Yeah, that seems to be the closest thing we have to a definitive answer. To the extent one may be slightly better or worse for people, it might as well be noise compared to the overwhelming amount consumed on a daily basis.
I watched a doc awhile ago, about extreme poverty in varying parts if US.
In Appalachia mothers would wean babies off the breast, because a new baby was already coming, by putting Moutain Dew in baby bottles.
They showed a preschool of these so very poor kids smiling..none of the kids had teeth. Rotted down to the gum.
Very alarming.
That was probably American Hollow on HBO. And with Mountain Dew (or any other soda), it’s not just the sugar, but the acidity attacking enamel.
(Actually, maybe not if your documentary was about other parts of the US. This was specifically focused on Appalachia and mentioned the Mountain Dew and how the area was the worst in the country for dental problems.)
Like a lot of people, I drank a lot of soda when I was young. Or thought I did until I met my wife. She went through those large bottles (2L?) like they were water. Then we went to a health seminar in 1992 where a nurse went through the downside of drinking that stuff. We’ve been pretty much soda-free ever since. It’s not just the sugar, it’s also the corrosive effect and heart and digestive issues.
There’s also the fact that the baby is sucking on the bottle for a long time, so that whatever is in it remains in the mouth for a long time. I remember I worked with a guy whose kids got baby bottles with orange juice in them and that had a similar effect on their teeth.
I’ve seen little kids with a full set of gleaming silver dental crowns on their fricking baby teeth like Jaws the Bond character.
Never was a big fan of soda pop, water was/is my preferred hydration.
Ewwww. A baby bottle full of sugar water just sounds so incredibly disgusting. And nothing like starting your caffeine addiction young.
I wonder where the idea came from. I mean, I guess kids need carbs, but feeding them pure sugar and caffeine at such an early age seems crazy to me. But I understand that I did not grow up in an impoverished area with fewer educational opportunities. Still, I would have thought apple juice or something first. (Which is not a hell of a whole lot better.)
My sense of taste has really diminished with age and covid. But i used to be able to reliable tell the difference between cane sugar and beet sugar, when i spooned a little into my mouth. Obviously, they are both mostly sucrose, but they have different “contaminants”, for lack of as better word. I also learned that pepperidge farm had removed tropical oils from their mint milanos when i took a bite of one and said, “ick!” I then looked at the ingredients, and saw they’d added canola oil 
I doubt i could detect either of those today (getting old sucks) but i still only buy cane sugar.
As for milk… Milk varies a lot from farm to farm and packager to packager, especially with small operations like those that sell raw milk. Some of the best milk I’ve had as an adult was raw milk, but i also had some raw milk that probably shouldn’t have been sold for drinking. I used to be able to taste the difference between ultra-pasteurized and regular pasteurized milk very reliably. I’m not sure i can any more. Did i mention that getting old sucks?
Hell, formula or breast milk can do that.
It’s called Nursing Bottle Caries.
Formula is expensive, but powdered milk is cheap.
That makes 30 servings, each is roughly equivalent to a cup of milk, so nearly two gallons. Or, it’s 157 committee, which is similar to the 170 calories in a 12oz can of mountain dew. 30 cans of mountain dew costs a little less.
But it’s not an enormous difference in price per calorie, compared to the massive difference in nutritional value to a child.
I think it’s an educational issue, not purely a poverty-driven one.
I think it’s entirely possible that there’s a real difference in taste but it’s too subtle for a blind taste test.
This thread is just reminding me that I need to kick the soda habit.
I would guess, rather, that it’s too subtle for the majority of people to tell in a blind taste test.
And coke is pretty strongly flavored, that probably covers up a lot of the flavor notes of the sweetener.
Yeah..the lack of education was probably huge.
These young Mothers were very young. Listening to their older Sister or Mother, the learning was stagnant.
There were few services for people in those very rural and cut off areas.
That and they could get a can of Mt.Dew out of a vending machine for 35cents(at the time). Milk has to be refrigerated. There wasn’t much electrical service in their homes.
That’s why i looked up powdered milk. No fridge needed, and a lot cheaper per serving than fresh (ish) milk.
I think there was another documentary about women given baby formula but could not read the instructions. And used it improperly.
I don’t remember why too much powder was bad. But they didnt know to have purified (by boiling??) water.
And the babies suffered.
You know, you can take a horse to water…and all.
But this is way off the OPs subject now. So I’ll stop.
Wow, was that a different time. I wonder what unhealthy stuff we’re doing now that folks a hundred years from now will say the same about us.
Drinking any of the vile stuff.
They’re gonna look at all the happy smiling, “I like to give the world a coke” and “Share a smile” campaigns and shake their heads at our foolishness.
Seriously @aceplace57 , if you enjoy your Mexican coke, you enjoy it. Don’t worry about if it’s better for you or any worse than most anything else for sale, to drink.
Small town stores might not even stock powdered milk.