The High Fructose Corn Syrup Debate (Washington Post)

 

 

 

 

 

The Checkup
Health in the News and in Your Life

By Adapted from voices.washpost.com/checkup
Tuesday, December 16, 2008; HE02

Sugarcoated Research?

Four years ago, compelling research noted that an uptick in American obesity had coincided with the growing use of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in the late 1970s. Since then, HFCS has been demonized by some of those in the nutritional know.

But the case against HFCS has weakened. This month the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a suite of studies (some involving scientists who participated in the original research) that together suggest HFCS is no worse for us than any other caloric sweetener.

What's with these scientists? Why can't they make up their minds?

Roger Clemens, a food scientist and spokesman for the American Society for Nutrition, reminded me that the kind of observational, epidemiological research that informed the 2004 study didn't set out to deliver the last word on HCFS but rather to raise a question for further exploration. When that further research was done, through hands-on, clinical studies and when the body of research was reviewed by panels of experts over the past year, it appeared that the initial case against HFCS wasn't on target.

"At the end of the day, it's calories that count, not high-fructose corn syrup," Clemens said.

This may be true, but mostly irrelevant. Corn subsidies allowed HFCS to become the sweetener of choice and allowed food manufacturers to add it in higher quantities, even to foods that had previously never seen more than a trace of sweetener (e.g., bread). So now, thanks in large part to the subsidies afforded HFCS, we eat more sugar than ever before; our foods have a higher caloric content than ever before. Combine that with the fact that we eat more packaged foods and soda, and the typical American diet gets 140 grams of sweetener a day. Sugar is 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose; HFCS is 55 percent fructose, 45 percent glucose. So I guess this set of studies shows that the extra few grams of fructose over sugar's level isn't that big of a deal, but in reality HFCS is indeed the problem, and if it is no longer subsidized, we won't eat as many calories and we'll all drop the pounds!