The current media debate about the benefits (or lack of harm) of high fructose corn syrup in our diet misses the obvious.
The goal of the corn industry is to call into question any claim of harm from consuming high fructose corn syrup, and to confuse and deflect by calling their product natural "corn sugar." That's like calling tobacco in cigarettes natural herbal medicine. Watch the slick ad where a caring father walks hand in hand with his four-year-old daughter through a big question mark carved in an idyllic cornfield.
Like any parent, I have questions about the food my daughter eats -- like high fructose corn syrup. So I started looking for answers from medical and nutrition experts, and what I discovered whether it's corn sugar or cane sugar, your body can't tell the difference. Sugar is sugar. Knowing that makes me feel better about what she eats and that's one less thing to worry about.
Physicians are also targeted directly. I received a 12-page color glossy monograph from the Corn Refiners Association reviewing the "science" that HFCS was safe and no different than cane sugar. I assume the other 700,000 physicians in America received the same information, at who knows what cost.
In addition to this, I received a special "personal" letter from the Corn Refiner's Association outlining every mention of the problems with HCFS in our diet -- whether in print, blogs, books, radio or television. They warned me of the errors of my ways and put me on "notice." For what I am not sure. To think they are tracking this (and me) that closely gives me an Orwellian chill.
New websites like www.sweetsurprise.com and www.cornsugar.com help "set us straight" about HFCS with quotes from professors of nutrition and medicine and thought leaders from Harvard and other stellar institutions.
Let's examine the science and insert some common sense into the conversation. These facts may indeed come as a sweet surprise. The ads suggest getting your nutrition advice from your doctor. Having studied this for more than a decade, and having read, interviewed or personally talked with most of the medical and nutrition experts used to bolster the claim that "corn sugar" and cane sugar are essentially the same, quite a different picture emerges and the role of HCFS in promoting obesity, disease and death across the globe becomes clear.
High fructose corn syrup is an industrial food product and far from "natural" or a naturally occurring substance. It is extracted from corn stalks through a process so secret that Archer Daniels Midland and Carghill would reportedly not allow the investigative journalist Michael Pollan to observe it for his book, "The Omnivore's Dilemma." The sugars are extracted through a chemical enzymatic process resulting in a chemically and biologically novel compound called HFCS.
Some basic biochemistry will help you understand this. Regular cane sugar (sucrose) is made of two-sugar molecules bound tightly together -- glucose and fructose in equal amounts. The enzymes in your digestive tract must break down the sucrose into glucose and fructose, which are then absorbed into the body.
Now back to biochemistry. Since there is there is no chemical bond between them, no digestion is required, so they are more rapidly absorbed into your blood stream. Fructose goes right to the liver and triggers lipogenesis (the production of fats like triglycerides and cholesterol). This is why it is the major cause of liver damage in this country and causes a condition called "fatty liver," which affects 70 million people. The rapidly absorbed glucose triggers big spikes in insulin -- our body's major fat storage hormone. Both of these features of HFCS lead to increased metabolic disturbances that drive increases in appetite, weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia and more.
But there was one more thing I learned during lunch with Dr. Bruce Ames. Research done by his group at the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute found that free fructose from HFCS requires more energy to be absorbed by the gut and soaks up two phosphorous molecules from ATP (our body's energy source). This depletes the energy fuel source or ATP in our gut required to maintain the integrity of our intestinal lining. Little "tight junctions" cement each intestinal cell together preventing food and bacteria from "leaking" across the intestinal membrane and triggering an immune reaction and body wide inflammation.
The takeaway: Cane sugar and the industrially produced, euphemistically named "corn sugar" are not biochemically or physiologically the same.
An FDA researcher asked corn producers to ship a barrel of high fructose corn syrup in order to test for contaminants. Her repeated requests were refused until she claimed she represented a newly created soft drink company. She was then promptly shipped a big vat of HFCS that was used as part of the study that showed that HFCS often contains toxic levels of mercury because of chlor-alkali products used in its manufacturing.(i) Poisoned sugar is certainly not "natural."
When HFCS is run through a chemical analyzer or a chromatograph, strange chemical peaks show up that are not glucose or fructose. What are they? Who knows? This certainly calls into question the purity of this processed form of super sugar. The exact nature, effects and toxicity of these funny compounds have not been fully explained, but shouldn't we be protected from the presence of untested chemical compounds in our food supply, especially when the contaminated food product comprises up to 15 to 20 percent of the average American's daily calorie intake?
"The digestion, absorption and metabolism of fructose differ from those of glucose. Hepatic metabolism of fructose favors de novo lipogenesis [production of fat in the liver]. In addition, unlike glucose, fructose does not stimulate insulin secretion or enhance leptin production. Because insulin and leptin act as key afferent signals in the regulation of food intake and body weight [to control appetite], this suggests that dietary fructose may contribute to increased energy intake and weight gain. Furthermore, calorically sweetened beverages may enhance caloric overconsumption."
He states that HFCS is absorbed more rapidly than regular sugar, and that it doesn't stimulate insulin or leptin production. This prevents you from triggering the body's signals for being full and may lead to overconsumption of total calories.
"... the increase in consumption of HFCS has a temporal relation to the epidemic of obesity, and the overconsumption of HFCS in calorically sweetened beverages may play a role in the epidemic of obesity."
The corn industry takes his comments out of context to support their position. "All sugar you eat is the same."
David S. Ludwig, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, and a personal friend has published extensively on the dangers and the obesogenic properties of sugar-sweetened beverages. He was quoted as saying that "high fructose corn syrup is one of the most misunderstood products in the food industry." When I asked him why he supported the corn industry, he told me he didn't and that his comments were taken totally out of context.
The last reason to avoid products that contain HFCS is that they are a marker for poor-quality, nutritionally depleted, processed industrial food full of empty calories and artificial ingredients. If you find "high fructose corn syrup" on the label, you can be sure it is not a whole, real, fresh food full of fiber, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and antioxidants. Stay away if you want to stay healthy. We still must reduce our overall consumption of sugar, but with this one simple dietary change you can radically reduce your health risks and improve your health.
1. We are consuming HFCS and sugar in pharmacologic quantities never before experienced in human history -- 140 pounds a year vs. 20 teaspoons a year 10,000 years ago.
For more information on the effects of high fructose corn syrup see www.drhyman.com.
Mark Hyman, M.D. is a practicing physician, founder of The UltraWellness Center, a four-time 'New York Times" bestselling author and an international leader in the field of Functional Medicine. You can follow him on Twitter, connect with him on LinkedIn, watch his videos on YouTube, become a fan on Facebook and subscribe to his newsletter.