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Japan Today
6 days ago
- Health
- Japan Today
What to know about soda sweeteners as sugar returns to American Coke
By DEE-ANN DURBIN and JONEL ALECCIA President Donald Trump teased the announcement last week, but the Coca-Cola Co confirmed it Tuesday: a cane sugar-sweetened version of the beverage maker's trademark soda will be released in the U.S. this fall. For decades, Coke and the makers of other soft drinks have generally used high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners in their products manufactured in the U.S. But American consumers are increasingly looking for food and drinks with fewer and more natural ingredients, and beverage companies are responding. PepsiCo and Dr Pepper have sold versions of their flagship sodas sweetened with cane sugar since 2009. Coca-Cola has sold Mexican Coke — which uses cane sugar — in the U.S. since 2005, but it's positioned a trendy alternative and sold in glass bottles. Coke with cane sugar will likely be more widely available. Here are some frequently asked questions about the sweeteners in U.S. sodas: Many consumers know that consuming too many sweets can negatively affect their health, but soda drinkers sometimes debate if either cane sugar or high fructose corn syrup is better (or worse) than the other. The short answer is that it doesn't make a difference, said Marion Nestle, one of the nation's top nutrition experts and professor emeritus at New York University. High fructose corn syrup is made of the simple sugars glucose and fructose in liquid form. Cane sugar, also known as sucrose, is made of glucose and fructose bonded, but quickly split, Nestle explained. Both are still sugars, with about the same amount of calories. Whether a can of Coca-Cola contains one or the other, it will still be a sugary drink with about the same amount of calories and the same potential to increase well-documented health problems from obesity and diabetes to tooth decay. High fructose corn syrup costs less. According to price data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the wholesale price of HFCS-55, the type of corn syrup most commonly used in beverages, averaged 49.4 cents per pound last year. The average wholesale price of refined cane sugar was 60.1 cents per pound, while the average wholesale price of refined beet sugar was 51.7 cents per pound. But high fructose corn syrup has advantages beyond price. According to a 2008 paper in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, high fructose corn syrup is more stable than sugar when added to acidic beverages, and it can be pumped directly from delivery trucks into storage and mixing tanks. Tariffs are one reason. The U.S. has had barriers on sugar imports almost back to its founding; the first went into place in 1789, according to the Cato Institute, a think tank that advocates free markets. Since the passage of the Farm Bill in 1981, the U.S. has had a system in place that raises duties on sugar once a certain amount has been imported. The U.S. also has domestic production controls that limit supplies, keeping prices higher. But high fructose corn syrup is also cheaper because of the federal government's billions of dollars in subsidies for corn farmers. Loans, direct payments, insurance premium subsidies and surplus crop purchases all lower farmers' costs – and the price of the corn they grow. While cutting back on added sugars has documented benefits, replacing them with artificial sweeteners is complicated, too. Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, introduced in 2017, uses the artificial sweetener aspartame and the natural sweetener stevia in its recipe. But research suggests that aspartame may be linked to cancer. In 2023, a committee for the World Health Organization determined that aspartame should be categorized 'as possibly carcinogenic to humans.' While that doesn't mean that diet soda causes cancer, the scientific committee concluded that there may be a possible link between aspartame and liver cancer, and that the issue should be studied further. The U.S. Food and Drug administration disagreed with the WHO panel, citing 'significant shortcomings' in the research that backed the conclusion. FDA officials noted that aspartame is one of the most studied food additives and said 'FDA scientists do not have safety concerns' when it is used under approved conditions. Stevia, a plant-based sweetener, appears to be 'a safe choice,' according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Japan Today
08-05-2025
- Health
- Japan Today
How cruise ship passengers can stay safe from the latest version of norovirus
