The corn lobby was displeased with Bud Light’s Super Bowl ad throwing shade at beers brewed with corn syrup. This time, the corn guys are right: Miller Lite and Coors Light aren’t loading up their beer with the high-fructose type of corn syrup most health-conscious consumers dread. And the rice in your Bud Light isn’t any better or worse than the corn in that Coors Light.
America’s biggest beer business has implemented more health consciousness into its branding recently, but corn syrup is really the least of a beer drinker’s worries.
During one of several Super Bowl ads on Sunday, Bud Light called out competitors Miller Lite and Coors Light for brewing with corn syrup. The National Corn Growers Association tweeted yesterday that America’s corn farmers were displeased:
.@BudLight America’s corn farmers are disappointed in you. Our office is right down the road! We would love to discuss with you the many benefits of corn! Thanks @MillerLight and @CoorsLite for supporting our industry. https://t.co/6fIWtRdeeM
— National Corn (NCGA) (@NationalCorn) February 4, 2019
Bud Light, which recently began printing nutrition labels on its packaging even though it’s not required to do so by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, has been playing up its health consciousness to a consumer base increasingly intrigued by craft beer over big brewers.
Miller Lite and Coors Light use corn syrup as a cheaper partial replacement for malted barley, the standard grain in beer. Bud Light uses rice. So just because it can, the business capitalizes on our national fear of high-fructose corn syrup and the easy confusion between HCFS and plain-old fructose-free corn syrup.
So is corn syrup worse than rice?
“For health, there really is not a big difference,” Christopher Hamilton, a professor of chemistry at Hillsdale College, says. “Corn syrup ferments almost completely and becomes alcohol. So alcohol- and calorie-wise, it would be the same as using rice or corn sugar.”
Hamilton adds that corn syrup is common in light American lagers, its goal being “to give the beer a lighter body and flavor. ”
Beer aficionados will also point out that any beer with fermentable sugar that doesn’t come from malt is an “adjunct lager,” and many companies add substances such as corn (or rice) to them to drive down costs. It’s not about health; it’s about quality. And Bud Light knows it certainly can’t campaign on that.
If you want a healthier brew, don’t worry about corn or rice or any other federally subsidized product. As MillerCoors points out while throwing shade of its own, watch out for those calories and carbs.
