HFCS
Have you ever wondered what the deal is with High Fructose Corn Syrup?
The following is from my Developmental Psyc class.
Food for Thought: High Fructose Corn Syrup
Three Readings
One
Think of sugar and you think of sugar cane or beets. Extracti on of sugar from sugar
cane spurred the colonization of the New World. Extraction of sugar from beets was
developed during the time of Napoleon so that the French could have sugar in spite of
the English trading blockade.
Nobody thinks of sugar when they see a fi eld of corn. Most of us would be surprised to
learn that the larger percentage of sweeteners used in processed food comes from
corn, not sugar cane or beets.
The process for maki ng the sweetener high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) out of corn was
developed in the 1970s. Use of HFCS grew rapidly, from less than three million short
tons in 1980 to almost 8 million short tons in 1995. During the late 1990s, use of sugar
actually declined as it was eclipsed by HFCS. Today Americans consume more HFCS
than sugar.
Highfructose corn syrup (HFCS) is produced by processing corn starch to yield
gl ucose, and then processing the glucose to produce a high percentage of fructose. It
all sounds rather simpl e-whi te cornstarch is turned into crystal clear syrup. However,
the process is actually very compli cated. Three di fferent enzymes are needed to break
down cornstarch, whi ch is composed of chains of glucose mol ecules of almost infinite
length, into the simpl e sugars glucose and fructose.
First, cornstarch is treated with alphaamylase to produce shorter chains of sugars
call ed polysaccharides. Alphaamylase is industrially produced by a bacterium, usual ly
Bacillus sp. It is purified and then shipped to HFCS manufacturers.
Next, an enzyme cal led glucoamylase breaks the sugar chains down even further to
yield the simpl e sugar glucose. Unlike alphaamylase, glucoamylase is produced by
Aspergillus, a fungus, in a fermentation vat where one would likely see little balls of
Aspergillus fl oating on the top.
The third enzyme, gl ucoseisomerase, is very expensive. It converts glucose to a
mi xture of about 42 percent fructose and 5052 percent glucose with some other sugars
mi xed in. While alphaamylase and glucoamylase are added directly to the slurry, pricey
gl ucoseisomerase is packed into columns and the sugar mixture is then passed over i t.
Inexpensi ve alphaamylase and glucoamylase are used only once, glucoseisomerase
is reused until it loses most of its activity.
There are two more steps involved. First is a liquid chromatography step that takes the
mi xture to 90 percent fructose. Finally, this is backblended with the original mixture to
yield a final concentration of about 55 percent fructose-what the industry calls high
fructose corn syrup.
HFCS has the exact same sweetness and taste as an equal amount of sucrose from
cane or beet sugar but i t is obviously much more compl icated to make, involving vats of
murky fermenti ng liquid, fungus and chemical tweaking, all of whi ch take place in one of
16 chemical plants located in the Corn Belt. Yet in spite of all the special enzymes
required, HFCS is actually cheaper than sugar. It is also very easy to transport-it's just
pi ped into tanker trucks. Thi s translates into lower costs and higher profits for food
producers.
The development of the HFCS process came at an opportune time for corn growers.
Refi nements of the partial hydrogenation process had made it possible to get better
shortenings and margarines out of soybeans than corn. HFCS took up the slack as
demand for corn oil margarine declined. Lysine, an amino aci d, can be produced from
the corn residue after the glucose is removed. This is the modus operandi of the food
conglomerates-break down commoditi es into their basic components and then put
them back together again as processed food.
Today HFCS is used to sweeten jams, condi ments like ketchup, and soft drinks. It is
al so a favorite ingredient in many socall ed health foods. Four compani es control 85
percent of the $2.6 billion business-Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, Staley
Manufacturing Co. and CPC International. In the mid1990s, ADM was the object of an
FBI probe into price fi xing of three products-HFCS, citric acid and lysine-and
consumers got a glimpse of the murky world of corporate manipulation.
There are a couple of other murky things that consumers should know about HFCS.
Accordi ng to a food technology expert, two of the enzymes used, alphaamylase and
gl ucoseisomerase, are genetically modified to make them more stable. Enzymes are
actually very large proteins and through geneti c modification specific amino acids in the
enzymes are changed or replaced so the enzyme's "backbone" won't break down or
unfold. This allows the industry to get the enzymes to higher temperatures before they
become unstabl e.
Consumers trying to avoid geneticall y modified foods should avoid HFCS. It is almost
certainly made from geneti cally modified corn and then it is processed with genetically
modifi ed enzymes. I've seen some esti mates claiming that virtually everything-almost
80 percent-of what we eat today has been genetically modified at some point. Since
the use of HFCS i s so prevalent in processed foods, those figures may be right.
But there's another reason to avoid HFCS. Consumers may thi nk that because it
contains fructose-whi ch they associate with fruit, whi ch is a natural food-that it is
healthier than sugar. A team of investigators at the USDA, led by Dr. Mei ra Field, has
di scovered that this just ain't so.
