Author: Daniel Victor and Christina Caron / Source: New York Times
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Bud Light made an enemy of the corn industry on Sunday by boasting in a Super Bowl ad that, unlike its fiercest competitors, it does not brew its beer with corn syrup.
While corn lobbyists responded in anger, and competing brands fought back, some viewers were left to wonder: Does it matter if corn syrup is used during fermentation?
“The bottom line is that the claims regarding corn syrup in brewing are more marketing than science,” said David Ludwig, a professor of nutrition at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.
Beer is made by fermenting sugar. During the fermentation process, yeast converts the sugar into alcohol.
“Corn syrup is a form of sugar that’s been produced from a grain,” Dr. Ludwig said. “Whether that sugar is produced by first milling and then enzymatically treating the grain, or doing so from corn in a separate process, isn’t going to matter much to the final nutritional quality.”
Bud Light’s ad came days after it became the first major beer to start listing its ingredients on its label. It lists just four — water, barley, rice and hops.
In response to the ad, Kevin Ross, a vice president of the National Corn Growers Association,
“Bud Light, if you’re not standing with corn farmers, we’re not standing with you,” he said.
The corn lobbying group, which says it represents 40,000 dues-paying farmers among an industry of 300,000, said in a tweet aimed at Bud Light that “America’s corn farmers are disappointed in you.” The tweet was shared thousands of times.
If you’re concerned about the nutritional value of your beer — and none of it is particularly healthy — there’s no need to focus on the sugars used during fermentation. You can just look at the label: The main considerations are the alcohol content and the final carbohydrate content.
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