RFK Jr. and Coca-Cola

One of things HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is proposing is removing high fructose corn syrup from soft drinks, such as Coca-Cola.

🚨 Would you support RFK Jr. mandating Coca-Cola to remove high-fructose corn syrup just like they do in Europe? 🇺🇸🥤

YES or NO? 👇 pic.twitter.com/QDdoxf6yor

— Tom Homan 🇺🇸 News (Commentary) (@HomanNews) March 29, 2025

Some people are squeaking over this proposal. They act like Coke has always has high fructose corn syrup.

Actually, it wasn't until 1984 that Coke replaced cane sugar with the corn syrup.

From Reader's Digest:

Ready for a shock? Coca-Cola only stopped using real cane sugar in the U.S. in 1984. I had always assumed this happened in, like, 1950. Or maybe after Coca-Cola stopped putting actual cocaine in the formula (which was really a thing, but they took that out in 1903, thank heavens). But Coke didn’t swap out cane sugar for high-fructose corn syrup in the U.S. until the mid-1980s. Yep. Ronald Reagan was president. Madonna was in her “Like a Virgin” phase. And quietly, in factories across America, corn syrup was sneaking into your soda. What a time to be alive!

Notice that Mexican Coca-Cola tastes different, and better, than U.S. Coke? It is because they still use cane sugar. 

Fizz-Nik of the 1960s

Current generations (Gen X, Millennials, etc.) would not know about this, but us baby boomers would.

Back in the early 1960s (circa 1961), the 7 Up company put out Fizz-Nik. I remember having one that was red and yellow.

According to Wikipedia:

Fizz-Nik was a product marketed by the United States beverage company 7 Up. It was used in much the same way as a drinking straw, and was primarily developed to allow creation of an "instant ice cream float" (also known as an ice cream soda).

The Fizz-Nik was modeled after the "Astro-Float" product, which was released shortly beforehand by the Coca Cola Company. Reflecting upon this trend, 7 Up named their similar product after the Russian "Sputnik".

The Fizz-Nik resembled a round bubble. It was composed of two half-spheres that snapped together with a nozzle on each side.

The Fizz-Nik design was intended to create an instant ice cream float or to instantly chill soda as it passes through the bubble, which would be placed into the opening of the glass soda bottle. The opposite end of the bubble was used for drinking. The Fizz-Nik was filled with either ice cream or ice, depending on whether one wanted to make an ice cream float or chill the soda.