Sucrose is composed of gl ucose and fructose. When sugar is gi ven to rats in high
amounts, the rats develop mul ti ple health problems, especi ally when the rats were
defi cient in certain nutrients, such as copper. The researchers wanted to know whether
it was the fructose or the glucose moi ety that was causing the problems. So they
repeated their studies with two groups of rats, one given high amounts of glucose and
one given high amounts of fructose. The glucose group was unaffected but the fructose
group had disastrous results. The mal e rats did not reach adulthood. They had anemia,
hi gh cholesterol and heart hypertrophy-that means that their hearts enlarged until they
expl oded. They also had delayed testicular development. Dr. Field expl ains that
fructose in combi nation with copper deficiency in the growing animal interferes with
coll agen production. (Copper deficiency, by the way, is widespread in America.) In a
nutshell, the little bodies of the rats just fell apart. The femal es were not so affected, but
they were unable to produce live young.
"The medical profession thinks fructose is better for diabetics than sugar," says Dr.
Field, "but every cell i n the body can metabolize gl ucose. However, all fructose must be
metabolized in the liver. The livers of the rats on the high fructose diet looked like the
livers of alcoholi cs, plugged with fat and cirrhoti c."
HFCS contains more fructose than sugar and this fructose is more immediately
available because it is not bound up in sucrose. Since the effects of fructose are most
severe in the growing organism, we need to think carefully about what kind of
sweeteners we gi ve to our children. Fruit juices should be strictly avoided-they are
very high in fructose-but so should anything with HFCS.
Interestingl y, although HFCS is used in many products aimed at chil dren, it is not used
in baby formul a, even though it would probabl y save the manufacturers a few pennies
for each can. Do the formul a makers know something they aren't telling us? Pretty
murky!
Two
An overwei ght America may be fi xated on fat and obsessed with carbs, but nutritionists
say the real problem i s much sweeter we're awash i n sugar.
Not just any sugar, but high fructose corn syrup.
The country eats more sweetener made from corn than from sugarcane or beets,
gulping it down in drinks as wel l as in frozen food and baked goods. Even ketchup is
laced with it.
Almost all nutritionists finger high fructose corn syrup consumpti on as a major culprit in
the nation's obesity crisis. The inexpensi ve sweetener flooded the American food supply
in the early 1980s, just about the time the nation's obesity rate started its unprecedented
climb.
The question is why did it make us so fat. Is it simpl y the Big Gulp syndrome that
we're eating too many empty cal ories in everincreasing portion sizes? Or does the
fructose in all that corn syrup do something more insi dious literally shortwire our
metabolism and force us to gain wei ght?
The debate can divide a group of nutritional researchers almost as fast as whether the
lowcarb craze is fact or fad.
Loading high fructose corn syrup into increasingly larger portions of soda and
processed food has packed more cal ories i nto us and more money into food processing
compani es, say nutritionists and food activists. But some heal th experts argue that the
issue is bigger than mere cal ories. The theory goes like this: The body processes the
fructose in high fructose corn syrup differently than it does oldfashioned cane or beet
sugar, whi ch in turn alters the way metabolicregulating hormones functi on. It also
forces the liver to kick more fat out into the bloodstream.
The end result is that our bodies are essentially tricked into wanti ng to eat more and at
the same ti me, we are storing more fat.
"One of the issues is the ease with whi ch you can consume thi s stuff," says Carol
Porter, director of nutrition and food services at UC San Francisco. "It's not that fructose
itself is so bad, but they put it in so much food that you consume so much of it without
knowing it."
A single 12ounce can of soda has as much as 13 teaspoons of sugar in the form of
hi gh fructose corn syrup. And because the amount of soda we drink has more than
doubled since 1970 to about 56 gallons per person a year, so has the amount of hi gh
fructose corn syrup we take i n. In 2001, we consumed al most 63 pounds of i t, according
to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The USDA suggests most of us limit our intake of added sugar that's everything from
the high fructose corn syrup hidden in your breakfast cereal to the sugar cube you drop
into your afterdinner espresso to about 10 to 12 teaspoons a day. But we're not doing
so wel l. In 2000, we ate an average of 31 teaspoons a day, whi ch was more than 15
percent of our caloric intake. And much of that was i n sweetened drinks.
Beyond soda
So, the answer is to just avoid soda, right? Unfortunately, it's not that simpl e, because
the inexpensive, versatile sweetener has crept into plenty of other places foods you
might not expect to have any at all. A lowfat, fruitflavored yogurt, for exampl e, can
have 10 teaspoons of fructosebased sweetener in one serving.
Because high fructose corn syrup mixes easily, extends shelflife and is as much as 20
percent cheaper than other sources of sugar, largescale food manufacturers love it. It
can help prevent freezer burn, so you'll find it on the labels of many frozen foods. It
helps breads brown and keeps them soft, which is why hot dog buns and even English
muffins hold unexpected amounts.
The question remai ns just how much more dangerous high fructose corn syrup is than
other sugars.
Fructose, as the name i mpl ies, is the sugar found naturally in fruit. It can be extracted,
turned into granules and used like sugar in the kitchen. It used to be considered a
healthier alternative to sucrose plain old table sugar. It's sweeter, so l ess i s needed to
achieve the same taste. Diabetics use it because fructose doesn't stimul ate insulin
production, so blood sugar levels remai n stable.
The process of pulling sugar from cornstarch wasn't perfected until the early 1970s,
when Japanese researchers developed a reli able way to turn cornstarch into syrup
sweet enough to compete with liquid sugar. After some ti nkering, they landed on a
formul a that was 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose sweet enough and
cheap enough to make most soda compani es jump from liquid sugar to high fructose
corn syrup by the 1980s.
The results were dramati c. a whopping increase of 4,080 percent.
