Why is MAHA embracing Coke?

A cold Coke on a hot day might be your idea of simple pleasure, but no one is mistaking it for a natural product. Bloomberg Businessweek's Deena Shanker, who writes the Extra Salt column, drops by to talk about politicians' surprising embrace of cane sugar sodas. Plus: The Elon, Inc., podcast on his companies and his children, and Japan's struggles with tourism crowds.

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Too much added sugar is bad for us. That's true when it's in a cookie or a bottle of soda. It's true when it's in the form of high fructose corn syrup or cane sugar. We've known this for quite some time now. So seeing the US secretary of health and human services celebrate a bottle of soda because it's made with the latter instead of the former, I'm forced to echo the famous question of Jacobim Mugatu: "Doesn't anyone notice this? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!"

Backing up just briefly: President Donald Trump in a Truth Social post last week said that Coca-Cola Co. had agreed to use cane sugar—presumably instead of high fructose corn syrup—in beverages for the US market. The company then demurred, saying that more details would follow. A few days later, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. commented on an announcement on X from restaurant chain Steak 'n Shake that it would offer Cokes made with "real cane sugar." "MAHA is winning," he wrote.

In its quarterly earnings report on Tuesday, the Coca-Cola made the news official. In the fall it will launch a product for American consumers, alongside the ones it already sells, made with US cane sugar. You'd have to be on crazy pills to think this is a win for American health.

Make room on the shelf for more Coke. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

There are few products quite as unhealthy as a bottle of soda. (Don't get me wrong—as a little treat, soda is fine. So are cookies and candy. Everything in moderation.) As a consistent part of a person's diet, regular soda is very, very bad. First and foremost, there's the sugar: A 12-ounce bottle of Coca-Cola has 39 grams of added sugar, which is more than the American Heart Association says an adult should consume in an entire day. There's also the form it takes: It's easy to drink too much sugar, because we're less likely to feel full from a beverage. Soda has no other nutrients in it; it's basically drinkable, caffeinated candy. Plus, it's a major cause of tooth decay. As the Mississippi State Department of Health puts it, "carbonation, sugar and acids in soft drinks weaken tooth enamel and encourage the growth of bacteria."

And then there's the artificial food dye. Such colorings have taken center stage in Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again movement, in large part thanks to Vani Hari, the longtime online activist better known as Food Babe. Company after company has committed to removing Blue Nos. 1 and 2, Green No. 3, Red No. 40, and Yellow Nos. 5 and 6 from their products. The announcements come after years of critics highlighting that the dyes may be carcinogenic, may lead to hyperactivity in some kids, and exist solely to market junk food, usually to children.

A bottle of Coke doesn't use those dyes—but it uses another one called caramel coloring. Hari earlier waged an entire, yearlong campaign against it, eventually getting Starbucks to get rid of it. "I think it's one of the most hazardous chemicals being added to our food," she wrote back in 2014. ("Caramel coloring, when produced with ammonia, contains the contaminants 2-methylimidazole and 4-methylimidazole," according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which then lists multiple health authorities linking them to cancer.)

None of these problems are solved by swapping in cane sugar for high fructose corn syrup, though Hari told me the benefit is really that by avoiding genetically modified corn, less of the herbicide glyphosate is used.

Coca-Cola declined to comment on its changes. "Let's be clear: No one is calling soda a health food. The secretary made a simple point—Americans deserve real ingredients, not ultraprocessed additives," says Andrew Nixon, an HHS spokesperson. "We welcome any move that signals a return to natural ingredients."

If anybody is winning, it's Coca-Cola, which reported second-quarter sales growth and profit yesterday that beat Wall Street's expectations. As of Tuesday's close, Coke has seen its share price for the year jump 11.89%, solidly ahead of the S&P 500's 7.28% advance. Consumers are still buying the company's drinks. With its newest offering enjoying not just Kennedy's support but also the endorsement of Trump, one of Diet Coke's most famous fans, more soda sales look likely.

Related: The push for more cane-sweetened Coke products means the US may need to import more expensive sweetener from Mexico and Brazil—particularly if other companies follow suit.

In Brief

House Speaker Mike Johnson, in an interview with Bloomberg reporters and editors, says he's "disenchanted" with Fed Chair Jerome Powell, amid Trump's attacks stemming from his frustration with high interest rates.
In the latest on the trade war, the EU could quickly hit the US with 30% duties on some €100 billion ($117 billion) worth of goods in the event of no agreement. Meanwhile, the US reached a deal with Japan to tariff imports at 15%.
The meme-stock revival looks like it might stretch into another day with GoPro, Krispy Kreme and Beyond Meat all surging in early trading.

Listen to Elon, Inc.

Photo illustration by 731. NASA (1), Getty Images (3)

On this week's episode of the Elon, Inc., podcast, host Max Chafkin and Bloomberg News reporter Ed Ludlow discuss their cover story for the latest issue of Bloomberg Businessweek on the ways in which Elon Musk's companies are struggling in the wake of his feud with President Donald Trump. Plus, technology editor Sarah Frier interviews Wall Street Journal reporter Dana Mattioli about Musk's many children and his interaction with their mothers.

Listen and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, iHeart and the Bloomberg Terminal.

When Vacationers Become Too Much

The Instagrammable stand of birch trees in Biei. Photographer: Toshiki Nakanishi

There was a time when residents of the northern Japanese farming community of Biei might walk for miles and see no one. Those days are long gone. The town of 9,000—really a sparsely populated expanse of rolling fields of various grains, vegetables and flowers—has become a sensation on Instagram and Chinese rival Xiaohongshu. With the social media sites featuring ever more photos of the bucolic scenery, waves of phone-wielding tourists followed.

The vacationers, mostly foreigners, often trampled private land, prompting the town to install cameras that trigger a warning in multiple languages and snap photos of intruders. But the tourists kept coming, with buses of them jamming the streets. On one stretch of road, traffic often halted as visitors stopped for shots of a particularly photogenic row of white birch trees.

In January, Biei (pronounced BEE-ay) decided something had to change. So on a chilly day, a crew pulled up to the decades-old trees, revved up its chain saws and cut down about 40 of them. Although the town said the birches were keeping sunlight from reaching crops, some locals say the move was intended to keep the crowds at bay.

Lured by the cheap yen, a record 37 million visitors came in Japan last year—straining the country's long tradition of hospitality. K Oanh Ha writes about the challenges facing Biei and other places: It's Not Just Tokyo and Kyoto: Tourists Descend on Rural Japan

Pressure on the IRS

25%

That's how much the Internal Revenue Service's staff was cut by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency task force. That leaves fewer workers to churn out guidance on President Donald Trump's multitrillion-dollar tax bill, under tight deadlines.

Tesla Earnings Preview

"Tesla, more than any other large-cap stock, relies on investor confidence in the company's long-term vision of the future."

Nicholas Colas

Co-founder of DataTrek Research

Tesla's core carmaking business is facing a deteriorating outlook, with the company expected to post the sharpest drop in revenue in more than a decade when it reports earnings this afternoon. Sales have suffered from an aging lineup and the backlash against Musk's political role, with the stock down 31% from a December peak.