Jones Soda Will Switch To Pure Cane Sugar

hopefully it will start a trend and I won't have to order my Dr. Pepper anymore from out west

Yey! I only drink sodas made with pure cane sugar - so this is super exciting! I think that their drinkers are going to be very pleased with how much better soda is without corn syrup and other non-sugar sweetening agents.

Their "Turkey & Gravy" is part of a Thanksgiving 4-pack that is as much a joke as anything. It's really a display item, and not necessarily for imbibing.

If you really want to taste the difference -- buy a coca-cola bottle produced in Mexico and compare it to a bottle produced in the US.

The former uses real cane sugar and the taste difference is readily apparent. (Mexican coke is far and away the better drink.)

I remember a (recent) article that involved a head-honcho from coca-cola talking about the "myth" of Mexican coke tasting better by claiming that they were made from the same ingredients and with the same processes -- despite the fact that the article pointed out that cane sugar was a differentiating factor.

I wish I could find it.

This is wonderful news. Corn syrup makes people fat(ter) and Aspartame used in Diet Soda causes brain tumors and other bad stuff. Thanks for posting this article - I'm going to buy Jones Soda ....not the turkey and gravy variety though.

Jones Soda makes THE BEST grape soda in the history of soda. Cane sugar will make it even better.

The diet green apple is my favorite, so switching to sugar from HFCS won't impact me much... but lately I have been hearing we now need to watch out for Sodium Benzoate, because it turns into Benzine in the body. This substance is used as a preservative in most (if not all) soft drinks.

I don't know whether that's true or not about the benzine, but that's not something I want to drink.

So does Jones use Sodium Benzoate or not? I don't have a can handy to check...

Here is an excerpt about a study on the affects of frutcose-sweetened water vs sugar-sweetened water.

"In the study, researchers led by Dr. Matthias Tschop of the University of Cincinnati compared the effects of feeding mice fructose-sweetened water, a soft drink flavored with table sugar, a diet soft drink or water. The mice were allowed to drink as much as they wanted of their assigned beverage.

The mice that drank the fructose-sweetened water gained significantly more body fat than the others, even thought they decreased the amount of calories they ate from solid food.

' We were surprised to see that mice actually ate less when exposed to fructose-sweetened beverages and therefore didn't consume more overall calories,' says Tschop, 'Nevertheless they gained significantly more body fat within a few weeks.'

Body fat increased 11% in the fructose group, 5% in the water group, 7% and 8% in the diet and sugar water groups.

Researchers say the findings suggest the body metabolizes fructose differently than other sweeteners or carbohydrates and in a way that favors fat storage.

Between 1970 and 1990 high-fructose corn syrup consumption increased by more than 1000% largely because the nations soft drink producers switched from sucrose (sugar) to high-fructose corn syrup.

Making syrup is the second largest use of corn in North America, feeding livestock is the largest. On average Americans consume 48 pounds of corn syrup a year. (Source Anan Duming, 'Junk Food, Food Junk World Watch September / October 1991)'

Given that so much corn is used to make syrup any switch from the beverage industry makes away from frutcose could be bad news for farmers.

I would include a link to the study (or a blog about the study), but unfortunately my links are always ommited.

I did a little searching to find some more information to post here. Turns out it may not be as great as some of the hype I read (something I read a while back). Regardless, it still seems very promising aside from some concern people have of turning foodstuff into packaging. Current recycling facilities find PLA to be a small hassle since they have to separate it from other plastics.

Google corn palastic and a lot of stuff comes up. There is an article in Smithsonian Magazine August 2006 and I include some excerpts below. I hope I didn't copy/paste too much. (I can't provide a direct link, yet)

Producing PLA [polylactic acid] uses 65 percent less energy than producing conventional plastics, according to an independent analysis commissioned by NatureWorks. It also generates 68 percent fewer greenhouse gases, and contains no toxins. "It has a drastically different safety profile," says NatureWorks operations manager Carey Buckles. "It's not going to blow up the community."
.......
Newman's Own Organics uses PLA packaging for its salad mixes. "We felt strongly that everywhere we can get out of petroleum products, we should," says Newman's Own CEO Peter Meehan. "No one has ever gone to war over corn."
........
According to a biodegradability standard that Mojo helped develop, PLA is said to decompose into carbon dioxide and water in a "controlled composting environment" in fewer than 90 days. What's a controlled composting environment? Not your backyard bin, pit or tumbling barrel. It's a large facility where compost—essentially, plant scraps being digested by microbes into fertilizer—reaches 140 degrees for ten consecutive days. So, yes, as PLA advocates say, corn plastic is "biodegradable." But in reality very few consumers have access to the sort of composting facilities that can make that happen. NatureWorks has identified 113 such facilities nationwide—some handle industrial food-processing waste or yard trimmings, others are college or prison operations—but only about a quarter of them accept residential foodscraps collected by municipalities.
........
most of the corn that NatureWorks uses to make PLA resin is genetically modified to resist pests, and some environmentalists oppose the use of such crops, claiming they will contaminate conventional crops or disrupt local ecosystems. Other critics point to the steep environmental toll of industrially grown corn. The cultivation of corn uses more nitrogen fertilizer, more herbicides and more insecticides than any other U.S. crop; those practices contribute to soil erosion and water pollution when nitrogen runs off fields into streams and rivers.

NatureWorks, acknowledging some of those criticisms, points out that the corn it uses is low-grade animal feed not intended for human use. And it processes a small amount of non-genetically engineered corn for customers who request it. NatureWorks is also investigating better ways to segregate PLA in traditional recycling facilities, and it's even buying renewable energy certificates (investments in wind power) to offset its use of fossil fuels. But there's not much the company can do about the most fundamental question about corn plastic containers: Are they really necessary?
.....
"We'd like to see PLA be the resin of the future, but we know it never will be," says Selzer. "It's cost stable, but it can't go above 114 degrees. I've had people call me and say, 'Oh my god, I had my takeout box in my car in the sun and it melted into a pancake!'"
......conclusion.....
Eric Lombardi, president of the Grassroots Recycling Network and a leader in the international Zero Waste movement, takes a nuanced view of PLA's progress. He says it's "visionary" even to think about biologically based plastic instead of a petroleum-based one. True, he says, there are problems with PLA, "but let's not kill the good in pursuit of the perfect." He suggests that the difficulty disposing of PLA reflects a larger deficiency in how we handle trash. He's calling for a composting revolution. "We need a convenient, creative collection system with three bins: one for biodegradables, which we'll compost, one for recycling, and one for whatever's left."

Until such a system is in place, it's going to be hard to have cheap convenience packaging and feel good about its environmental effect—to have our takeout cake and eat it too. But the manufacture of PLA does save oil and generates far less air pollution. And we have to start somewhere.