High Fuctose Corn Syrup Research Paper

Kelsey Choquette
Derek Thiess
Research Essay
30 November 2010

High Fructose Corn Syrup and Obesity

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is one of the major caloric sweeteners used in the food industry today. It is a sweetener that contain fructose and all provide 4 kcal per gram (Suzan, 620). It is relatively inexpensive to produce, so the food industry sees HFCS an easy way to make products less expensive. HFCS is a kind of corn sugar; it is nearly identical to sucrose (table sugar), which is made up of 50 percent glucose and 50 percent fructose (“What”). Sucrose and HFCS contain the same amount of calories and are of equal sweetness. High fructose corn syrup is commonly used in the food supply in the United States and other countries.
With the increases in obesity many scientist and health professionals are trying to find a solution or cause. Some press reports “oversimplify the issues by attempting to single out specific ingredients, including high fructose corn syrup” (“High”). The press has associated HFCS with today’s increase risk of obesity. Many consumers are now cautions of eating HFSC and are demanding for it to be removed from foods even though the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “has affirmed and reaffirmed the generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status of HFCS” (Suzen, 620). Since the food industry is lead by the consumers, many food companies, such as Kraft, ConAgra and PepsiCo, are changing several of their products by replacing HFCS with normal cane sugar (“All”). However, most of what is said in the press about HFCS is simply a hypothesis, that do not have scientific proof to back it up, or is based on Ecological data. High Fructose Corn Syrup is like any other sweetener; it is safe and nutritionally the same as table sugar and honey. It “has been weakly associated with [the] increased risk of obesity and related disease in the United States” (White, 1219). High fructose corn syrup does not contribute to the obesity problem any differently than sugar, therefore, it cannot be blamed for the increase in obesity and should not be replaced by other caloric
Many studies have been done with HFCS, however none are able to fully support if HFCS is the cause to our increase in obesity. The idea that HFCS has increased obesity is mostly based on a hypothesis by some nutritionist. There is research that has proven this hypothesis to be wrong; high fructose corn syrup is identical to other caloric sweeteners, it is not uniquely obesity-promoting, it is not the predictive of US obesity or global obesity, [and] eliminating HFCS from the food supply would not reduce obesity. John S. White, a nutritionist from White Technical Research, proclaims that “[n]o one would disagree that HFCS as a caloric ingredient can lead to weight gain if products sweetened with it are consumed to excess….[b]ut there is absolutely no proof that HFCS acts in any exclusive manner to promote obesity. It is time to retire the hypothesis that HFCS is uniquely responsible for obesity.” (“Straight,” 1721). HFCS is simply sugar made from corn and has no unusually health effects. It should not be removed nor replaced in foods and simply changing its name and informing consumers of what HFCS truly is will have resolve the