Journalist Greg Critser lays out a compelling case against high fructose corn syrup in
hi s 2003 book, "Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People i n the World." He
argues that federal policies that aimed to stabilize food prices and support corn
production in the 1970s l ed to a glut of corn and then to hi gh fructose corn syrup. With a
cheaper way to sweeten food, producers pumped up the size and amount of sweet
snacks and drinks on the market and increased profits.
It's not natural
Cri tser writes that despite the food industry's arguments that sugar is sugar, whether
fructose or sucrose, no group "has yet refuted the growing scientific concern that, when
all is said and done, fructose ... is about the furthest thing from natural that one can
imagine, let alone eat."
Although some researchers have long been suspicious that too much fructose can
cause problems, the l atest case against high fructose corn syrup began in earnest a few
years ago. Dr. George Bray, principal investigator of the Diabetes Prevention Program
at Louisiana State University Medical Center tol d the International Congress on Obesity
that in 1980, just after high fructose corn syrup was introduced in mass quanti ties,
relatively stable obesity rates began to climb. By 2000, they had doubled.
Further, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2002 published research that
showed that teenagers' milk consumpti on between 1965 and 1996 decreased by 36
percent, whil e soda consumpti on i ncreased by more than 200 percent. Bray argues that
without calcium, whi ch nutritionists agree can help the body regulate weight, kids got
fatter. He says that he could find no other singl e combi nation of environmental or food
changes that were as significant to the rise in obesity.
Other studies by researchers at UC Davi s and the Uni versity of Michigan have shown
that consuming fructose, whi ch is more readil y converted to fat by the liver, increases
the levels of fat in the bloodstream i n the form of triglycerides.
And unlike other types of carbohydrate made up of gl ucose, fructose does not stimul ate
the pancreas to produce insulin. Peter Havel, a nutrition researcher at UC Davis who
studies the metaboli c effects of fructose, has al so shown that fructose fail s to increase
the production of leptin, a hormone produced by the body's fat cells.
Both insulin and leptin act as signals to the brain to turn down the appetite and control
body wei ght. And in another metabolic twist, Havel's research shows that fructose does
not appear to suppress the production of ghreli n, a hormone that increases hunger and
appetite.
"Because fructose in isolation doesn't activate the hormones that regulate body wei ght
as do other types of carbohydrate composed of glucose, consuming a diet high in
fructose could lead to taking in more cal ories and, over time, to wei ght gain," he says.
However, Havel isn't convinced high fructose corn syrup is by itself the problem. That's
in part because it is composed of 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose, whi ch is
similar to the 5050 combi nation of fructose and glucose found in table sugar. Havel's
studies have focused on fructose by itself and not as part of a high fructose corn syrup
mi xture.
"Whether there is an important difference in the effects of consuming beverages
sweetened with a mixture of 55 percent as opposed to 50 percent fructose would be
hard to measure," he says. "Additional studies are needed to better understand the
nutritional impact of consuming different types of sugars in humans."
Still, other researchers are finding new problems with hi gh fructose corn syrup. A study
in l ast month's Journal of the National Cancer Institute suggests that women whose di et
was hi gh in total carbohydrate and fructose intake had an increased risk of colorectal
cancer. And Dr. Mel Heyman, chief of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition at UCSF,
is seeing sick children whose bodies have been overloaded with fructose from naturally
occurring fructose in fruit jui ce combi ned with soda and processed food.
"The way the body handles glucose is different than fructose,'' he says. "It can overload
the intestines' ability to absorb carbohydrate by gi ving it too much fructose. That can
cause cramps, bloating and loose stools."
The jury's still out
Li ke others in the field, he says there is much to discover in how sugar works, but he
di sagrees that high fructose corn syrup is somehow reprogramming our bodies toward
obesity. Rather, he says, we're just eating too much of i t.
Nutrition theory holds that the basic makeup of fructoselaced corn syrup is not much
di fferent than table sugar. They react about the same in the body, says Dr. Walter
Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health.
"There are some modest di fferences in metabolism, but I don't think fructose per se is
the culprit."
Nei ther do the food compani es that use it in copious amounts.
Says Stephanie Childs, a spokesperson for the Grocery Manufacturers Associ ation: "At
the end of the day, how any sweetener affects your wei ght depends on how many
cal ories you are taking in overall. Overemphasizing one nutrient at the detriment of
others is not going to solve the problem."
Even some leading nutrition reformers aren't convinced that high fructose corn syrup is
of itself the issue. The bigger battle, says Michael Jacobson, executi ve director of the
Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group, is to get added
sugars listed on food labels with a percentage of daily value. That means a consumer
could look at a package and see that, for exampl e, one soda provides almost all the
sugar a person should eat in a day.
"It simpl y comes down to thi s,'' he says. "We're eating too much refi ned sugars, be it
sucrose or high fructose corn syrup or any other refined sugar."
A sugar glossary
Here's a rundown of the various types of sugar you'll find on product labels.
Brown sugar. Sugar crystals contained in a mol asses syrup, with natural flavor and
col or; 91 to 96 percent sucrose
Corn syrup. Made from cornstarch. Mostl y glucose. Can have mal tose
Dextrose. Commonly known as corn sugar and grape sugar. Naturally occurring form of
gl ucose
Fructose. Sugar found in fruit and honey. Sweetest natural sugar
Gal actose. Sugar found linked to glucose to form l actose, or milk sugar
Gl ucose. Also called dextrose. The human body's primary source of energy. Most of the
carbohydrates you eat are converted to glucose i n the body.
