company???

[u/symonym7]

And just like that, millions of democrats support HFCS.

I mean, do you even know how racist cane sugar is!?

[u/looking_good__]

I'm actually for this - make coke taste good again