High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) has taken over the grocery store!!! What are we to do? (This is in my mocking panic voice.) I have had several clients complain to me about spending 30 minutes in the bread isle trying to find a bread without HFCS. I’ve been told there is only one, and I don’t remember the brand. So what is going on? There are now commercials on TV about the evils and positives of HFCS. We now are now being led to think that sugar is better for us because it is more “natural.” My take-home-message is reduce your intake of both!
Sugar and HFCS are carbohydrates and therefore have the identical 4 kilocalories per gram that defines them chemically. So calorie wise, it doesn’t matter which one is the source of your sweetener. There has also not been shown a true difference between the way the 2 sweeteners are metabolised.
I’ve been learning a lot about HFCS lately because I am reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma. HFCS came on the scene around the early 1980’s because America was producing way too much commodity corn for the demand in the food supply. Scientists began creating new uses for corn and thus HFCS was born. It is made from corn (therefore making it “natural”) which is extensively processed. It is a cheaper sweetener than table sugar because corn is very cheap due to its excess (read the book). The Coca-Cola brand switched completely to HFCS in the 80’s and this enabled them to increase the serving size (from 8 oz bottles to 16+ oz bottles) and only have to raise the price a little bit. No one noticed a taste difference, by the way.
So now, HFCS is in everything! What should we do? Hopefully you picked up along the way that we should all reduce the amount of sugar in our diets. Sugar is rich in calories and void of any real nutritional value. We all have an innate desire for sweet-tasting foods, unlike the taste/desire for salty foods. So it adds quantity and calories to our diet and leaves us with no disease-fighting, weight-managing properties. It’s not the “devil”, as many hard-core sugar-haters may tell you. But it does need to be controlled and manage in our diets. Sweets are a joy in a life! I think a world without tasty sweets sounds terrible. I just don’t think we need to be eating twinkies, brownies, soda, sports drinks, and Fruit Loops every single day.
In conclusion, it is important to reduce your intake of both HFCS and sugar. Neither one is great for you. But having HFCS is also not going to ruin all your efforts at weight management. I’d much rather you pay attention to the total calorie content of a food, the amount of fat, and the amount of fiber a particular food item contains.
Have a healthy, low-sugar day!
Hi,
My google alert for HFCS picked up your post. HFCS isn’t as
similar to sucrose as the CRA would like you to believe. Yes,
they both have 4kcal/gm and both are composed of the monosaccharides, fructose and glucose, but that’s where the
similarity ends. Put aside the fact that sucrose, table sugar, is
a disaccharide, meaning the fructose and glucose are linked,
and HFCS is just a mixture of the two. Look at the variant
HFCS-55 which is used to sweeten all national brands of soda.
Its composition, 55%fructose:45%glucose appears to be
just 5% different than the composition of sucrose,
50% fructose: 50%glucose, until you do the math. The calculated ratio of fructose:glucose in sucrose is easy,
50/50=1. Now, do the same for HFCS-55. 55/45=1.22. That
means that in every can of soda sweetened with HFCS-55 there is, compared to glucose, 22% extra fructose. The metabolic dangers of excess fructose over time have been well documented. Insulin resistance, type II diabetes, elevated triglycerides, obesity are all directly related to ingesting excess fructose. Sure, sugar contains fructose, but when you drink
beverages with HFCS-55 you are really tipping the scales toward long term health problems. Ditch HFCS, especially HFCS-55. To your health.
Thanks for your comments. Yes, there is a structural/chemical difference in the makeup of sucrose and HFCS. In the grand scheme of things, however, it is important to reduce your intake of both. The negative health impacts of excessive calories in the diet produces multiple health problems. The more I learn about HFCS, the less I want it in my diet. Please post the references for the research you refer to. I am very interested in checking them out.
Hi,
Thank you for taking my comment/math analysis seriously.
I worked as research technician for 23 years, so I know a little
about solutions. In my opinion, HFCS was designed to
be fructose heavy, and now the CRA is back-pedaling and reassuring the public that HFCS is “essentially similar” to sucrose. Why they chose HFCS-55 instead of HFCS-50 to sweeten beverages is their propietary secret, but I am convinced it has led to our health woes. However, I am now a piano teacher and only conduct my HFCS-free campaign part-time. Here are a few references that you might find of interest.
1.Google search:
“Fructose Metabolism by the Brain increases food intake and
obesity,” Mar 25, 2009. Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Lane
2.Go to LifeExtension.com
Type in “high fructose corn syrup”
Metabolic dangers of High fructose by Corn Syrup by
Dr. Dana Flavin has a sobering review which mentions specific
research.
3. I am reading “The Sugar Fix, how high fructose is making
you fat and sick”, by Dr. Richard Johnson, M.D. His link to our
health woes is excess fructose; however, he does not single
out HFCS. He lists extensive research done in his labs and
elsewhere.
4. There’s a recent study done in Texas that’s highly relevant. Rats were fed either glucose or fructose. In the short term, there was no noticeable weight gain difference; however, when the rats were switched to a high fat diet, the fructose fed rats gained considerable weight. It would seem that the leptin satiety signal was dulled. I’m sorry, I can’t find the specific paper, but will send it to you when I find the right file!
Finally, you might let your readers know about StopHFCS.com which has an extensive list of HFCS-free foods and beverages.
Take care,
Cynthia
I found the reference. It was Florida, not Texas
Google search: fructose leptin resistance
“Fructose, Leptin and the Rapid Weight Gain they can bring”
Cynthia,
Thanks for all the great science. I really appreciate you taking the time to add these great resources.
[...] blog Fresh Food Perspectives goes into a complex scientific mathematical equation as to why some HFCS is really bad for you but [...]