High fructose corn syrup can be found in everything from soda to salad dressing, from cookies to ketchup.
The corn syrup industry contends it is a natural sweetener that enhances flavor and makes food last longer, but critics charge it may be causing obesity and disease -- and that it's used because government subsidies on corn make it a cheap way to sweeten foods.
"The industry loves it because it's cheap and lasts a long time on the shelf," said Rod Hansen, assistant professor of nutrition at Weber State University.
High fructose corn syrup is made by converting glucose to fructose and mixing it with pure corn syrup, according to Wikipedia. It is used in such items as soft drinks, yogurt, baked goods, salad dressing, tomato soup, spaghetti sauce, ketchup, granola bars, and frozen and canned fruits.
The food industry began using the sweetener as an alternative when the cost of imported sugar rose in 1977, according to Wikipedia. Critics of high fructose corn syrup point out the obesity epidemic began about the same time.
"In 1970 we started to use it. Isn't it funny that's when the obesity epidemic began?" asked Joan Thompson, professor of nutrition at Weber State University.
Affects metabolism?
Hansen said fructose is metabolized differently from other sweeteners.
"(High fructose corn syrup) is a combination of glucose and fructose," he said. "Glucose has enzymes that are gatekeepers. When we need energy, they open up. Fructose is metabolized differently than glucose. It bypasses the gates. It could be a problem. Does it make us fatter? That hasn't been completely answered. There is pretty good evidence it could."
Thompson said her research of "conservative, data-driven" studies show that fructose consumption may lead to imbalances of insulin, leptin, ghrelin, triglycerides and uric acid in the body.
"High fructose corn syrup may be messing up metabolism because of the load of fructose," she said.
Thompson believes increasing consumption of high fructose corn syrup is contributing to the increase of metabolic syndrome, a group of conditions that lead to heart disease, diabetes and other diseases.
"I think there are physiological mechanisms there, but with the right-now data, I can't really say," she said.
Hansen agrees the data is inconclusive, but concerning.
"It's hard to pull down the different parts of it and how they affect obesity. There is good reason for concern with high intake of high fructose corn syrup. It's similar to table sugar. I think we are getting too much of it," Hansen said.
Sweeter/less filling?
Some research indicates high fructose corn syrup puts extra calories into our diet.
Caroline Shugart, an employee wellness specialist with Utah State University, said calories from high fructose corn syrup are so concentrated that we tend to eat them in addition to other, more filling foods -- contributing to obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.
"Unfortunately, high fructose corn syrup has no nutritional value," she said. "The calorie content is very similar to all sweeteners. However, since humans did not evolve with high fructose corn syrup like we did with the fructose in berry bushes and apples, it may fool our bodies into not recognizing the calories it contains.
"People who drink sugary beverages with high fructose corn syrup seem to add those calories onto the calories from foods they eat throughout the day. They don't compensate for those extra calories by reducing food intake."
A 2009 article in the Journal of Nutrition, in which Theodore Angelopoulos and other authors said fructose consumption has increased in the last three decades, supports Shugart's theory.
The study showed that mice fed high fructose corn syrup did tend to eat more than the other mice.
"A very compelling case can be made that excess sugar consumption has played a significant role (in obesity). Fructose, as a component of the vast majority of caloric sweeteners, is seen to be particularly insidious. Evidence shows that fructose bypasses many of the body's satiating signals, thus potentially promoting overconsumption of energy, weight gain and the development of insulin resistance. It has also been shown to increase uric acid levels, which in turn promotes many of the abnormalities seen in the metabolic syndrome," according to an abstract of the study.
It's cheap
Shugart said one reason we eat so much high fructose corn syrup is that foods with the sweetener are cheaper than healthy foods.
"It is an incredibly cheap sweetener and has been added to most processed and packaged foods currently available in supermarkets," she said. "This is one of the main reasons Americans eat so much junk food and fast food. Our government subsidizes the cost, but doesn't subsidize fruits and veggies and whole grains.
"It's quite a paradox. The very products that caused our health-care crisis are being subsidized. The very foods that protect us from cancer and diabetes and heart disease are not subsidized."
No worse than sugar?
Thompson, Hansen and the Angelopoulos article all suggest more research needs to be done on the health effects of high fructose corn syrup.
Angeloupolos said studies done with fructose show a detrimental effect on metabolism, but there is little data specifically on high fructose corn syrup.
"What little is available suggests that high fructose corn syrup does not seem to be any more insidious than other caloric sweeteners," he said.
On the Web site www.sweetsurprise.com, The Corn Refiners' Association says the glucose/fructose ratio in high fructose corn syrup is similar to that of sucrose, or table sugar.
High fructose corn syrup used in baked goods is 42 percent fructose, 58 percent glucose. In beverages, the ratio is 55 percent fructose, 45 percent glucose. Sucrose is 50 percent glucose, 50 percent fructose, the association says.
"Sugar and high fructose corn syrup have the same number of calories as most carbohydrates; both have four calories per gram," according to the Web site. "Because they are nearly compositionally equivalent, the human body cannot tell the difference between high fructose corn syrup and sugar. ...
"Most studies conducted with pure fructose have been performed with abnormally high levels of fructose. Such studies are not representative of normal diets because we consume fructose and glucose in combination, with glucose acting as a moderator to fructose as they are consumed together."
It's a calorie thing
What experts can agree on is that cutting out high fructose corn syrup is a good way to cut calories and sugar intake.
Along with Thompson and Hansen, registered dietitian Charlotte Scott, of McKay-Dee Hospital, said she believes high fructose corn syrup may not break down like other sugars and may make the body produce more insulin.
Scott added, though, that it makes us fat because it adds extra calories to our diet.
"I do recommend to try to stick with healthier things and with regular sugar, not processed. The bottom line is, it's still calories. A calorie is a calorie whether it's corn syrup, sugar or honey," she said.
Joy Musselman, also a registered dietitian with McKay-Dee Hospital, agrees with the corn industry that high fructose corn syrup is like sugar. But she also believes it is making us fat because we eat too much of it.
"Research shows that it's metabolized just like sugar. The problem in general with consuming beverages high in high fructose corn syrup is they are not nutrient-dense foods. There are not a lot of vitamins, minerals or fiber. We overconsume these foods and gain weight. It's not from corn syrup but from overconsuming calories," she said.
Teresa Hunsaker, homemaking specialist with the Utah State University Extension Service, said the average American should care less about the metabolic effects of sweeteners and more about cutting calories from all sweeteners.
"There are going to be two opinions and it really hasn't been substantiated one way or the other," she said. "The research has conflicting results about the effects of high fructose corn syrup and whether it's much worse that table sugar.
"It is a sugar. You need to cut back on it if you are going to cut back on sugar overall because it is found in so many products. Focus on calorie consumption versus the type."
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