High fructose corn syrup. Derived from cornstarch, usually a combi nation of 55 percent
fructose and 45 percent sucrose. Treated with an enzyme that converts glucose to
fructose, whi ch results in a sweeter product. Used in soft drinks, baked goods, jell y,
syrups, fruits and desserts
Honey. Sweet syrupy fluid made by bees from the nectar collected from fl owers and
stored in nests or hives as food. Composed of fructose and glucose
Lactose. Sugar found in milk and milk products that is made of glucose and galactose
Mal tose. Also called mal t sugar. Used in the fermentation of alcohol by converting
starch to sugar
Maple syrup. A concentrated sucrose solution made from mature sugar maple tree sap
that fl ows in spring. Mostl y replaced by pancake syrup, a mi xture of sucrose and
artificial maple flavorings
Mol asses. Thick syrup left after maki ng sugar from sugarcane. Brown in col or with a
hi gh sugar concentration
Powdered or confectioner's sugar. Granulated sugar that has been pulverized. Available
in several degrees of fineness
Sucrose. Commonly call ed cane sugar, table sugar or simpl y sugar
Sugar (granulated). Refined cane or beet sugar; 100 percent sucrose
Turbinado sugar. Raw sugar that has been partially refined and washed
Awash i n corn syrup
It should come as no shock to most consumers that a Pepsi or a Fig Newton has pl enty
of sugar most of it from hi gh fructose corn syrup. But what's surprising is the products
where the sweetener hides out and how disguised it can be by the deceptively small
serving size listed on the nutrition label. Although the numbers below show teaspoons
of sugar per serving, people often eat more than one serving. The U.S. Department of
Agriculture advises most people to limit themsel ves to 10 to 12 teaspoons of added
sugars a day.
How much i s too much?
The list below shows how much sugar, mostl y in the form of hi gh fructose corn syrup, is
in each of these single servings.
Sunkist soda: 10 1/2 teaspoons of sugar
Berkel ey Farms l owfat yogurt with fruit: 10 teaspoons of sugar
Mott's applesauce: 5 teaspoons of sugar
SlimFast chocolate cookie dough meal bar: 5 teaspoons of sugar
1 tablespoon ketchup: 1 teaspoon of sugar
Hansen's Super Vita orangecarrot Smoothie: 10 teaspoons of sugar
Three
Scariest part of Halloween: Corn syrup
By Brett Arends
Friday, October 28, 2005 Boston Herald
Yes, it’s time once again for the annual HighFructose Corn Syrup Festival.
Kids will be groaning on Monday night as they stagger home wei ghted down with
goodies. And they’ll be groaning the rest of the week after scoffing it all down.
If you want to feel spooked for Halloween, chew on thi s. The National Retail Federation
predicts we’l l spend $3.29 billion on Halloween thi s year, including $1.16 billion on
candy. Yet the U.S. Census says there are only 36.8 million “potential trick or treaters,”
chil dren age 5 to 13, in the country. They’ll eat the lion’s share of the loot. If this is true,
it would work out at more than $31 worth of candy per child. Thirtyone bucks.
It’s no wonder 16 percent of 6 to 11yearolds today are obese. According to the
government, that fi gure has quadrupled since the early 1970s. During that same period
the rate has al so trebled among adol escents, and doubled among adults to 31 percent.
Maybe it’s a coincidence, but as our chart shows, this epidemic has pretty much tracked
the rise in consumpti on of “highfructose corn syrup.”
Today Americans consume 60 pounds of this stuff each per year. You’ll find it on the
label of pretty much every processed food in your local store. Food and candy makers
use it because it’s cheaper to make than tradi tional sugars. It tastes sweeter, too. But,
say a growing number of critics, that isn’t all that’s different. They argue that this syrup
gets absorbed differentl y by the body, and is contributing mightily to the ballooning
American girth. This is an argument made recentl y in Hub publisher Houghton Mifflin’s
book Fat Land, by writer Greg Critser. And in an influential arti cle 18 months ago in the
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Naturall y, the corn growers’ lobby disputes the
fi ndings. They argue there is “no evidence” supporting a “direct causal link” between
guzzling down corn syrup and getting fat. Of course, they would say that. Agribusiness
is big business. It’s al so politically wired.
Dr. Sean Palfrey, a prominent Massachusetts pediatrician who has seen an alarming
rise in obesity among the children he treats, is reluctant to draw too many scientific
conclusions just yet about corn syrup compared to other sugars.
But he actually calls modern sweetened drinks “toxic” when drunk in large quantities. He
says almost anything - including sugarfree diet sodas - are better. But common sense
says there are plenty of other factors fattening everyone up. Experts note that i n the l ast
30 years American kids and adults have stopped eating so many homecooked meals,
have taken to “supersize” fast food like a hog to mud, and have spent a lot more ti me
vegging out in front of the TV or the computer.
Dr. Alison Hoppin, a leading pediatrician and obesity specialist at Mass. General and a
mom of two, says one of the most powerful thi ngs parents can to do prevent their kids
from getti ng overwei ght is simpl y to cut down on their TV time and remove the TV set
from thei r room. As for Monday ni ght, you don’t have to hand out dried fruit, raisins or
little toys. As Dr. Hoppin notes, it’s only one night. It’s what the ki ds eat on the other 364
ni ghts, she says, that’s the problem.
