High Fructose Corn Syrup has been the target of numerous accusations as Americans deal with increasing incidents of obesity and diabetes. High Fructose Corn Syrup is found in a number of food products ranging from candies to cookies and salad dressing to soda.
High Fructose Corn Syrup was invented sometime in the 1960s, but it was 1970s before it came to be extensively used in consumer products. “That’s when an increase in the price of sugar helped make less expensive corn sweeteners more attractive to manufacturers,” says Helen H. Jensen, PhD, an agricultural economist at Iowa State University.
Not everybody agrees with the verdict that High Fructose Corn Syrup is responsible for the increasing cases of obesity and diabetes in the United States. Last June, the Corn Refiners Association launched an ad campaign telling the other side of the story — namely, that HFCS is “made from corn [and] has the same calories as sugar.”
“Gram for gram, table sugar and high fructose corn syrup are equal in calories,” says Tanya Zuckerbrot, RD, a New York City-based nutritionist. Both High Fructose Corn Syrup and sugar are also equally sweet. Moreover, both consist of two simple sugars — fructose and glucose — in roughly the same proportions. The only difference is that in the case of High Fructose Corn Syrup, the two components are simply blended together, while in the case of sugar, they are chemically bonded together.
Your body breaks down both products in virtually the same way, says Michael F. Jacobson, PhD, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. He adds, “There’s no evidence that high fructose corn syrup is worse than sugar once it’s in your body.”
Yet, experts express concern over the fact that we know very little about the long term effects of High Fructose Corn Syrup in comparison to sugar.
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