Is high fructose corn syrup exactly the same as sugar? Ads sponsored by the corn refining industry want us to believe so. The actual facts may surprise you.
Between 2008 and 2011, lobbyists for corn growers and processors have spent millions of dollars on television ads, billboards, print ads and flashy websites designed to convince Americans of the safety of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), a sweetener frequently added to soft drinks, baked goods, snack foods, yogurt, spaghetti sauces, and myriad other food products. The advertising blitz was hatched in response to clinical studies which showed that HFCS, refined from corn and containing primarily the sugar fructose, was detrimental to human health in ways that table sugar (sucrose), was not.
In a “let’s-make-a-claim-that-sounds-scientific-to-muddy-the-waters” bit of propaganda, one HFCS ad states that “High fructose corn syrup is simply a kind of corn sugar that is handled by your body like sugar or honey. Whether it’s corn sugar or cane sugar, your body can’t tell the difference. Sugar is sugar.”
Holy crap. Always beware the industrial processes made warm and fuzzy. Anyone who made it through high school science class can see through that pretzel logic. While one might say that sugars are digested in your body by similar mechanisms and they may taste similar on your tongue, what your body does with the resulting molecules in your digestive tract and how they affect other organs is very different indeed. The naturally occurring fructose in a peach has a different impact on your body than the high fructose corn syrup in a cola.
What are the types of natural sugars?
Most naturally occurring sugars can be grouped into one of the following classes:
- Sucrose: Derived from sugar cane or sugar beets and most frequently sold as table sugar.
- Fructose: Sugars from fruit.
- Lactose: Sugars from milk.
- Maltose: Fermented sugar, such as those in malted beverages.
- Glucose: Sugar from honey or sweet fruit.
Gram for gram, Fructose is considered the sweetest sugar by humans in taste tests. High Fructose Corn Syrup became popular in the refined foods industry because manufacturers needed to add less of it to their products than table sugar (sucrose). With the help of corn subsidies found in the Farm Bill, it also was very inexpensive to produce. HFCS added stability and texture to many packaged products, extending their shelf life, which allowed manufacturers to supersize their products without a substantial increase in cost. Hence the 64-ounce serving of soda and the never-go-stale snack cake.
Studies Show A Higher Risk Of Heart Disease And Diabetes With High Fructose Corn Syrup
An article in Time magazine April 21, 2009, reported that “researchers at the University of California Davis (found that) consuming too much fructose can actually put you at greater risk of developing heart disease and diabetes than ingesting similar amounts of glucose.” The study showed that test subjects who drank fructose-sweetened beverages with each meal showed signs of unhealthy changes in liver function and fat deposits. The subjects consuming similar amounts of glucose-sweetened drinks showed no such change. Among the changes the fructose-drinking subjects displayed were reduced levels of sensitivity to insulin and a gain in visceral fat. Insulin is a hormone secreted by the pancreas to break down glucose in the blood – insulin insensitivity is one of the early signs of diabetes. Visceral fat accumulates between tissues and in organs like the heart and liver and is known to throw off metabolism, frequently setting the stage for cardiovascular disease.
But don’t give up pears, peaches, and other fresh fruit because it contains fructose. The fructose delivered by fruit is wrapped in fiber and dozens of other components which slow the uptake of the sugar into your bloodstream. Fructose contained in High Fructose Corn Syrup goes right to your liver, bypassing much of the normal digestive process.
A study conducted by the Princeton Neuroscience Institute at Princeton University, published February 26, 2010, found that “All sweeteners were not equal when it came to weight gain. Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same. In addition to causing significant weight gain in lab animals, long-term consumption of high-fructose corn syrup also led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in circulating blood fats called triglycerides.”
The science behind HFCS
Health Reform advocate Doctor Mark Hyman, in an article entitled 5 Reasons High Fructose Corn Syrup Will Kill You, explains the biochemistry:
“Regular cane sugar (sucrose) is made of two-sugar molecules bound tightly together – glucose and fructose in equal amounts. The enzymes in your digestive tract must break down the sucrose into glucose and fructose, which are then absorbed into the body.
