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,...
As more and more food producers began using HFCS instead of sugar, obesity began to rise in the U.S. (Bocarsly et al., 2010; Bray et al., 2004).
The Danger
Aside from being linked to climbing obesity rates, HFCS has also been identified as a risk factor in cardiovascular disease (Stanhope et al., 2015). Stanhope et al. (2015) conducted a study on the effects of drinking beverages with a range of HFCS content. Specifically, they “determined the dose-response effects of consuming beverages sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) at zero, low, medium, and high proportions of energy requirements (Ereq) on circulating lipid/lipoprotein risk factors for CVD and uric acid in adults” (Stanhope et al., 2015, p. 1144). The researchers found that after just 2 weeks of consumption of HFCS beverages, the body must work harder to process the sweetener and prolonged exposure supports the argument that HFCS can contribute to the onset of cardiovascular disease. Stanhope et al. (2015) asserted that “humans are sensitive to the adverse effects of sustained sugar consumption at a relatively wide range of intake” (p. 1154) and that dietary interventions are required to help people moderate their sugar intake.
Malik et al. (2010) have found that HFCS can lead to the onset of diabetes, as it damages the body’s ability to process natural sugars. Because HFCS is a concentrated form of sugar in fructose form, the body (which is better equipped to process the sucrose form of sugar) becomes overworked when HFCS is consumed. The danger of consuming HFCS is that the body can begin to suffer from diabetes from metabolic upset produced by habitual HFCS consumption. Diabetes and obesity are commonly linked, and cardiovascular disease is another common problem occurring among the American population today. The thread that has consistently been identified over the past decade as linking all of these problematic conditions is the consumption of HFCS.
Disagreement
Not all researchers agree with the findings or the opinion that HFCS is detrimental to one’s health. Following the publication of the initial report by Bray et al. (2004), White (2008) published a study entitled “Straight talk about high-fructose corn syrup: What it is an d what it ain’t.” The study takes a look at some of the claims about HFCS and makes the argument that…
