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 just a few days later, his desk was already arrange because it had been in his first time period: with a button to summon a bottle of Food 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 Reality Social that Coke has agreed to start out making its signature soda with “REAL Cane Sugar” relatively than high-fructose corn syrup. “I’d wish to thank all of these in authority at Coca-Cola,” he wrote.
To this point, little else is thought concerning the supposed deal. I requested Coke for extra data however didn’t hear again. The corporate has but to even affirm that it has agreed to something in any respect. (“Extra particulars on new modern choices inside our Coca-Cola product vary will likely be shared quickly,” an organization spokesman advised The New York Instances earlier in the present day.) Though the transfer could appear random, it follows a sample of Trump making an attempt 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 Reality Social. Coke is made with cane sugar in Mexico and plenty of different international locations, and “Mexican Coke” has lengthy had a cult following in the USA. Trump may additionally be doing the “Make America wholesome once more” motion a strong. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has targeted on high-fructose corn syrup as a significant contributor to diabetes and weight problems. “Thanks, @POTUS!” Kennedy wrote on X following the announcement.
The style argument is honest sufficient. But when Trump does assume Individuals’ 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 observe. Kennedy could oppose high-fructose corn syrup, however he has additionally known as sugar “poison.” He’s proper to be cautious of each, as a result of sugar and high-fructose corn syrup are, by and enormous, the identical factor. A number of impartial meta-analyses have discovered that there’s little distinction between the 2 in the case of well being metrics reminiscent of weight, blood strain, and ldl cholesterol. The 2 merchandise “have almost equivalent metabolic results,” Dariush Mozaffarian, the director of Tuft College’s Meals Is Medication Institute, advised me. Trump is basically claiming that he received Coke to agree to change its sugar … for sugar.
If Trump needed to make use of Coke as a lever to enhance Individuals’ well being, he would want to concentrate on ensuring as few folks drink the stuff as potential. 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 most important supply of added sugar within the American weight loss program. The Trump administration, to its credit score, has spent the previous a number of months making an attempt 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 greatest issues with the American weight loss program, nevertheless it hasn’t been Kennedy’s main focus as well being secretary. He has spent extra effort and time making an attempt to crack down on artificial meals dyes. For the previous a number of months, Kennedy has been pressuring meals corporations to voluntarily take away such dyes from their merchandise—a transfer that, like Trump’s purported cope with Coke, makes for grabby headlines. Meals giants reminiscent of Kraft Heinz, Basic Mills, and Nestlé have all agreed to section 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 would possibly out of the blue come after an ingredient in your product that folks beforehand agreed was protected. (Yesterday, after Trump’s announcement, Coke defended on X the security of high-fructose corn syrup.) Agreeing to take away a controversial ingredient is a strategy to get within the administration’s good graces and could be a good enterprise transfer—even when your meals are largely nonetheless unhealthy.
In reality, meals corporations have began to search out that they don’t truly have to promote wholesome meals in an effort to be MAHA authorised; they only have to take away the few elements Kennedy objects to. No firm fairly embodies this technique like Steak ’n Shake. The burger chain has develop into a MAHA darling: Steak ’n Shake introduced earlier this yr that it could start frying french fries in beef tallow as a substitute of in seed oils. To rejoice 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 may nonetheless order a double cheeseburger with 1,120 milligrams of sodium—half the really helpful every 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 together with your beef-tallow fries? At present, Steak ’n Shake introduced the following step in its “MAHA journey”: In just a few weeks, it’ll start promoting “Coca-Cola with actual cane sugar in glass bottles.”