Is High Fructose Corn Syrup Bad for You?
High fructose corn syrup is in most processed foods these days. But is it bad for you? Does it carry any health risks? Is it worse for you than regular sugar? Does it cause weight gain, changes in hunger or metabolism?
We will answer all those questions in this article. First, let us discuss what High Fructose Corn Syrup is, what it’s in, and why it’s such a popular food additive.
What is High Fructose Corn Syrup?
High fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is a type of sugar produced from corn syrup.
It is an artificial sweetener developed from corn for processed and packaged foods.
The chemical formula for HFCS is C6H14O7. This sugar substitute might also be hidden in food products under the name Glucose Syrup, Corn Syrup, or Hydrolyzed Starch Syrup.
What foods have high fructose corn syrup?
Many processed foods have HFCS. These include fruit juices, sports drinks, cookies, snack bars, granola bars, fruit snacks, candy, other caloric beverages, flavored yogurts, pancake syrup, cake and brownie mix, cookie mix, fast food items, soda, corn syrup used for baking, crackers, bread and bread products, snack cakes and more.
As you can see, it’s not just dessert items loaded with high fructose corn syrup. Even juices, crackers, chips and organic products sometimes contain corn syrup.
Why is High Fructose Corn Syrup in everything?
High fructose corn syrup is a much cheaper sweetener than sugar. It also has a long shelf life. So, food manufacturers use corn syrup instead of sugar in their foods to reduce manufacturing costs and make their foods more palatable.
Food companies add corn syrup to breads, pastries, cookies, soda, salad dressings and other products to enhance flavor and shelf life instead of adding regular sugar.
Is high fructose corn syrup worse than sugar?
You may be wondering how HFCS stacks up to regular sugar or if it causes more weight gain than regular sugar.
If you eat an equal number of calories of corn syrup as regular sugar, then it is is no more likely to make you gain weight than regular sugar.
You cannot gain weight without a calorie surplus, even if you consume a lot of HFCS.
However, HFCS may increase hunger and decrease satiety more than regular sugar, making it easier to over eat. Interestingly, HFCS may also interfere with your body’s fullness and satiety signals. In this way, HFCS may make it easier to overeat, which could cause weight gain over time.
The American Counsel on Exercise notes that HFCS may influence satiety and hunger. Additionally, it may make it easier to overeat and gain weight through excess calorie consumption.
Other studies on lab rats have shown that High Fructose Corn Syrup may increase hunger more than regular sugar, but it is unclear whether those results would translate to humans.
Still, HFCS may mess up your hunger signals more than real sugar, so you probably want to avoid it when possible. However, you probably don’t want to include a lot of real sugar in your diet either. You should try to limit both, as they both may contribute to obesity, fatty liver disease or other health problems.
How Unhealthy is High Fructose Corn Syrup?
HFCS is certainly not a healthy food additive. You probably want to limit how much of it you include in your diet.
Preliminary findings suggest that it may have effects on hunger, overeating, or other aspects of your health.
While occasionally eating foods that contain HFCS probably won’t hurt you, you probably don’t want to make this food additive a mainstay of your diet.
Is high fructose corn syrup OK in moderation?
Occasionally consuming HFCS is probably fine. However, you probably don’t want to consume it regularly.
Try to consume at least 80 percent of your calories from whole, unprocessed foods.
When you do consume foods that come in boxes or cartons, try to choose foods that primarily contain natural ingredients not made in a lab.
Final Thoughts
You should probably avoid HFCS if you can, but occasionally eating something with this food additive probably won’t kill you.
What do you think? Do you consume this food additive in your diet or avoid it like the Plague? Let me know in the comment section below.
References
Muth, N. D. (2015). Sports Nutrition for Health Professionals. Philadelphia, PA: F.A Davis Company.
Rizkalla, S. W. (2010). Health implications of fructose consumption: A review of recent data. Nutrition & Metabolism, 7, 82. http://doi.org/10.1186/1743-7075-7-82