The following is from my Developmental Psyc class.
Food for Thought: High Fructose Corn Syrup
Three Readings
One
Think of sugar and you think of sugar cane or beets. Extracti on of sugar from sugar
cane spurred the colonization of the New World. Extraction of sugar from beets was
developed during the time of Napoleon so that the French could have sugar in spite of
the English trading blockade.
Nobody thinks of sugar when they see a fi eld of corn. Most of us would be surprised to
learn that the larger percentage of sweeteners used in processed food comes from
corn, not sugar cane or beets.
The process for maki ng the sweetener high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) out of corn was
developed in the 1970s. Use of HFCS grew rapidly, from less than three million short
tons in 1980 to almost 8 million short tons in 1995. During the late 1990s, use of sugar
actually declined as it was eclipsed by HFCS. Today Americans consume more HFCS
than sugar.
Highfructose corn syrup (HFCS) is produced by processing corn starch to yield
gl ucose, and then processing the glucose to produce a high percentage of fructose. It
all sounds rather simpl e-whi te cornstarch is turned into crystal clear syrup. However,
the process is actually very compli cated. Three di fferent enzymes are needed to break
down cornstarch, whi ch is composed of chains of glucose mol ecules of almost infinite
length, into the simpl e sugars glucose and fructose.
First, cornstarch is treated with alphaamylase to produce shorter chains of sugars
call ed polysaccharides. Alphaamylase is industrially produced by a bacterium, usual ly
Bacillus sp. It is purified and then shipped to HFCS manufacturers.
Next, an enzyme cal led glucoamylase breaks the sugar chains down even further to
yield the simpl e sugar glucose. Unlike alphaamylase, glucoamylase is produced by
Aspergillus, a fungus, in a fermentation vat where one would likely see little balls of
Aspergillus fl oating on the top.
The third enzyme, gl ucoseisomerase, is very expensive. It converts glucose to a
mi xture of about 42 percent fructose and 5052 percent glucose with some other sugars
mi xed in. While alphaamylase and glucoamylase are added directly to the slurry, pricey
gl ucoseisomerase is packed into columns and the sugar mixture is then passed over i t.
Inexpensi ve alphaamylase and glucoamylase are used only once, glucoseisomerase
is reused until it loses most of its activity.
There are two more steps involved. First is a liquid chromatography step that takes the
mi xture to 90 percent fructose. Finally, this is backblended with the original mixture to
yield a final concentration of about 55 percent fructose-what the industry calls high
fructose corn syrup.
HFCS has the exact same sweetness and taste as an equal amount of sucrose from
cane or beet sugar but i t is obviously much more compl icated to make, involving vats of
murky fermenti ng liquid, fungus and chemical tweaking, all of whi ch take place in one of
16 chemical plants located in the Corn Belt. Yet in spite of all the special enzymes
required, HFCS is actually cheaper than sugar. It is also very easy to transport-it's just
pi ped into tanker trucks. Thi s translates into lower costs and higher profits for food
producers.
The development of the HFCS process came at an opportune time for corn growers.
Refi nements of the partial hydrogenation process had made it possible to get better
shortenings and margarines out of soybeans than corn. HFCS took up the slack as
demand for corn oil margarine declined. Lysine, an amino aci d, can be produced from
the corn residue after the glucose is removed. This is the modus operandi of the food
conglomerates-break down commoditi es into their basic components and then put
them back together again as processed food.
Today HFCS is used to sweeten jams, condi ments like ketchup, and soft drinks. It is
al so a favorite ingredient in many socall ed health foods. Four compani es control 85
percent of the $2.6 billion business-Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, Staley
Manufacturing Co. and CPC International. In the mid1990s, ADM was the object of an
FBI probe into price fi xing of three products-HFCS, citric acid and lysine-and
consumers got a glimpse of the murky world of corporate manipulation.
There are a couple of other murky things that consumers should know about HFCS.
Accordi ng to a food technology expert, two of the enzymes used, alphaamylase and
gl ucoseisomerase, are genetically modified to make them more stable. Enzymes are
actually very large proteins and through geneti c modification specific amino acids in the
enzymes are changed or replaced so the enzyme's "backbone" won't break down or
unfold. This allows the industry to get the enzymes to higher temperatures before they
become unstabl e.
Consumers trying to avoid geneticall y modified foods should avoid HFCS. It is almost
certainly made from geneti cally modified corn and then it is processed with genetically
modifi ed enzymes. I've seen some esti mates claiming that virtually everything-almost
80 percent-of what we eat today has been genetically modified at some point. Since
the use of HFCS i s so prevalent in processed foods, those figures may be right.
But there's another reason to avoid HFCS. Consumers may thi nk that because it
contains fructose-whi ch they associate with fruit, whi ch is a natural food-that it is
healthier than sugar. A team of investigators at the USDA, led by Dr. Mei ra Field, has
di scovered that this just ain't so.
Sucrose is composed of gl ucose and fructose. When sugar is gi ven to rats in high
amounts, the rats develop mul ti ple health problems, especi ally when the rats were
defi cient in certain nutrients, such as copper. The researchers wanted to know whether
it was the fructose or the glucose moi ety that was causing the problems. So they
repeated their studies with two groups of rats, one given high amounts of glucose and
one given high amounts of fructose. The glucose group was unaffected but the fructose
group had disastrous results. The mal e rats did not reach adulthood. They had anemia,
hi gh cholesterol and heart hypertrophy-that means that their hearts enlarged until they
expl oded. They also had delayed testicular development. Dr. Field expl ains that
fructose in combi nation with copper deficiency in the growing animal interferes with
coll agen production. (Copper deficiency, by the way, is widespread in America.) In a
nutshell, the little bodies of the rats just fell apart. The femal es were not so affected, but
they were unable to produce live young.
