Originally published October 21 2005
Debate continues over the effects of high-fructose corn syrup
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The beverage industry denies the link between obesity and high fructose corn syrup, calling into question the integrity of animal studies that have suggested a direct link.
Just as our country's obesity rates shifted into high gear, so did our intake of a now ubiquitous ingredient: high fructose corn syrup.
Made by treating cornstarch with enzymes, it's about half fructose and half glucose (regular corn syrup is all glucose).
You won't find bottles of this stuff on supermarket shelves.
But you will see it listed as a primary ingredient in soft drinks and fruit beverages, which are the leading sources of high fructose corn syrup in the American diet.
Even ketchup, barbecue sauce and bottled marinades contain the sweetener.
Some experts believe our bodies treat high fructose corn syrup more like a fat than a sugar.
Peter Havel, a nutrition researcher at the University of California, Davis, who has studied the metabolic effects of fructose, has found that several hormones that regulate body weight do not respond to fructose as they do to other types of sugars, such as glucose.
"Fructose doesn't appear to signal the hormonal systems involved in the long-term regulation of food intake and energy metabolism," he said.
The debate picked up steam recently with the release of a new study in the July issue of Obesity Research that suggests fructose alters our metabolic rate in a way that favors fat storage.
Havel and researchers at the University of Cincinnati and the German Institute of Human Nutrition fed mice a fructose-sweetened drink, which caused them to store more fat than mice that drank water -- even though they did not consume more calories.
The mice in the study also drank diet soda and a soft drink sweetened with sucrose or table sugar -- and neither increased body fat.
Adamson said he predicts a soda sweetened with high fructose corn syrup would have similar results since this corn-derived sweetener has virtually the same composition as sucrose, which is 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose.
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