“HFCS also consists of glucose and fructose, not in a 50-50 ratio, but a 55-45 fructose to glucose ratio in an unbound form… Since there is no chemical bond between them…they are more rapidly absorbed into your bloodstream. Fructose goes right to the liver and triggers… the production of fats like triglycerides and cholesterol … and causes a condition called “fatty liver”. The rapidly absorbed glucose triggers big spikes in insulin. Both these features of HFCS… drive increases in appetite, weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia and more.
“Research done by Dr Bruce Ames at the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute found that high doses of free fructose have been proven to literally punch holes in the intestinal lining allowing nasty byproducts of toxic gut bacteria and partially digested food proteins to enter your bloodstream and trigger the inflammation that we know is at the root of obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, dementia and accelerated aging. Naturally occurring fructose in fruit is part of a complex of nutrients and fiber that doesn’t exhibit the same biological effects as the free high fructose doses found in “corn sugar”.
Therefore, all sugars are not created equally. Fructose in fruit is slowly absorbed into your bloodstream while fructose in high fructose corn syrup is absorbed immediately, creating a spike in insulin levels. Ironically, this is the very mechanism that makes that drink feel so instantly refreshing and why you always want more of it.
So remember – there’s little truth in advertising – take it with a grain of salt – or sugar.
I had my first gout attack about 10 years ago.
At the beginning I was having attacks every 6 months. Then gradually I was getting them
every 3 months, then every month and eventually every week.
It started at my big toe and then it was moving sometimes in my knees,and generally all
around my joints, in my feet.And the pain was agonising.
I have tried all the cures you can imagine.I tried ACV, lemons, drinking a lot of water, but
to no avail.I tried water fasting, juice fasting,baking soda, again without success.
I almost gave up meat, limiting it to only once a week ,gave up alcohol completely,again
no success.
I was living on vegetables, lots and lots of fresh fruit, milk ,cheese beans and so on .My
eating habits could not be healthier ,or so I thought.But my gout was worsening.
Then I decided to increase the amount of fruit I was consuming, thinking that if some fruit
is healthy, more fruit will be more healthy.Some days I was eating fruit only ,others over 10
portions a day.
And alas my gout instead of improving it became chronic.
I was desperate I did not know what to do.
And then one day accidentally I read an article about fructose,which is contained in fruit in
large quantities.It said that it increases uric acid, in a matter of minutes.
Fructose is also present in table sugar, and in HFCS, which is used in soft drinks.
I put two and two together and realised what I was doing wrong.
I stopped eating fruit and all other sugars, for a period of 3 weeks,and by magic I saw a
dramatic improvement.Pain was gone, swelling was gone, I was fine.
I re introduced fruit again in my diet but reducing them to 1 or 2 a day, and my gout completely
disappeared.
I do eat more meat now, and occasionally have an alcoholic drink, and thank God everything
seems to be fine.
Fructose was my enemy.
Tony:
Thanks for your story. That’s a really unfortunate experience, but highlights the fact that we should always be aware of what we put into our bodies. Sugar balance is absolutely imperative for good health and Americans are now eating about 3000 times more sugar than our ancestors.
You might be interested in reading about The Happiness Diet: https://www.bigblogofgardening.com/book-review-the-happiness-diet-by-tyler-graham-and-drew-ramsey/ and my conversation with one of its authors: https://www.bigblogofgardening.com/qa-with-the-happiness-diet-author-tyler-graham/
Great article! As a health, chemistry, and biology teacher, I can state that all sugars are not the same. Why do people who are allergic to corn have a reaction to high fructose corn syrup? If it’s exactly the same as cane sugar–then no reaction should occur.
Also, the 55/45% difference is huge when compared to molecular structures.
The corn refiners want to continue to enslave the American public with synthetic Frankencorn sugar that is in most fast foods. Do the corn refiner leaders consume that artificial red drink (from their commercials) and give it to their own children?
Our children deserve real food–not synthetic fast/processed foods. When my clients give up high fructose corn syrup, their health and vitality improves. Why wait for rat experiments? We can test it ourselves. I gave up high fructose corn syrup many years ago—even before all the controversy. I could certainly tell it affected my body in a negative way.
Thanks again for the article.
Windy:
Thanks for the comment, and thanks for supporting my points about the pretzel logic science in the ads. If ads as misleading as those were run by any industry that didn’t receive massive federal support, you can be sure that the FDA would be all over them.
Great post Todd! I say use honey 🙂