High Fructose Corn Syrup Essay

High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is a fructose-glucose liquid sweetener alternative to sucrose (common table sugar) first introduced to the food and beverage industry in the 1970s. It is not meaningfully different in composition or metabolism from other fructose-glucose sweeteners like sucrose, honey, and fruit juice concentrates. HFCS was widely embraced by food formulators, and its use grew between the mid-1970s and mid-1990s, principally as a replacement for sucrose. This was primarily because of its sweetness comparable with that of sucrose, improved stability and functionality, and ease of use. Although HFCS use today is nearly equivalent to sucrose use in the United States, we live in a decidedly sucrose-sweetened world: >90% of the nutritive sweetener used worldwide is sucrose.
In particular, I evaluate the strength of the popular hypothesis that HFCS is uniquely responsible for obesity. Although examples of pure fructose causing metabolic upset at high concentrations abound, especially when fed as the sole carbohydrate
It came as a great surprise to many when, seemingly overnight, HFCS was transformed from a mundane ingredient into the principal focus of scientists, journalists, and consumers concerned about the growing incidence of obesity in the United States and around the world. This article will probe the basis and implications for the current hypothesis that HFCS is somehow uniquely responsible for rising obesity rates and will challenge the science purported to demonstrate a unique role for HFCS in promoting