"The medical profession thinks fructose is better for diabetics than sugar," says Dr.
Field, "but every cell i n the body can metabolize gl ucose. However, all fructose must be
metabolized in the liver. The livers of the rats on the high fructose diet looked like the
livers of alcoholi cs, plugged with fat and cirrhoti c."
HFCS contains more fructose than sugar and this fructose is more immediately
available because it is not bound up in sucrose. Since the effects of fructose are most
severe in the growing organism, we need to think carefully about what kind of
sweeteners we gi ve to our children. Fruit juices should be strictly avoided-they are
very high in fructose-but so should anything with HFCS.
Interestingl y, although HFCS is used in many products aimed at chil dren, it is not used
in baby formul a, even though it would probabl y save the manufacturers a few pennies
for each can. Do the formul a makers know something they aren't telling us? Pretty
murky!
Two
An overwei ght America may be fi xated on fat and obsessed with carbs, but nutritionists
say the real problem i s much sweeter we're awash i n sugar.
Not just any sugar, but high fructose corn syrup.
The country eats more sweetener made from corn than from sugarcane or beets,
gulping it down in drinks as wel l as in frozen food and baked goods. Even ketchup is
laced with it.
Almost all nutritionists finger high fructose corn syrup consumpti on as a major culprit in
the nation's obesity crisis. The inexpensi ve sweetener flooded the American food supply
in the early 1980s, just about the time the nation's obesity rate started its unprecedented
climb.
The question is why did it make us so fat. Is it simpl y the Big Gulp syndrome that
we're eating too many empty cal ories in everincreasing portion sizes? Or does the
fructose in all that corn syrup do something more insi dious literally shortwire our
metabolism and force us to gain wei ght?
The debate can divide a group of nutritional researchers almost as fast as whether the
lowcarb craze is fact or fad.
Loading high fructose corn syrup into increasingly larger portions of soda and
processed food has packed more cal ories i nto us and more money into food processing
compani es, say nutritionists and food activists. But some heal th experts argue that the
issue is bigger than mere cal ories. The theory goes like this: The body processes the
fructose in high fructose corn syrup differently than it does oldfashioned cane or beet
sugar, whi ch in turn alters the way metabolicregulating hormones functi on. It also
forces the liver to kick more fat out into the bloodstream.
The end result is that our bodies are essentially tricked into wanti ng to eat more and at
the same ti me, we are storing more fat.
"One of the issues is the ease with whi ch you can consume thi s stuff," says Carol
Porter, director of nutrition and food services at UC San Francisco. "It's not that fructose
itself is so bad, but they put it in so much food that you consume so much of it without
knowing it."
A single 12ounce can of soda has as much as 13 teaspoons of sugar in the form of
hi gh fructose corn syrup. And because the amount of soda we drink has more than
doubled since 1970 to about 56 gallons per person a year, so has the amount of hi gh
fructose corn syrup we take i n. In 2001, we consumed al most 63 pounds of i t, according
to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The USDA suggests most of us limit our intake of added sugar that's everything from
the high fructose corn syrup hidden in your breakfast cereal to the sugar cube you drop
into your afterdinner espresso to about 10 to 12 teaspoons a day. But we're not doing
so wel l. In 2000, we ate an average of 31 teaspoons a day, whi ch was more than 15
percent of our caloric intake. And much of that was i n sweetened drinks.
Beyond soda
So, the answer is to just avoid soda, right? Unfortunately, it's not that simpl e, because
the inexpensive, versatile sweetener has crept into plenty of other places foods you
might not expect to have any at all. A lowfat, fruitflavored yogurt, for exampl e, can
have 10 teaspoons of fructosebased sweetener in one serving.
Because high fructose corn syrup mixes easily, extends shelflife and is as much as 20
percent cheaper than other sources of sugar, largescale food manufacturers love it. It
can help prevent freezer burn, so you'll find it on the labels of many frozen foods. It
helps breads brown and keeps them soft, which is why hot dog buns and even English
muffins hold unexpected amounts.
The question remai ns just how much more dangerous high fructose corn syrup is than
other sugars.
Fructose, as the name i mpl ies, is the sugar found naturally in fruit. It can be extracted,
turned into granules and used like sugar in the kitchen. It used to be considered a
healthier alternative to sucrose plain old table sugar. It's sweeter, so l ess i s needed to
achieve the same taste. Diabetics use it because fructose doesn't stimul ate insulin
production, so blood sugar levels remai n stable.
The process of pulling sugar from cornstarch wasn't perfected until the early 1970s,
when Japanese researchers developed a reli able way to turn cornstarch into syrup
sweet enough to compete with liquid sugar. After some ti nkering, they landed on a
formul a that was 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose sweet enough and
cheap enough to make most soda compani es jump from liquid sugar to high fructose
corn syrup by the 1980s.
The results were dramati c. a whopping increase of 4,080 percent.
