Introduction
High fructose corn syrup is found in just about every sweetened food product in America—from ice cream to Coca Cola to Nature’s Made gummy vitamins. Since it is so prevalent an ingredient, most would think it harmless, too. However, as Bray, Nielsen and Popkin (2004) have shown, consuming foods and beverages that contain high fructose corn syrup could play a major role in the onset of obesity. Indeed, the obesity epidemic in the West has coincided with the rise of the soda pop, fast food culture that dominated the American experience in the latter half of the 20th century and continues on to this day (Boutelle, Fulkerson, Neumark-Sztainer, Story & French, 2007; Morrill & Chin, 2004). This paper will discuss the dangers high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) poses for one’s health.
The Rise of HFCS Consumption
Bray et al. (2004) point out that the consumption of high fructose corn syrup increased over 1000% “between 1970 and 1990, far exceeding the changes in intake of any other food or food group” (p. 537). While this astounding growth is startling, the effect that such heavy intake of this particular ingredient is even more startling. It seems that the more high fructose corn syrup one consumes, the more one is compelled to consume more and more calories that the body, moreover, is unable to process in an efficient way (Bray et al., 2004). This is especially dangerous because high fructose corn syrup makes up more than 40% of “caloric sweeteners added to foods and beverages and is the sole caloric sweetener in soft drinks in the United States” (Bray et al., 2004, p. 537). With so many people drinking soft drinks and eating sweetened snacks, it should be no surprise that the rate of consumption high fructose corn syrup has risen so high so fast.
The effects of so much of this sweetening agent on the body are the real issue, however. Bocarsly, Powell, Avena and Hoebel (2010) conducted a study to evaluate the effects of HFCS. They found that over a 7 month trial period, rats that had access to HFCS gained more body weight than rats not exposed to the sweetener. The increase in body weight was “accompanied by an increase in adipose fat, notably in the abdominal region, and elevated circulating triglyceride levels” (Bocarsly, 2010, p. 101). The researchers interpreted these results by extrapolating the data and using it to explain the rise in obesity in the human population in the latter half of the 20th century, when HFCS became a popular additive to foods,...
References
Bocarsly, M. E., Powell, E. S., Avena, N. M., & Hoebel, B. G. (2010). High-fructose corn syrup causes characteristics of obesity in rats: increased body weight, body fat and triglyceride levels. Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, 97(1), 101-106.
Boutelle, K. N., Fulkerson, J. A., Neumark-Sztainer, D., Story, M., & French, S. A. (2007). Fast food for family meals: relationships with parent and adolescent food intake, home food availability and weight status. Public health nutrition, 10(1), 16-23.
Bray, G. A., Nielsen, S. J., & Popkin, B. M. (2004). Consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in beverages may play a role in the epidemic of obesity. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 79(4), 537-543.
Hyman, M. (2018). 5 reasons high fructose corn syrup will kill you. Retrieved from https://drhyman.com/blog/2011/05/13/5-reasons-high-fructose-corn-syrup-will-kill-you/
Malik, V. S., Popkin, B. M., Bray, G. A., Després, J. P., Willett, W. C., & Hu, F. B. (2010). Sugar sweetened beverages and risk of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes: a meta-analysis. Diabetes Care, https://doi.org/10.2337/dc10-1079
Morrill, A. C., & Chinn, C. D. (2004). The obesity epidemic in the United States. Journal of Public Health Policy, 25(3-4), 353-366.
Stanhope, K. L., Medici, V., Bremer, A. A., Lee, V., Lam, H. D., Nunez, M. V., ... & Havel, P. J. (2015). A dose-response study of consuming high-fructose corn syrup–sweetened beverages on lipid/lipoprotein risk factors for cardiovascular disease in young adults–. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 101(6), 1144-1154.
White, J. S. (2008). Straight talk about high-fructose corn syrup: what it is and what it ain't. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 88(6), 1716S-1721S.
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