# Is Mexican Coke non-fattening **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 5, 2017, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mexican-coke-non-fattening/776378 "2017-01-05T10:43:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mexican-coke-non-fattening/776378/41 "2017-01-06T23:19:48Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That’s probably what red beets would look like, too, if the consumers didn’t care what they looked like. I’d be surprised if that were the case. The beets I buy are ugly sons of bitches that look like dirty softballs or oversized, rounder red potatoes, about the size of a fist. [Like these](http://www.specialtyproduce.com/sppics/116.png), Sold without the greens. (Not any of the “pretty” varieties.) I can’t imagine they’ve been bred for prettiness. But the main thing is I assumed sugar beets to also be red, with the color being washed out of them or something in the processing. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mexican-coke-non-fattening/776378/42 "2017-01-07T00:04:03Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > NOOOOOOOO! I double checked that this was not in GQ before I gave a joke first answer :rolleyes: 😉 Well, I won’t say I was /disappointed/ with the factual answers, but it wasn’t posted in GD by accident… (OP) ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mexican-coke-non-fattening/776378/43 "2017-01-07T00:36:01Z")
Fattening. I haven’t heard that word in over 50 years. I thought it had moved on. Here in Mexico, the number one cause of mortality is diabetes. Cancer wins in the USA. Before Coke, everyone here drank aqua naturales. Or, squeezed fruit with water. Thanks to the marketing of Coke, it has replaced the aqua naturales. And you can see people carrying a 2 liter bottle of Coke to have at lunch time. Whether it is HFCS or cane sugar, it is lethal here. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mexican-coke-non-fattening/776378/44 "2017-01-07T00:59:15Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Interesting. Before this post, I never bothered to look up what sugar beets look like. (I was curious because you said you ate them as a vegetable and they weren’t tasty.) [Beet beet sugar beet, beet sugar beet sugar beet bee-eeeeet.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuZNSGdg2ms) ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mexican-coke-non-fattening/776378/45 "2017-01-07T01:33:31Z")
> [@harmonicamoon](#): > > Here in Mexico, the number one cause of mortality is diabetes. Cancer wins in the USA. Before Coke, everyone here drank aqua naturales. Or, squeezed fruit with water. It could be the sugar, or nearly _every other single thing_ in the Mexican diet that is metabolized as sugar. Beans; maize in its many, many forms; bread; aguas frescas; Coca Cola; rice. That’s a _really_ high carb diet. ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mexican-coke-non-fattening/776378/46 "2017-01-07T01:41:29Z")
Very good point. And begs an interesting question. When did diabetes become #1? Before or after the introduction of Coke. I don’t know the answer, but I know someone who is a researcher. I will be back! ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mexican-coke-non-fattening/776378/47 "2017-01-07T01:55:44Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > [Beet beet sugar beet, beet sugar beet sugar beet bee-eeeeet.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuZNSGdg2ms) Snake! Ahhh, it’s a snake! ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mexican-coke-non-fattening/776378/48 "2017-01-07T06:16:45Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And maybe we could synthesize most of them, too, but we don’t. So a natural vanilla bean has a more complicated flavor than synthesized vanillin. Cook’s Illustrated has done [multiple blind taste tests](https://www.cooksillustrated.com/taste_tests/455-vanilla-extract) and there is no evidence that anybody can tell the difference between the two when baking. When used raw (like in eggnog) there was a slight edge for vanilla but this is possibly because it has more alcohol. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mexican-coke-non-fattening/776378/49 "2017-01-07T06:45:03Z")
NM ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mexican-coke-non-fattening/776378/50 "2017-01-07T06:55:05Z")
Studies have shown that there’s no difference between conventional sucrose and HFCS in terms of its effect on blood glucose, insulin, leptin, ghrelin, or satiety: > **[Effects of high-fructose corn syrup and sucrose consumption on circulating...](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17234503/)** > > These short-term results suggest that, when fructose is consumed in the form of HFCS, the measured metabolic responses do not differ from Suc in lean women. Further research is required to examine appetite responses and to determine if these findings... > **[Sugars and satiety: does the type of sweetener make a difference? - PubMed](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17616770/)** > > There was no evidence that commercial cola beverages sweetened with either sucrose or HFCS have significantly different effects on hunger, satiety, or short-term energy intakes. > **[No differences in satiety or energy intake after high-fructose corn syrup,...](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18065574/)** > > Energy balance consequences of HFCS-sweetened soft drinks are not different from those of other isoenergetic drinks, eg, a sucrose-drink or milk. > **[High-fructose corn syrup, energy intake, and appetite regulation - PubMed](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19064539/)** > > High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has been implicated in excess weight gain through mechanisms seen in some acute feeding studies and by virtue of its abundance in the food supply during years of increasing obesity. Compared with pure glucose, fructose... > **[Twenty-four-hour endocrine and metabolic profiles following consumption of...](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18469239/)** > > Sucrose and HFCS do not have substantially different short-term endocrine/metabolic effects. In male subjects, short-term consumption of sucrose and HFCS resulted in postprandial TG responses comparable to those induced by fructose. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mexican-coke-non-fattening/776378/51 "2017-01-07T13:20:37Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > … The USA, by the way, is one of the world five largest producers of sugar beets, mainly I think in Minnesota and the Dakotas. … Minnesota #1 by far. Then Idaho and Michigan. Then basically noise from the handful of other states that produce sugar beets. (Although Western Oregon grows a lot of them for seed. While the production sugar beet fields in Eastern Oregon look impressively large, that’s nothing compared to the top three states.) ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2017, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mexican-coke-non-fattening/776378/52 "2017-01-09T07:42:39Z")
> [@harmonicamoon](#): > > Fattening. I haven’t heard that word in over 50 years. I thought it had moved on. > > Here in Mexico, the number one cause of mortality is diabetes. Cancer wins in the USA. Before Coke, everyone here drank aqua naturales. Or, squeezed fruit with water. > > Thanks to the marketing of Coke, it has replaced the aqua naturales. And you can see people carrying a 2 liter bottle of Coke to have at lunch time. > > Whether it is HFCS or cane sugar, it is lethal here. I’m not familiar with aqua naturales. Is that the same as aguas frescas? If so, I think to paint them as “squeezed fruit with water” is a bit off. I can’t drink horchatas, tamarindos, jamaicas, etc because they are crazy sweet. Even drinks like Agua de melon have a ton of added sugar. I grew up on the border. Maybe things were different to the south. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2017, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mexican-coke-non-fattening/776378/53 "2017-01-09T08:17:42Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > …but sugar doesn’t make my husband’s gout act up like HCFS does. (googling it…) Hardcore Foot Sex? ---
**Author:** ![EckyThump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e47774/32.png) [@EckyThump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EckyThump)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2017, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mexican-coke-non-fattening/776378/54 "2017-01-09T10:30:23Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > I had always assumed that people could tell the difference in taste between cane sugar and HFCS. Is that not correct? ‘Mexican coke’ sounds like what we get here in the UK, sweetened with cane sugar. Sometimes I’m able to get hold of cans of US coke, which taste noticably sweeter, and a bit like vanilla. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2017, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mexican-coke-non-fattening/776378/55 "2017-01-09T10:52:58Z")
> [@harmonicamoon](#): > > Here in Mexico, the number one cause of mortality is diabetes. Cancer wins in the USA. Before Coke, everyone here drank aqua naturales. Or, squeezed fruit with water. And beer, and liquor… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mexican-coke-non-fattening/776378.md?page=2)