Weightview Diet Blog

I was watching TV a couple days ago and was shocked, on the screen I watched a commercial that propagated the idea that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) was good for you and would not negatively affect your health!  Of course this was produced and distributed by the Corn Miller corporation, which has an obvious conflict of interest.  And so in this post I want to offer you a fair and balanced view of high fructose corn syrup, with perspectives from both sides, so you can decide for yourself.

There are indications that soda and sweet drinks provide a greater proportion of daily calories than any other food in the American diet. Overconsumption of sugars has been linked to adverse health effects, such as obesity, and most of these effects are similar for HFCS and sucrose. There is a correlation between the rise of obesity in the U.S. and the use of HFCS for sweetening beverages and foods. The controversy largely comes down to whether this is coincidence or a causal relationship. Some critics of HFCS do not claim that it is any worse than similar quantities of sucrose would be, but rather focus on its prominent role in the overconsumption of sugar; for example, encouraging overconsumption through its low cost.

The possible difference in health effects between sucrose and HFCS could come from the difference in chemical make up between them. HFCS 55 (the type most commonly used in soft drinks) is made up of 55% fructose and 45% glucose. By contrast, sucrose is made up of 50% fructose and 50% glucose. Furthermore, the fructose and glucose in HFCS 55 are in the form of separate molecules; by contrast, the fructose and glucose that are contained in sucrose are joined together to form a single molecule (called a disaccharide). This chemical difference may be less significant in many beverages that are sweetened with sucrose. This is because many beverages are strongly acidic, and the acid in the beverage will cause the sucrose to separate into its component parts of glucose and fructose. The amount of sucrose converted will depend on the temperature the beverage is kept at and the amount of time it is kept at this temperature.^{[citation needed]}

There are a number of relevant studies published in peer reviewed journals suggesting a link between high fructose diets and adverse health effects. Studies on the effect of fructose, as reviewed by Elliot et al.,^[21] implicate increased consumption of fructose (due primarily to the increased consumption of sugars but also partly due to the slightly higher fructose content of HFCS as compared to sucrose) in obesity and insulin resistance. Chi-Tang Ho et al. found that soft drinks sweetened with HFCS are up to 10 times richer in harmful carbonyl compounds, such as methylglyoxal, than a diet soft drink control.^[22] Carbonyl compounds are elevated in people with diabetes and are blamed for causing diabetic complications such as foot ulcers and eye and nerve damage; Furthermore, a study in mice suggests that fructose increases obesity. Large quantities of fructose stimulate the liver to produce triglycerides, promotes glycation of proteins and induces insulin resistance. According to one study, the average American consumes nearly 70 pounds of HFCS per annum, marking HFCS as a major contributor to the rising rates of obesity in the last generation. ^[27]

A 2007 study also raised concerns of possible liver damage as a result of HFCS in combination with a high fat diet and a sedentary lifestyle.

In contrast to the above studies other papers (often funded by corn refiners and/or the American Beverage Institute) suggest HFCS has no ill health affects. A review supported by Tate & Lyle, a large corn refiner which makes a significant profit from the sale of corn-based products, concluded “that HFCS does not appear to contribute to overweight and obesity any differently than do other energy sources.”

In addition, some of the above-referenced studies have addressed fructose specifically, not sweeteners such as HFCS or sucrose which contain fructose in combination with other sugars. Thus, although they indicate that high fructose intake should be avoided, they don’t necessarily indicate that HFCS is worse than sucrose intake, except insofar as HFCS contains 5% more fructose. Studies which have compared HFCS to sucrose (as opposed to pure fructose) find that they have essentially identical physiological effects. For instance, Melanson et al. (2006), studied the effects of HFCS and sucrose sweetened drinks on blood glucose, insulin, leptin, and ghrelin levels. They found no significant differences in any of these parameters.

Perrigue et al. (2006) compared the effects of isocaloric servings of colas sweetened with HFCS 45, HFCS 55, sucrose, and aspartame on satiety and subsequent energy intake. They found that all of the drinks with caloric sweeteners produced similar satiety responses, and had the same effects on subsequent energy intake. Taken together with Melanson et al. (2006), this study suggests that there is little or no evidence for the hypothesis that HFCS is different from sucrose in its effects on appetite or on metabolic processes involved in fat storage.

It should be noted that both the Perrigue et al. study and the Melanson et al. study were funded by “the American Beverage Institute and the Corn Refiners Association.” suggesting a possible conflict of interest in regards to the study of HFCS.

One much-publicized 2004 study found an association between obesity and high HFCS consumption, especially from soft drinks. However, this study provided only correlative data. One of the study coauthors, Dr. Barry M. Popkin, is quoted in the New York Times as saying, “I don’t think there should be a perception that high-fructose corn syrup has caused obesity until we know more.” In the same article, Walter Willets, chair of the nutrition department of the Harvard School of Public Health, is quoted as saying, “There’s no substantial evidence to support the idea that high-fructose corn syrup is somehow responsible for obesity …. If there was no high-fructose corn syrup, I don’t think we would see a change in anything important.” Willets also recommends drinking water over soft drinks containing sugars or high-fructose corn syrup.