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Not All Sugar Is Created Equal: The Battle over High Fructose Corn Syrup

High fructose corn syrup is used in just about every food and beverage product out there. And even more so, it is not the only sweetener used. Usually you’ll go down the list of ingredients in your favorite snack or beverage, only to find additional sweeteners like regular corn syrup, glucose, dextrose, and sugar. Sometimes you could find “evaporated cane juice,” which is promoted as a less refined sweetener.

But what has been the issue with high fructose corn syrup? Well, companies got a little greedy when coming up with recipes. And being companies, their number one goal is to reduce costs. With that being said, high fructose corn syrup is used for its affordability and not for anything else. It’s cheaper to put into the product, because of the fact that one of the largest grown crops for cash and consumption in America is corn and corn-based products.

Although don’t let PR firms and corporate interests fool you. Have you ever seen the commercial (paid for by the pro-corn syrup lobbyists) that advocates high fructose corn syrup? It’s getting a bit ridiculous. The thin veil has been pulled away though, as most research now points to the fact that laboratory studies show that high fructose corn syrup is bad for you: it’s that simple.

In response to the research, many snack and beverage companies are simply getting rid of high fructose corn syrup, or at the very least, they are offering alternatives that are sweetened with sugar instead.

Many people may be lost in the confusion over different types of sweeteners. This is what the lobbyists who are paid by the corn syrup producing companies focus on. They know that if they tell you “it’s just like sugar,” then you’ll somehow think that; instead of being reminded by actual evidence that every sweetener has different qualities.

Regular corn syrup is a bit different from the high fructose stuff. However, you can call corn-based syrup a “liquid starch,” if that sound more appealing. Both are based on the starch sugar: glucose, found in common crops like wheat, rice, potatoes, and of course corn. High fructose corn syrup is “enhanced” through an enzyme process that turns up the levels of fructose present in regular corn syrup: making it high fructose. Think of glucose as the “plant sugar” or the sugar that is produced out of a plants own photosynthesis process.  Think of fructose as a “fruit sugar” which is found in berries, melons, honey and some root vegetable crops.

High fructose corn syrup was created as a “super sweetener” hence the name “high fructose.” Regular fructose is around 80% sweeter than honey and around 70% sweeter than regular table sugar (sucrose), with high fructose corn syrup being even more sweet. Think of the regular white table sugar that we all know of as an “organic compound” because sucrose is derived from not a starch, not a laboratory, but from sugar cane, sugar beets, date palm, sorghum, or the sugar maple for example. While all sugars are families of glucose, and fructose, each compound has a different chemical makeup and molecule structure. And every sugar is different in the way we actually derive the final product; the process is different as well.

If you want some statistics on the per-capita high fructose corn syrup consumption in the United States, here it is:  around the year1984, the per-capita consumption of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) was around 40 pounds per-capita, per year. In 2002, this number reached the same levels of the consumption of regular white table sugar: around 60 pounds per-capita, per year. See the graph below.

So what essentially is the problem with this increase in high fructose corn syrup consumption in America? The alarming rate of obesity in America is one primary problem with a diet consisting of too much sugar. You can see by the graph above that the total consumption of white table sugar actually diminished as HFCS grew: which means more people were invested in diets containing HFCS and not sugar. Therefore, this goes to a larger point: a consumer culture that is focused on items such as fast food, frozen foods, or unhealthy snack foods, because all of those contain HFCS instead of white table sugar.

A recent report by Princeton University has research that points to high fructose corn syrup increasing the appetites of laboratory rats; in the end, the rats are obese from the consumption of too much high fructose corn syrup. The rats that were fed regular white table sugar gained significantly less weight than those who were fed the HFCS.  As well, the research points out that long-term consumption of HFCS also can cause “abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen.” As well, it can cause a rise in blood-levels of cholesterol, and triglycerides.

Bart Hoebel, a psychology professor who specializes in the neuroscience of appetite, weight and sugar addiction commented, “When rats are drinking high-fructose corn syrup at levels well below those in soda pop, they’re becoming obese – every single on, across the board. Even when rats are fed a high-fat diet, you don’t see this; they don’t all gain extra weight.”

People with diets that are rich in “convenience foods,” such as fast foods, or frozen foods will be more likely to consume a lot more high-fructose corn syrup. As with everything, what most people recommend is that moderation and a balanced diet take precedence. It must be noted that a diet rich in any sugar, whatever kind it may be, can cause obesity, diabetes and a flurry of other health problems. So reducing your overall intake of sugar could be the first step towards a healthier existence.

by Carl Drummond