Journalist Greg Critser lays out a compelling case against high fructose corn syrup in
hi s 2003 book, "Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People i n the World." He
argues that federal policies that aimed to stabilize food prices and support corn
production in the 1970s l ed to a glut of corn and then to hi gh fructose corn syrup. With a
cheaper way to sweeten food, producers pumped up the size and amount of sweet
snacks and drinks on the market and increased profits.
It's not natural
Cri tser writes that despite the food industry's arguments that sugar is sugar, whether
fructose or sucrose, no group "has yet refuted the growing scientific concern that, when
all is said and done, fructose ... is about the furthest thing from natural that one can
imagine, let alone eat."
Although some researchers have long been suspicious that too much fructose can
cause problems, the l atest case against high fructose corn syrup began in earnest a few
years ago. Dr. George Bray, principal investigator of the Diabetes Prevention Program
at Louisiana State University Medical Center tol d the International Congress on Obesity
that in 1980, just after high fructose corn syrup was introduced in mass quanti ties,
relatively stable obesity rates began to climb. By 2000, they had doubled.
Further, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2002 published research that
showed that teenagers' milk consumpti on between 1965 and 1996 decreased by 36
percent, whil e soda consumpti on i ncreased by more than 200 percent. Bray argues that
without calcium, whi ch nutritionists agree can help the body regulate weight, kids got
fatter. He says that he could find no other singl e combi nation of environmental or food
changes that were as significant to the rise in obesity.
Other studies by researchers at UC Davi s and the Uni versity of Michigan have shown
that consuming fructose, whi ch is more readil y converted to fat by the liver, increases
the levels of fat in the bloodstream i n the form of triglycerides.
And unlike other types of carbohydrate made up of gl ucose, fructose does not stimul ate
the pancreas to produce insulin. Peter Havel, a nutrition researcher at UC Davis who
studies the metaboli c effects of fructose, has al so shown that fructose fail s to increase
the production of leptin, a hormone produced by the body's fat cells.
Both insulin and leptin act as signals to the brain to turn down the appetite and control
body wei ght. And in another metabolic twist, Havel's research shows that fructose does
not appear to suppress the production of ghreli n, a hormone that increases hunger and
appetite.
"Because fructose in isolation doesn't activate the hormones that regulate body wei ght
as do other types of carbohydrate composed of glucose, consuming a diet high in
fructose could lead to taking in more cal ories and, over time, to wei ght gain," he says.
However, Havel isn't convinced high fructose corn syrup is by itself the problem. That's
in part because it is composed of 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose, whi ch is
similar to the 5050 combi nation of fructose and glucose found in table sugar. Havel's
studies have focused on fructose by itself and not as part of a high fructose corn syrup
mi xture.
"Whether there is an important difference in the effects of consuming beverages
sweetened with a mixture of 55 percent as opposed to 50 percent fructose would be
hard to measure," he says. "Additional studies are needed to better understand the
nutritional impact of consuming different types of sugars in humans."
Still, other researchers are finding new problems with hi gh fructose corn syrup. A study
in l ast month's Journal of the National Cancer Institute suggests that women whose di et
was hi gh in total carbohydrate and fructose intake had an increased risk of colorectal
cancer. And Dr. Mel Heyman, chief of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition at UCSF,
is seeing sick children whose bodies have been overloaded with fructose from naturally
occurring fructose in fruit jui ce combi ned with soda and processed food.
"The way the body handles glucose is different than fructose,'' he says. "It can overload
the intestines' ability to absorb carbohydrate by gi ving it too much fructose. That can
cause cramps, bloating and loose stools."
The jury's still out
Li ke others in the field, he says there is much to discover in how sugar works, but he
di sagrees that high fructose corn syrup is somehow reprogramming our bodies toward
obesity. Rather, he says, we're just eating too much of i t.
Nutrition theory holds that the basic makeup of fructoselaced corn syrup is not much
di fferent than table sugar. They react about the same in the body, says Dr. Walter
Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health.
"There are some modest di fferences in metabolism, but I don't think fructose per se is
the culprit."
Nei ther do the food compani es that use it in copious amounts.
Says Stephanie Childs, a spokesperson for the Grocery Manufacturers Associ ation: "At
the end of the day, how any sweetener affects your wei ght depends on how many
cal ories you are taking in overall. Overemphasizing one nutrient at the detriment of
others is not going to solve the problem."
Even some leading nutrition reformers aren't convinced that high fructose corn syrup is
of itself the issue. The bigger battle, says Michael Jacobson, executi ve director of the
Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group, is to get added
sugars listed on food labels with a percentage of daily value. That means a consumer
could look at a package and see that, for exampl e, one soda provides almost all the
sugar a person should eat in a day.
"It simpl y comes down to thi s,'' he says. "We're eating too much refi ned sugars, be it
sucrose or high fructose corn syrup or any other refined sugar."
A sugar glossary
Here's a rundown of the various types of sugar you'll find on product labels.
Brown sugar. Sugar crystals contained in a mol asses syrup, with natural flavor and
col or; 91 to 96 percent sucrose
Corn syrup. Made from cornstarch. Mostl y glucose. Can have mal tose
Dextrose. Commonly known as corn sugar and grape sugar. Naturally occurring form of
gl ucose
Fructose. Sugar found in fruit and honey. Sweetest natural sugar
Gal actose. Sugar found linked to glucose to form l actose, or milk sugar
Gl ucose. Also called dextrose. The human body's primary source of energy. Most of the
carbohydrates you eat are converted to glucose i n the body.
