# What's the straight dope on "inverted cane sugar"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 17, 2007, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-inverted-cane-sugar/419445 "2007-09-17T01:50:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![notsoheavyd3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/85e7bf/32.png) [@notsoheavyd3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notsoheavyd3)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-inverted-cane-sugar/419445/21 "2012-05-01T04:01:45Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Even if cane sugar is somehow better than high fructose corn syrup, that doesn’t say anything about _inverted_ cane sugar. About the only way inverted cane sugar could be any better than HFCS would be if you’re allergic to some trace chemical in corn. Actually can sugar might not even be good either. I mean I knew that acid would catalyze hydrolysis of sucrose. So you’d expect soda, which tend to be acidic due to carbonic and sometimes phosphoric acids, would crack the sucrose into a glucose/fructose mix. (Admittedly the amount of time would depend on the pH of the solution and the temperature it was kept at.) Hey, here’s a question for any dopers out there that are analytical chemists. (Time to get out the Spec-20) Generally speaking if I buy a cane sugar sweetened soda do they sit around long enough on the shelf to reach chemical equilibrium. (and invert the sugar. Unfortunately I don’t have a Spec-20 so I can’t check. I know if it sat long enough it would but I have no idea how long that would be.) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-inverted-cane-sugar/419445/22 "2012-05-01T04:33:53Z")
> [@](#): > > Actually can sugar might not even be good either. Well, no, no kind of sugar would be good in the quantities modern Americans consume it. ---
**Author:** ![notsoheavyd3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/85e7bf/32.png) [@notsoheavyd3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notsoheavyd3)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-inverted-cane-sugar/419445/23 "2012-05-01T04:42:16Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Well, no, no kind of sugar would be good in the quantities modern Americans consume it. That’s true. However I what I meant was that CANE sugar might not even be any better at all than HFCS since the tonic would effectively break it down into the same thing HFCS is. (And if I’ve learned one thing from my chemistry classes is that if it’s the same chemical it doesn’t matter if it’s produced naturally or artificially.) Then again you do have people that think honey is better than “sugar”. (Which as a few have pointed out is funny since honey is closer to HFCS than anything else.) ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-inverted-cane-sugar/419445/24 "2012-05-01T06:37:35Z")
This story always intrigued me: one of my coworkers made wine with a bunch of friends as a hobby. They experimented with different concoctions…one day they tried invert sugar as an fermentation ingredient and got something like 19-20% alcohol as a result. I’ve always presumed that you can’t go much beyond 15 - 16%. Any vintners out there that put the cork into the bottle of this story? ---
**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:** [May 1, 2012, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-inverted-cane-sugar/419445/25 "2012-05-01T10:13:44Z")
HFCS is a physical mixture of glucose, fructose _and people_. In terms of what it’s doing to you, your loved ones, and America[sup]TM[/sup], it’s probably comparable to [DHMO](http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html)! ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-inverted-cane-sugar/419445/26 "2012-05-01T15:17:42Z")
> [@user\_hostile](#): > > This story always intrigued me: one of my coworkers made wine with a bunch of friends as a hobby. They experimented with different concoctions…one day they tried invert sugar as an fermentation ingredient and got something like 19-20% alcohol as a result. > > I’ve always presumed that you can’t go much beyond 15 - 16%. Any vintners out there that put the cork into the bottle of this story? The upper limit on alcohol content depends on the hardiness of your yeast. Some tolerate higher alcohol %, some don’t. My wife has worked in wineries where they _accidentally_ wound up with wine at almost 17%. (This was a problem because of labeling accuracy and tax issues, as I recall; I think within a percent of deviation they were OK, and their labels said something like 15%, which was the projected ABV.) So I think if you were trying to, and you had the right yeast, it would be possible to hit 19%. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-inverted-cane-sugar/419445/27 "2012-05-01T16:25:35Z")
> [@user\_hostile](#): > > They experimented with different concoctions…one day they tried invert sugar as an fermentation ingredient and got something like 19-20% alcohol as a result. > > I’ve always presumed that you can’t go much beyond 15 - 16%. Any vintners out there that put the cork into the bottle of this story? you could get that high with the right conditions. ---
**Author:** ![thelabdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@thelabdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelabdude)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-inverted-cane-sugar/419445/28 "2012-05-01T17:14:03Z")
It is difficult to explain sugars in 2 dimensions. In 3 dimensions, they can come in different shapes. That stuff about polarized light is just a way of measuring the shape. So each sugar comes in what are called right and left isomers. Right isomers are much more common in nature than left ones. Whatever sugar the body gets, it is converted to glucose. Also starches once they are broken down to sugar. As for how healthy? I don’t have the quality of data on that I like to base opinions on. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-inverted-cane-sugar/419445/29 "2012-05-01T23:27:24Z")
> [@thelabdude](#): > > It is difficult to explain sugars in 2 dimensions. In 3 dimensions, they can come in different shapes. That stuff about polarized light is just a way of measuring the shape. So each sugar comes in what are called right and left isomers. Right isomers are much more common in nature than left . Invert sugar does not mean that any stereocenters are inverted. The direction that polarized light rotates through it is inverted, but the stereocenters are not. ---
**Author:** ![DHMO](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecc23a/32.png) [@DHMO](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DHMO)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-inverted-cane-sugar/419445/30 "2012-05-02T08:48:40Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > HFCS is a physical mixture of glucose, fructose _and people_. > In terms of what it’s doing to you, your loved ones, and America[sup]TM[/sup], it’s probably comparable to [DHMO](http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html)! HEY! :eek: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-inverted-cane-sugar/419445.md?page=1)