The War on High Fructose Corn Syrup

The war has gotten to the point where the Corn Refiners Association has made an attempt (and I should say that it has failed) to change the name of high fructose corn syrup to avoid further negative connotations this embattled energy source has endured.   Questions about this sugar and non-caloric sweeteners are the most common questions that people ask me in the area of nutrition.  People are worried that this sugar substance is going to cause poor health, and they have good reasons to believe so.  If you have listened to mass media and/or read diet magazines or websites, you have probably witnessed the articles accusing high fructose corn syrup for part of the obesity epidemic, diabetes, and other health concerns.

High fructose corn syrup is under a lot of scrutiny, scrutiny that I believe any food product should undergo.  I’m not a fan of taking specific ingredients out of your diet, or adding this vegetable because of it’s “cancer fighting” properties, rather, I praise well-rounded diets that include a variety of different foods yet still includes those triple chocolate brownies that you oh-so dearly admire (in moderation, of course!).   But, what exactly is there to fear about high fructose corn syrup?

First, what is high fructose corn syrup?

The plain old table sugar (sucrose) that we are used to contains an even amount of two “simple” sugars: glucose and fructose.  These are naturally occurring sugars – glucose is most commonly consumed from grains (in the form of very long chains), fruits, vegetables and dairy products.  Glucose is rarely consumed in it’s single molecular form, however, it is more commonly consumed in part of a chain such as found in breads and grains, or linked to another sugar molecule such as fructose.  Fructose is commonly found in fruits and vegetables, hence the name.

In the process of taking cornstarch and making it into high fructose corn syrup, manufacturers have the option to create different types of high fructose corn syrup: a 55% blend of fructose and 45% glucose (used in drinks because of physical properties) or a 42% fructose blend with 58% glucose (used in baked goods because, again, of it’s physical properties). 

In the 1960’s and 70’s, the use of high fructose corn syrup was nearly nonexistent.  As the refining process became more efficient, it started to be cheaper for manufacturers to substitute beet or cane sugar with high fructose corn syrup.  Thus, consumption increased, and incidentally, so did obesity and other comorbidities.  The million dollar question, the one that a lot of research efforts are focusing on, is whether this was a coincidence or if, in fact, high fructose corn syrup plays a role in weight gain and the incidence of other diseases and illnesses. 

Pointing towards charts and data that show high fructose corn syrup consumption has increased dramatically really doesn’t show you the whole picture.  This is the argument made by most people, that this increase in consumption can be blamed for many of the health issues of Americans.  However, as HFCS has increased (page 10), sucrose consumption has decreased, and in a very parallel fashion with HFCS.  In effect, Americans are not consuming more or less of fructose, rather, its consumption has stayed fairly constant over the last 3 decades (data was never accumulated before then).

Some people are skeptical of the manufacturing process of HFCS, that this in itself, causes unknown changes within the body that cause weight gain.  Physiologically, this isn’t possible.  No matter where the source of carbohydrate comes from, glucose is processed like glucose, fructose like fructose, lactose like lactose.  The body cannot decipher the source of the molecule.  On the flip side, research has shown that fructose is more readily available for processing (either for immediate energy needs or transforming it to fat) in high fructose corn syrup when compared to sucrose.  This is due to the fact that some fructose is “free” in HFCS, whereas in sucrose it is always bound to another glucose molecule. Keep in mind that the Princeton article was looking for psychological effects of fructose, and so they did not restrict consumption amounts.   This area is in need of more research to find out if the data can stay consistent and what exactly causes the changes within the body.  How’s that chemistry 101 treatin’ ya?

What should you make of all this?  Considering that many scientific articles looking at meta-analyses of HFCS research, at this time there is nothing to fear (Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Critical Reviews of Food Science and Nutrition, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Mayo Clinic, Center for Disease Control).  Eating a well-balanced diet that includes the limitation of added sugars will already significantly reduce any potential adverse health effects if HFCS was found to have a significant impact on obesity or other illnesses, giving you benefits that far outweigh any harm from HFCS.

When people ask me about HFCS, I tell them to avoid sugary drinks and other foods with added sugars.  If necessary, consume them in moderation.  It isn't a health recommendation solely based upon high fructose corn syrup, but a recommendation based on sugars as a whole.

Cheers to research and continued advancements in the area of nutritional science!