FILE - The Queen Mary 2 prepares to depart the Red Hook Terminal, bound for Southampton, England, in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Nov. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File) By JONEL ALECCIA For Americans planning cruise ship vacations this spring or summer, there could be reason to worry about more than rough seas, experts say. Recent government cuts included top staff at the Vessel Sanitation Program, which is run by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and conducts inspections and investigates illnesses. The reductions, part of larger Trump administration cuts, come amid a surge in cruise ship outbreaks fueled by a new strain of norovirus. So far this year, there have been 16 illness outbreaks reported on cruise ships in the CDC's jurisdiction, mostly from norovirus, compared with 18 outbreaks in all of 2024 and 14 in 2023, VSP reports show. U.S. officials conducted nearly 200 inspections of 150 ships last year. 'Certainly it's something that would be on my mind if was getting ready to get on that cruise ship,' said Donald Schaffner, a food science expert at Rutgers University. Here's what you need to know about staying safe on board: U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. launched a broad restructuring of the nation's health agencies in April. The move eliminated the CDC's Division of Environmental Health Science and Practice, which housed the cruise ship vessel program, along with others focused on asthma, air quality, lead exposure in children and other issues. Four full-time CDC staff, including scientists, were dismissed, said Erik Svendsen, the division's fired former director. The program also employed 12 U.S. Public Health Service commissioned officers, who remain. The officers, however, lack the expertise of the scientists who were let go, Svendsen said. In addition, the program was already understaffed, he said. 'It's going to put them back many months before they're really functional again,' he said. A CDC spokesperson said in a statement that the VSP work 'has not stopped.' 'Critical programs in the CDC will continue under Secretary Kennedy's vision to streamline HHS to better serve Americans,' the statement said. About 18 million people board cruises in North America each year, part of nearly 32 million passengers worldwide, according to the Cruise Lines International Association, an industry trade group. Cruise industry officials say the chance of contracting a gastrointestinal illness is far greater on land than on a ship. Norovirus is the most common ailment tracked on ships, though other outbreaks do occur. Of the 19 million to 21 million norovirus illnesses that occur each year in the U.S., less than 1% are tied to cruises, said Lee-Ann Jaykus, a North Carolina State University food microbiologist and virologist who has studied norovirus. But even that fraction of cases can mean misery for many hundreds of people on ships who come down with symptoms that include sudden onset of vomiting, diarrhea and stomach pain that can last three days, according to the CDC. Norovirus is highly contagious, often spread by food or on surfaces, particularly in crowded conditions. It is a short-lived illness for many people, but it can be dangerous for people with underlying health conditions, young children and those aged 65 and older. There are many different types of norovirus, but typically one dominant strain causes illness outbreaks, Jaykus said. This year, a new epidemic strain has emerged, called GII.17. This version has circulated at low levels for years, but it was behind a surge in U.S. norovirus outbreaks this past winter. Between Aug. 1 and April 9, more than 2,400 suspected or confirmed norovirus outbreaks were reported to a CDC monitoring system, roughly double for the same period a year earlier. The GII.17 strain has been responsible for nearly 80% of them, the CDC reported. 'It's new to the population,' Jaykus said, which means most people don't have immunity to the germ, so it can spread more widely. People infected with norovirus typically shed 'literally billions of viral particles,' said Schaffner, the food safety expert. And it only takes a few viral particles to make someone sick. The first rule should be for sick people to stay home, he said. That's not possible on a cruise. If people get sick on a cruise ship, they're required to report the illness and isolate themselves, but many fail to do so. 'You spent all this money for a fancy cruise and you're feeling a little bit under the weather, so you tough it out,' Schaffner said. 'But in the meantime, now you spread the virus." Passengers should be alert for signs of illness, even in other travelers. Vomit, for instance, can spread norovirus particles into the air, Schaffner noted. 'If you're in a situation where you see someone vomit, immediately walk away from them, ideally into the wind,' he said. Washing hands frequently is key, especially after using the bathroom or before eating and drinking. Using soap and water is best; wash for at least 20 seconds, scrubbing well. Hand sanitizer alone doesn't work well against norovirus, the CDC notes. Cruise lines have extensive sanitation protocols in place that are monitored through the CDC's vessel program, which is paid for by industry through inspection and other fees that total tens of thousands of dollars per ship per year. It remains to be seen how cuts to the program will affect inspections and outbreak investigations in the future, Schaffner said. 'If you want to have no disease outbreaks, all you have to do is fire all the epidemiologists,' he said. 'And there'll be no one there to investigate.' © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
