President Donald Trump announced earlier this week that Coca-Cola has agreed to switch from using high-fructose corn syrup to cane sugar in its signature drink in the U.S.
"I have been speaking to Coca-Cola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so," Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday. "I'd like to thank all of those in authority at Coca-Cola. This will be a very good move by them – You'll see. It's just better!"
The beverage company, which since the 1980s has used high-fructose corn syrup to sweeten Coca-Cola, has yet to confirm the switch.
MORE: Trump says Coke agrees to use cane sugar in USNutritional experts told ABC News that switching to cane sugar is a step in the right direction but there's not much difference between the two when it comes to their effects on the body, particularly when consumed in excess.
"No matter what, high sugar intake has been linked to all of the negative health effects," Julia Zumpano, a registered dietitian at the Cleveland Clinic, told ABC News. "The high-fructose content is just very palatable. It's highly used and in abundance across multiple products and when anything is exposed and consumed in excess is when we have start to have risk factors."
High-fructose corn syrup is a sweetener that's produced from corn starch. It's found in many processed foods and drinks including some breakfast cereals, candy bars, crackers, fruit preserves, salad dressings, sauces and more.
"It converts some of the glucose that's naturally produced into fructose, so it has higher levels of fructose," Zumpano said, referring to what's commonly known as fruit sugar.
High amounts of fructose are processed by the liver, which can lead to fatty liver or high levels of triglycerides, which is a type of fat found in the blood. Fatty liver and high triglyceride levels can in turn lead to metabolic issues, obesity and diabetes, Zumpano said.
By comparison, cane sugar comes from the sugar cane plant, which is washed and crushed to extract the juice. The juice is then boiled to be crystallized and spun in a centrifuge to remove excess juice. This results in raw sugar, which can be further refined.
Chemically known as sucrose, cane sugar is a disaccharide, defined as a sugar composed of two so-called simple sugar molecules -- in this case, one glucose and one fructose molecule. Cane sugar has a lower amount of fructose than high-fructose corn syrup does, Zumpano explained.
So which of the two sweeteners is better for you?
Angela Zivkovic, a professor and nutritionist at the University of California, Davis Agricultural Experiment Station, said what really matters is the context in which someone consumes foods or beverages sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup or cane sugar.
"If high-fructose corn syrup is consumed in large quantities, and it's in an individual who isn't burning very many calories, then, of course, it can lead to weight gain," Zivkovic told ABC News. "Consuming that kind of fuel in the wrong context can definitely have some detrimental health effects."
MORE: Low-calorie sugar alternatives could negatively affect gut health, study findsSimilarly, in products sweetened with cane sugar, "if you are primarily sedentary, and aren't using a lot of calories, and you consume a lot of foods that have sucrose in them, then that sucrose will eventually be used for fat storage, because it's most likely being consumed in the kind of context where it's excess fuel and that excess fuel is stored," Zivkovic noted.
On average there isn't likely to be a major difference between soda sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup and soda sweetened with cane sugar aside from taste, according to Zivkovic. Soda sweetened with cane sugar is not dramatically better for health, and both sweeteners can be unhealthy when consumed frequently and in large amounts, she said.
"You could argue that it's a step in the right direction, because it is at least slowing down absorption a little bit. But is it going to be healthier? I really don't think you could say that," Zivkovic said of the pending Coca-Cola switch to cane sugar from high-fructose corn syrup. "They're both just sugar-sweetened beverages that are basically rocket fuel and that don't have any other nutritional components that are worth talking about and, for most people who are generally sedentary, they're the wrong thing to be doing."
Zumpano agreed, adding that there is "a little bit more" health risk from high-fructose corn syrup because it is highly processed. She said Coca-Cola, and any other company that may switch from high-fructose corn syrup to cane sugar, could see this as an opportunity to lower the amount of sweetener in its products.
"If consumers are required to use a more expensive alternative, like sugar, the hope is maybe that they will use less and will use a better alternative," Zumpano said. "Now again, who knows if that's going to be the outcome, but really the key here should be that we should be consuming less sugar."
"So not only should Coca-Cola or any other company change over to sugar, but the goal is that they reduce the overall sugar content in the product by, in my opinion, be a quarter, and then we've really made some progress," Zumpano added.
