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High Fructose Corn Syrup

Posted By: Joshua Morgan on 02/07/2012

High Fructose Corn Syrup

The lies about high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) are getting out of control.  "It's made from corn," they say. "It's nutritionally the same as sugar."  What they should be telling you is HFCS is the enemy of your midsection.

Fact #1: HFCS Isn't the Only Problem Sugar.

Any sugar that contains fructose is especially problematic from a health perspective. Despite its name, HFCS isn't as "high-fructose" as you might think. Depending on the type, it's generally 42 to 55 percent fructose. The former is common to solid foods, and the latter to beverages. Just as the PR jackals claim, it's chemically similar to table sugar, which is 50 percent glucose and 50 percent fructose.

 Although these sugars don't have the extremely high glycemic index of raw glucose, they do cause a combination of hyper-insulinemia and aberrant intracellular metabolism, which in turn creates the double-whammy of lipogenesis (fat creation) and glycation (gummed up body proteins). More on all this later. For now, it's enough to know that fructose-containing sugars are not so good.

Fact #2: The source of the sugar makes all the difference.

Liquid sources lead to higher blood sugar swings than to solid meals, liquids are themselves a consideration. And  liquid sources of calories aren’t near as filling as food so we’re likely to over consume on calories since the signal for being full isn’t there.  In other words, we’re still likely to eat just as much but now we have the added calories from the liquid source.

And, keep in mind, all calories are not created equal.

Sure, you can find data that HFCS beverages are not different in value than sucrose (or other sugar drinks of equal breakdown) drinks, or even milk, but we really need to consider the type of nutrients in those drinks. If they all similarly create positive energy balance, I think I'll choose nutrient-rich milk.

Straight liquid carbs like high-fructose corn syrup or sucrose solutions are digested and metabolized in a particular way, and they're the number one choice of thirsty Americans. Sports supplement drinks and popular beverages are loaded with them. We've all read labels that say, "contains less than 5 percent juice." This is marketing-speak for "fake."

Fact #3: Metabolic mayhem ensues after HFCS ingestion.

Let me ask you this: where in nature can you find a HFCS plant?  Or where could our ancestors quickly consume 100 grams of sugar? Nowhere, that’s where. It’s not natural. I find it amazing we’ve come accustomed to feeling ‘normal’ after drinking a super big gulp from 7-11.

When a human being quickly introduces that much sugar, his body does what it must: turn it into triglycerides (fat). For those of you that have read through some of my blog entries might be wondering if I just made a mis-statement.  The thinking tends to be (and is mostly true) that if you don’t over consume calories, they won’t be stored as fat.  However, reading through some of Dr. Lowery’s works, he’s seen some disturbing blood work after ingestion of a fat-free, high-fructose meal, in which the subjects' blood values looked like they had just wolfed down some fried chicken. How can this be?

Fructose really turns up the lipogenesis (accumulation of fat very simply put) by bypassing the most important regulatory enzyme in our carbohydrate biochemistry, PFK-1. This supplies our bodies with a bountiful supply of acetyl-CoA and glycerol, the building blocks of fat.

  
Fact #6: HFCS is fattening, and it's everywhere.

I wouldn’t put fat accumulation and HFCS as a cause-and-effect situation. But the HFCS-obesity relationship is suspicious indeed. HFCS consumption has grown 10-fold in recent decades to a whopping 9% of the U.S. calorie intake. And we all know what's happened to the obesity numbers in that time period.   And it seems like HFCS is in everything…granola bars, sports drinks, cereals, and really just a ton of anything that’s been artificially sweetened. 

Yours in Health,

Joshua Morgan

References:

1. Bray, G., et al. Consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in beverages may play a role in the epidemic of obesity. Am J Clin Nutr. 2004 Apr;79(4):537-43.

2. Buchholz AC, Schoeller DA. Is a calorie a calorie? Am J Clin Nutr. 2004 May;79(5):899S-906S.

3. DellaValle, D., et al. Does the consumption of caloric and non-caloric beverages with a meal affect energy intake? Appetite. 2005 Apr;44(2):187-93

4. Mayes, P. Intermediary metabolism of fructose. Am J Clin Nutr 1993 Nov;58(5 Suppl):754S-765S fructose lipogenic

5. Lowery Ph.D., Lonny