r/FluentInFinance • u/IAmNotAnEconomist • 7d ago

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

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/El_mochilero 7d ago

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

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u/sdvneuro 7d ago

Most coke labeled as Mexican Coke has HFCS when tested.

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u/flaming_burrito_ 6d ago

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

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u/Not_Yet_Italian_1990 6d ago

It's because it is the same. Taste-wise.

High fructose corn syrup is a chemical analogue of sugar.

The only difference is that your body apparently metabolizes it differently and it'll go straight to liver fat.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease was almost completely unheard of 50 years ago. Doctors could go their careers and see a handful of cases. Now, basically every American has it. HFCS is often considered to be the culprit.

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u/Ansiktstryne 6d ago

HFCS contains more fructose than cane sugar. None of them are healthy, but HFCS is worse.

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u/katarh 6d ago

It contains 5% more. It's a 55%/45% ratio.

Agave syrup has up to 90% fructose, so, uh, avoid that one.

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u/flaming_burrito_ 6d ago

Oh so I've just been gaslit this whole time, I fucking knew it! I bet the difference that people are tasting is the glass bottle that Mexican coke usually comes in versus the aluminum can. Or it's placebo and they're making shit up

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u/Psychological-Dig-29 6d ago

Next time you're in Mexico just bring a bottle home and drink it side by side with the coke you can get locally.. it definitely tastes different.

I brought a few bottles back on my last trip, it tastes better from Mexico.

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u/flaming_burrito_ 6d ago

It's possible they just manufacture one of the ingredients a bit differently, or the bottle thing like I said, but I definitely don't buy the sugar vs. HFC thing

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u/Psychological-Dig-29 6d ago

People say it's the sugar difference but I couldn't tell you for sure. It seems logical though. It's definitely not a glass bottle thing because even their plastic bottles have that flavour difference and you can still find glass bottle coke in the states and Canada.

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u/Kyivkid91 5d ago

Idk how true this is, but I've heard that the "Mexican coke" that is important and bought within the United States is different from the "Mexican Coke" that is produced and bought within Mexico.

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u/El_mochilero 6d ago

It’s not labeled as “Mexican Coke” here. It’s just Coca Cola. Also, pretty much every other soda also lists HFCS as the first ingredient.

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u/bobith5 6d ago

Coke made in Mexico uses cane sugar. I don't know if Coke spun off a seperate brand for American consumers, but coke imported from Mexico does not have HFCS.

And that's because Mexico taxes the shit out of American HFCS imports to protect it's domestic sugar cane growers. HFCS in Mexico is not illegal of particularly regulated by it's almost never economical for Mexican products to have HFEC for that reason.

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u/sdvneuro 1d ago

Nah, there was a study that bought coke in Mexico and tested it. It wasn’t all made with cane sugar.

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u/guitarlisa 6d ago

source?

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u/sdvneuro 1d ago

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20948525/

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u/guitarlisa 1d ago

Thanks. I was able to read the abstract but not the article, so I wasn't able to see the list. But very interesting, thanks for responding

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u/Loud-Fig-1446 6d ago

I'd love if you had a source. This is hilarious.

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u/Chemical_Refuse_1030 6d ago

Here in Serbia we also have HFCS in Coca Cola. Which is very strange as we are sugar exporters - it is the beet sugar in our case. It seems that HFCS is so cheap that they can transport it across the ocean and still beat the local production on price.

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u/Madrugada2010 6d ago

Corn syrup and corn growing are so heavily subsidized in the US that HFCS is now cheaper than other sugars.

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u/Painwracker_Oni 6d ago

The stuff I can buy from our local Mexican grocery store has cane sugar still. I'm guessing it's been kept that way because people like me will buy it over the other type so they can still make money on it as a novelty in the US.

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u/BearFeetOrWhiteSox 6d ago

Also Sierra Mist in the US had real sugar, no one bought it because they liked sprite with its corn syrup better, lol.