Americans love drinking soda, cracking on average about five cans of full-calorie sodas a week.

What is used to sweeten sodas has recently become a thing after President Trump posted about it. This month Coca-Cola said it would launch a new soda sweetened with cane sugar rather than the high-fructose corn syrup the company regularly uses, and PepsiCo said it would consider doing something similar if consumers want the option.

Nutrition researchers say focusing on the two sweeteners is besides the point because scientific studies have found that drinking sugar-sweetened beverages frequently is associated with weight gain and a higher risk of obesity, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

“Whether it’s high-fructose corn syrup or table sugar, it’s soda, and we need to drink a lot less,” said Christopher Gardner, a nutrition scientist and professor of medicine at Stanford.  

Coca-Cola already sells Mexican-made Coca-Cola sweetened with cane sugar in the U.S., and its Kosher for Passover Coke is made with sugar. PepsiCo sells a “real sugar” option.

Is there too much sugar in American diets?  

U.S. dietary guidelines recommend that Americans limit their consumption of added sugars to 10% of daily calories. For someone with a 2,200-calorie-a-day diet, that could mean one 16.9-ounce bottle of classic Coca-Cola a day or about two-thirds of a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream. 

The American Heart Association recommends a limit of 6%. Americans average about 13%, federal data shows. 

Sugar-sweetened beverages are the top source of added sugars in the American diet, making up 24% of daily added sugar intake, according to federal data. (Added sugars found in processed foods are distinct from sugar that occurs naturally in foods like fruit and dairy products.)

“This is just pure liquid sugar,” she said. “At least a Snickers bar has some nuts.”  

The drinks also deliver sugar quickly and in high doses, which causes them to act potently on the brain’s reward system in a way that makes us crave them, said Ashley Gearhardt, a University of Michigan psychology professor who studies food addiction.

Read the ful article on The Wall Street Journal.