Donald Trump is enamored with Coca-Cola. In January, he smiled from ear to ear in a photograph with the corporate’s CEO, who gifted him a particular Coke bottle commemorating his inauguration. When Trump formally returned to the Oval Workplace as president a couple of days later, his desk was already arrange because it had been in his first time period: with a button to summon a bottle of Weight-reduction plan Coke. Between sips of the fizzy drink (at one level, he reportedly drank as much as 12 cans a day), the president has apparently been working the corporate behind the scenes. Yesterday, he introduced on Fact Social that Coke has agreed to begin making its signature soda with “REAL Cane Sugar” quite than high-fructose corn syrup. “I’d prefer to thank all of these in authority at Coca-Cola,” he wrote.
Up to now, little else is thought concerning the supposed deal. I requested Coke for extra info however didn’t hear again. The corporate has but to even verify that it has agreed to something in any respect. (“Extra particulars on new revolutionary choices inside our Coca-Cola product vary will likely be shared quickly,” an organization spokesman advised The New York Occasions earlier in the present day.) Though the transfer could seem random, it follows a sample of Trump attempting to attain straightforward political factors—particularly throughout a second when his base is at warfare with itself over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. The clearest argument for cane sugar over corn syrup is style. “You’ll see. It’s simply higher!” Trump mentioned on Fact Social. Coke is made with cane sugar in Mexico and lots of different international locations, and “Mexican Coke” has lengthy had a cult following in the USA. Trump might also be doing the “Make America wholesome once more” motion a strong. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has centered on high-fructose corn syrup as a serious contributor to diabetes and weight problems. “Thanks, @POTUS!” Kennedy wrote on X following the announcement.
The style argument is truthful sufficient. But when Trump does suppose People’ well being is at stake in a change from high-fructose corn syrup to cane sugar, he’s counting on some very confused reasoning. Like many MAHA priorities, the change is best on paper than in follow. Kennedy could oppose high-fructose corn syrup, however he has additionally referred to as sugar “poison.” He’s proper to be cautious of each, as a result of sugar and high-fructose corn syrup are, by and huge, the identical factor. A number of impartial meta-analyses have discovered that there’s little distinction between the 2 in relation to well being metrics akin to weight, blood strain, and ldl cholesterol. The 2 merchandise “have practically similar metabolic results,” Dariush Mozaffarian, the director of Tuft College’s Meals Is Drugs Institute, advised me. Trump is actually claiming that he acquired Coke to agree to modify its sugar … for sugar.
If Trump needed to make use of Coke as a lever to enhance People’ well being, he would wish to give attention to ensuring as few folks drink the stuff as attainable. On the planet of public well being, soda is a scourge. Consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks has been tied to elevated physique weight, diabetes, and coronary heart illness. These drinks are the biggest supply of added sugar within the American food plan. The Trump administration, to its credit score, has spent the previous a number of months attempting to mood the USA’ insatiable soda behavior. On the urging of RFK Jr. and different prime officers, six states—Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, and Utah—have experimented with bans on the acquisition of soda utilizing SNAP advantages.
However at occasions, RFK Jr. has appeared to lose the plot on sugar. It’s among the many largest issues with the American food plan, however it hasn’t been Kennedy’s major focus as well being secretary. He has spent extra effort and time trying to crack down on artificial meals dyes. For the previous a number of months, Kennedy has been pressuring meals firms to voluntarily take away such dyes from their merchandise—a transfer that, like Trump’s purported take care of Coke, makes for grabby headlines. Meals giants akin to Kraft Heinz, Normal Mills, and Nestlé have all agreed to part out synthetic dyes from their merchandise. However Fortunate Charms made with pure meals dyes and nonetheless loaded with sugar is hardly a win for American well being.
It’s a tumultuous time to be a meals firm; the MAHA military may instantly come after an ingredient in your product that individuals beforehand agreed was secure. (Yesterday, after Trump’s announcement, Coke defended on X the protection of high-fructose corn syrup.) Agreeing to take away a controversial ingredient is a strategy to get within the administration’s good graces and generally is a good enterprise transfer—even when your meals are largely nonetheless unhealthy.
In reality, meals firms have began to search out that they don’t truly must promote wholesome meals with the intention to be MAHA authorised; they only must take away the few components Kennedy objects to. No firm fairly embodies this technique like Steak ’n Shake. The burger chain has turn out to be a MAHA darling: Steak ’n Shake introduced earlier this 12 months that it will start frying french fries in beef tallow as a substitute of seed oils. To have a good time the change, Kennedy had a meal at a Steak ’n Shake for a photograph op with Sean Hannity that was broadcast on Fox Information. (He thanked the restaurant for “RFK-ing the french fries.”) What this second didn’t seize was that, at Steak ’n Shake, you possibly can nonetheless order a double cheeseburger with 1,120 milligrams of sodium—half the really helpful each day quantity for adults. Wash it down with a vanilla milkshake, and also you’ll have simply consumed 92 grams of sugar, equal to gorging on three Snickers bars. Or how a few Coke along with your beef-tallow fries? In the present day, Steak ’n Shake introduced the subsequent step in its “MAHA journey”: In a couple of weeks, it is going to start promoting “Coca-Cola with actual cane sugar in glass bottles.”
