High-Fructose Corn Syrup: Giving you that empty feeling

Pick up almost any fruit drink or soda from your local grocery store aisle and you are very likely to find a strangely worded item listed high up in the list of ingredients. It is a relatively new ingredient that is artifically created from corn and is much sweeter than sugar. Infact, it was not even around before the 1980s.

Presenting the latest entrant in the Fitness Mantra Hall of Shame: High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).

What is HFCS?

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is a colorless syrupy liquid made by processing corn starch with different enzymes to first make glucose and then add and increase its fructose component. The process is actually a lot more complicated than that and is described here. After processing, the final composition of HFCS is about 55% fructose and the rest, mostly glucose with traces of other sugars.

How is HFCS different from sucrose?

Now, Nutrition Theory holds that the basic make-up of fructose-laced corn syrup is not much different than table sugar (both are composed of glucose and fructose) and hence supporters of HFCS claim that its harmful effects are grossly over-stated.

But they fail to mention some crucial differences:

1. HFCS is made in industrial vats by running multiple genetically-modified enzymes over (almost always) genetically modified corn-starch, unnaturally extracting glucose and then increasing its fructose content to about 55%. In contrast, sucrose is a 50-50 mix of glucose and fructose and is produced in a much more natural fashion - crushing cane, filtering the liquid and removing the impurities with no enzymes used in the process.
2. The second difference is much more telling and is most likely the reason why HFCS is a bigger problem for your body than cane sugar. Although the ratios of fructose and glucose are almost the same, sucrose (or table sugar) is a disaccharide, in which fructose and glucose are bound together into one molecule by a chemical bond, whereas in the case of HFCS, fructose and glucose are not bonded and are hence “free” sugars. This freely available fructose is what critics claim is the biggest problem of HFCS.
3. HFCS being a liquid is easily mixed with fruit drinks and sodas, it extends the shelf-life of products and is about 20% cheaper than sucrose (even after all that processing! - because corn is so much cheaper than sugarcane). It even keeps bread brown and makes it softer. All these properties mean one thing to food manufacturers: ka ching! More dollars. This has led to the presence of HFCS in so many off-the shelf products (including whole wheat bread) that it is almost impossible these days to pick up a product without it (see resources below for a comprehensive list). This has resulted in an overall increase in consumption of fructose by people.

Why is HFCS bad for you?

At the outset, I would like to state that most of the harmful effects described here relate to raw fructose. But it is also true that careless inclusion of HFCS - especially in foods it has no business being in - has, in general, increased the nation’s consumption of fructose and this is very detrimental to health, because:

1. The most dangerous effect of fructose is how your body’s key weight/fat related hormones react to it. Insulin, about which I will have a lot to say in future posts, is usually produced in response to a spike in blood sugar, so it can transport the sugar to your cells for energy and help you feel satiated. But, tragically, fructose does not trigger this response. This is how you can gulp an extra-large bucket of soda and still feel empty. Another hormone leptin, regulates appetite and fat storage and fructose has the same effect on it. Finally, while glucose suppresses the hormone ghrelin and hence tells you that you are full, fructose does no such thing. The end result because of fructose’s weird effect on your important hormones? You eat more than you need because nature’s checks and balances are short-circuited!
2. Unlke glucose, fructose consumption causes a significant increase in the concentration of uric acid - an indicator of heart disease.
3. While glucose can be metabolised in every cell, fructose can only be dealt with in the last stages (primarily in the jejunum and eventually the liver) of digestion - another reason insulin is not released normally for fructose. In the liver, an overload of fructose can lead to malabsorption and Diarrhoea.
4. Fructose converts to fat much more easily than any other sugar and it can also raise triglyceride levels significantly. It also raises LDL, or bad cholesterol.
5. Fructose interferes with the metabolism of metals like copper, a deficiency of which can lead to bone fragility and anemia. Research also indicates that free fructose interferes with the heart’s use of key minerals like magnesium and chromium.

Important Note: Fructose occurs naturally in fruits and that does not mean one should stop eating them. Fruits contain fiber which greatly reduce the metabolism of its fructose, but HFCS contains fructose that “goes straight in”.

What the proponents say:

Almost every word on pro-HFCS sites like HFCS Facts (which are obviously industry-backed) tends to underline the fact that HFCS is not much different from sucrose in its composition and interaction with the human body. They are famous for such quotes as: “New Obesity Research Shows High Fructose Corn Syrup Similar to Sugar”. Here’s the kicker: I do not dispute anything they say, because I do not support the inclusion of sucrose in these foods either! The problem with HFCS is not that its reaction is vastly different from that of sucrose (although as you read above under “How is HFCS different from sucrose?”, it is not that innocent, either), but that it’s being included in foods it should not be in at all. This is what we as an educated consumer should be aware of.

Says Stephanie Childs, a spokesperson for the Grocery Manufacturers Association about HFCS: “At the end of the day, how any sweetener affects your weight depends on how many calories you are taking in overall. Overemphasizing one nutrient at the detriment of others is not going to solve the problem.”
All I can say in response is: “Nutrient? What ‘nutrient’???”

Conclusion:

While HFCS because of its cheaper cost, higher shelf-life and greater sweetness (hence less needs to be used) makes it an ideal product for the food industry so they can reduce costs, as educated consumers we need to be aware of its dangers. Manufacturers are required to list ingredients in the order of quantity used in the final product, so if you see a product on a grocery shelf contains terms like “corn syrup”, “high fructose corn syrup” or “glucose syrup” in the top three and the total sugars are more than 8g, put it right back on the shelf.

References:

1. The Murky World of HFCS (Linda Forristal) and The Double Danger of HFCS (Bill Sanda)
2. A comprehensive list of name-brand foods that contain HFCS.
3. High-Fructose Corn Syrup May Act More Like Fat Than Sugar in the Body - Washington Post
4. Consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in beverages may play a role in the epidemic of obesity
5. HFCS Facts - a pro-HFCS, obviously-industry-backed, web-site that simply does a great job of comparing HFCS with sucrose.

[tags]health, fitness, high fructose corn syrup, fructose, HFCS[/tags]