High fructose corn syrup. Derived from cornstarch, usually a combi nation of 55 percent
fructose and 45 percent sucrose. Treated with an enzyme that converts glucose to
fructose, whi ch results in a sweeter product. Used in soft drinks, baked goods, jell y,
syrups, fruits and desserts
Honey. Sweet syrupy fluid made by bees from the nectar collected from fl owers and
stored in nests or hives as food. Composed of fructose and glucose
Lactose. Sugar found in milk and milk products that is made of glucose and galactose
Mal tose. Also called mal t sugar. Used in the fermentation of alcohol by converting
starch to sugar
Maple syrup. A concentrated sucrose solution made from mature sugar maple tree sap
that fl ows in spring. Mostl y replaced by pancake syrup, a mi xture of sucrose and
artificial maple flavorings
Mol asses. Thick syrup left after maki ng sugar from sugarcane. Brown in col or with a
hi gh sugar concentration
Powdered or confectioner's sugar. Granulated sugar that has been pulverized. Available
in several degrees of fineness
Sucrose. Commonly call ed cane sugar, table sugar or simpl y sugar
Sugar (granulated). Refined cane or beet sugar; 100 percent sucrose
Turbinado sugar. Raw sugar that has been partially refined and washed
Awash i n corn syrup
It should come as no shock to most consumers that a Pepsi or a Fig Newton has pl enty
of sugar most of it from hi gh fructose corn syrup. But what's surprising is the products
where the sweetener hides out and how disguised it can be by the deceptively small
serving size listed on the nutrition label. Although the numbers below show teaspoons
of sugar per serving, people often eat more than one serving. The U.S. Department of
Agriculture advises most people to limit themsel ves to 10 to 12 teaspoons of added
sugars a day.
How much i s too much?
The list below shows how much sugar, mostl y in the form of hi gh fructose corn syrup, is
in each of these single servings.
Sunkist soda: 10 1/2 teaspoons of sugar
Berkel ey Farms l owfat yogurt with fruit: 10 teaspoons of sugar
Mott's applesauce: 5 teaspoons of sugar
SlimFast chocolate cookie dough meal bar: 5 teaspoons of sugar
1 tablespoon ketchup: 1 teaspoon of sugar
Hansen's Super Vita orangecarrot Smoothie: 10 teaspoons of sugar
Three
Scariest part of Halloween: Corn syrup
By Brett Arends
Friday, October 28, 2005 Boston Herald
Yes, it’s time once again for the annual HighFructose Corn Syrup Festival.
Kids will be groaning on Monday night as they stagger home wei ghted down with
goodies. And they’ll be groaning the rest of the week after scoffing it all down.
If you want to feel spooked for Halloween, chew on thi s. The National Retail Federation
predicts we’l l spend $3.29 billion on Halloween thi s year, including $1.16 billion on
candy. Yet the U.S. Census says there are only 36.8 million “potential trick or treaters,”
chil dren age 5 to 13, in the country. They’ll eat the lion’s share of the loot. If this is true,
it would work out at more than $31 worth of candy per child. Thirtyone bucks.
It’s no wonder 16 percent of 6 to 11yearolds today are obese. According to the
government, that fi gure has quadrupled since the early 1970s. During that same period
the rate has al so trebled among adol escents, and doubled among adults to 31 percent.
Maybe it’s a coincidence, but as our chart shows, this epidemic has pretty much tracked
the rise in consumpti on of “highfructose corn syrup.”
Today Americans consume 60 pounds of this stuff each per year. You’ll find it on the
label of pretty much every processed food in your local store. Food and candy makers
use it because it’s cheaper to make than tradi tional sugars. It tastes sweeter, too. But,
say a growing number of critics, that isn’t all that’s different. They argue that this syrup
gets absorbed differentl y by the body, and is contributing mightily to the ballooning
American girth. This is an argument made recentl y in Hub publisher Houghton Mifflin’s
book Fat Land, by writer Greg Critser. And in an influential arti cle 18 months ago in the
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Naturall y, the corn growers’ lobby disputes the
fi ndings. They argue there is “no evidence” supporting a “direct causal link” between
guzzling down corn syrup and getting fat. Of course, they would say that. Agribusiness
is big business. It’s al so politically wired.
Dr. Sean Palfrey, a prominent Massachusetts pediatrician who has seen an alarming
rise in obesity among the children he treats, is reluctant to draw too many scientific
conclusions just yet about corn syrup compared to other sugars.
But he actually calls modern sweetened drinks “toxic” when drunk in large quantities. He
says almost anything - including sugarfree diet sodas - are better. But common sense
says there are plenty of other factors fattening everyone up. Experts note that i n the l ast
30 years American kids and adults have stopped eating so many homecooked meals,
have taken to “supersize” fast food like a hog to mud, and have spent a lot more ti me
vegging out in front of the TV or the computer.
Dr. Alison Hoppin, a leading pediatrician and obesity specialist at Mass. General and a
mom of two, says one of the most powerful thi ngs parents can to do prevent their kids
from getti ng overwei ght is simpl y to cut down on their TV time and remove the TV set
from thei r room. As for Monday ni ght, you don’t have to hand out dried fruit, raisins or
little toys. As Dr. Hoppin notes, it’s only one night. It’s what the ki ds eat on the other 364
ni ghts, she says, that’s the problem.