High Fructose Corn Syrup: Health Risks and the Obesity Link

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 people would assume it is harmless. 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 soda pop and fast food culture that dominated the American experience in the latter half of the 20th century and continues to this day (Boutelle, Fulkerson, Neumark-Sztainer, Story, & French, 2007; Morrill & Chinn, 2004). This paper discusses the dangers high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) poses for human health.

The Rise of HFCS Consumption

Bray et al. (2004) point out that the consumption of high fructose corn syrup increased over 1,000% "between 1970 and 1990, far exceeding the changes in intake of any other food or food group" (p. 537). While this growth is startling in itself, the effect that such heavy intake of this particular ingredient has on the body is even more alarming. It appears that the more high fructose corn syrup one consumes, the more one is compelled to consume additional calories that the body is, moreover, unable to process efficiently (Bray et al., 2004). This is especially dangerous because HFCS 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 come as no surprise that the rate of HFCS consumption has risen so sharply and so quickly.

The effects of such large quantities of this sweetening agent on the body are the real concern, however. Bocarsly, Powell, Avena, and Hoebel (2010) conducted a study to evaluate the effects of HFCS. They found that over a seven-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 et al., 2010, p. 101). The researchers interpreted these results by extrapolating the data to help explain the rise in obesity in the human population during the latter half of the 20th century, when HFCS became a popular additive to foods, replacing sugar/sucrose, which is less stable in acidic foods and beverages and requires greater dilution before use (White, 2008). As more and more food producers began using HFCS instead of sugar, obesity rates began to rise in the United States (Bocarsly et al., 2010; Bray et al., 2004).

The Danger of HFCS to Human Health

Aside from being linked to climbing obesity rates, HFCS has also been identified as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (Stanhope et al., 2015). Stanhope et al. (2015) conducted a study on the effects of drinking beverages with varying 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 two weeks of HFCS beverage consumption, the body must work harder to process the sweetener, and that 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 contribute 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. Habitual HFCS consumption can subject the body to the metabolic upset that underlies the development of diabetes. Diabetes and obesity are commonly linked, and cardiovascular disease is yet another prevalent problem among the American population today. The thread that has consistently been identified over the past decade as connecting all of these conditions is the consumption of HFCS.

Conclusion

In conclusion, HFCS has been shown by researchers over the past ten or more years to have negative effects on human health. Its rapid absorption by the bloodstream — a consequence of its chemical makeup — places greater strain on the body, triggers a spike in insulin production, and causes a spike in triglyceride levels. It has been linked to excessive weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, liver disease, and other serious conditions. The corn industry has attempted to counter accusations that its product is any more harmful than regular table sugar, but neither substance, when consumed in the quantities typical of many Americans' diets, is healthy. It may continue to be debated whether HFCS is worse than cane sugar in terms of metabolic stress, but the evidence is clear that no excessive amount of sugar is beneficial. The data strongly indicate that the rise in obesity in the United States is directly associated with the more than thousandfold increase in HFCS consumption since the 1970s.