Pepsi Switches Back to Sugar from High Fructose Corn Syrup

Source: Pepsi Bottling Corp

Source: Pepsi Bottling Corp

PepsiCo is due to release its Pepsi Cola and Mountain Dew brand soft drinks in a sugar sweetened formula, a throwback to the 1970′s. The retro brand, aptly named Pepsi Throwback, is due to be release in a few weeks, according to BevReview. High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is the sweetener of choice in the US since the 1980′s, because it costs half the price of cane sugar.

Could this return to sugar be a trend?

PepsiCo’s marketers must definitely think so. And so does Snapple, which is rolling out a sugar sweetened iced tea to supplant the existing one.

HFCS has been getting a bad rap as of late, so bad that the Corn Refiners Association launched a national TV campaign to educate consumers and extol its virtues. More bad PR came last month when it was announced that traces of poisonous mercury have been found in HFCS.

What you need to know:

There are studies linking HFCS and obesity, and many consumers are fiercely opposed to purchasing products containing it. While there is no doubt that obesity rates have risen dramatically at the same time as HFCS use has, the causality is still being debated.

Calorie-wise, sugar and HFCS are the same. So if you are looking to reduce weight, or worried about your children putting on unnecessary pounds, drastically reducing soda-pop consumption is an excellent place to start.

On average, Americans drink 50 gallons of carbonated soft drinks each year!!

What to do at the supermarket:

A family of 4 spends over $500 a year on liquid candy. So if you want to do your health and your wallet a favor, how about switching to cheap and refreshing tap water? Leave those sweet calories for a real dessert / snack.

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  • Pat Martin

    Please,,,please…please sweeten Mountain with Splenda. I love the drink but limit consumption because of the use of Aspertame to sweeten it. In fact I refuse to consume anything with that poisen in it. I am a diabetic who loves the taste of Mountain Dew. So please consider a safer sweetener. Thank you from my big Texas heart!!!!!!

  • mike martin

    Splenda is just as bad as aspertame, well not as bad, but bad none the less. The only thing worse than sugar, is any artificial sweetner. It is bad stuff, we are not meant to consume it. Have you tried the agave nectar? My aunt is diabetic and uses that, I have tried it and really like it.

  • DJ Adam

    Mike, you need to do more research. Agave is just as bad as HFCS. Highly processed and refined until it is FRUCTOSE but through great marketing and promotion has convinced a lot of us that it is a natural product from a cactus plant.

  • Matt

    mike martinActually Sucrlose is equally as bad as Aspartame. The problem is there are 2 forms of aspartame. There’s the powdered version which was originally approved by the FDA which later became more well known as Equal. And then there’s the danger liquid form which if reached a certain temperature became a toxic poison and was originally rejected by the FDA but later got the approval and became NutraSweet. As you can see NutraSweet is pretty much dead while Equal and the rest of the powder aspartame products remain like Crystal Light.Splenda lies to people telling people it’s made from sugar when it’s not. Sucralose was created in 1976 by accident. Also in newer reports Splenda can have as bad or worse effects than Aspartame in normal doses. The FDA tested sucralose in a small dose and refused to test it in a larger dose in which humans actually consume it. Just remember though everything causes cancer now. Remember Sweet N Low was causing cancer, next NutraSweet and soon you will see a huge petition against Splenda.
    My only complaint with Splenda is they give off the impression it is made from real sugar and they refuse to tell people the truth that sucralose is a man made product which was invented by accident just like aspartame.

    If Equal were smart they would go all in against Splenda and bring out the facts for both Aspartame and Sucralose, it would destroy Splenda’s credibility and would bring back part of the market Equal lost from fall advertising on Splenda’s side. Don’t get me wrong I prefer sugar over all else but I much prefer the taste of Equal over Splenda. And I never use products that companies purposely lie to sell a product.

    As for the throwback Pepsi and Mountain Dew go … I never had a soda made from real sugar before. I guess because I was born in 1976 and I never really got into soda into the late 80s which by that time everything was corn syrup. I don’t like the taste of sugar in soda as much as corn syrup. It’s not near as sweet and has a bit of an aftertaste to me. I don’t drink soda to be healthy. I don’t eat junk food to have it be more nutritious. It’s why I bitch about Progresso removing MSG from their soup. If people don’t like MSG they can buy another brand of soup. Companies shouldn’t change just cause some people want them to. And most people who want the change aren’t the kind to buy the product anyways. They just want to bitch about something.

  • Kcdea

    pepsi is awesome but i would want to know why they put high fructose iin it

  • Kdea

    doood

  • Dragoon43x

    Honestly when I drink the natural sugar soda’s i find myself needing less of them generally about 1 a day where as with HFCS soda’s I can easily down a two liter without looking back. The fact of the matter is your body craves the sugar and when you don’t actually get the sugar your actually getting HFCS your body is fooled and you still have that need for sugar despite the fact you’ve just downed a 2 liter