If you read nutrition labels and food ingredient lists, you know how common high fructose corn syrup is. You might expect it in cookies or soda, but it’s even found is some surprising places, like wheat bread or granola. Food manufacturers began switching in recent years to high fructose corn syrup because it’s a cheaper sweetener.
But, that switch may have caused unexpected problems for millions of people. It turns out that your body can tell the difference between different types of sugars, and when it comes to your health, sugars are NOT all the same.
A recent scientific study looked at how the human body reacted to 3 different types of sugar: glucose, fructose and sucrose. Glucose is made when your body breaks down carbohydrates (starchy foods) during digestion. Fructose is what gives fruit their sweet flavor. Sucrose, also known as table sugar, is a 50:50 mix of glucose and fructose. And high fructose corn syrup ranges from 42% to 90% fructose, with the rest being glucose.
The study results showed that extra sugar consumption caused all the study participants to gain weight. But there were important differences: compared to the other sugars, people drinking the fructose beverages had unhealthy changes in their liver function, increased fat deposits (more visceral, stomach fat which leads to heart disease) and a decrease in insulin sensitivity (a sign of diabetes). Other studies have shown that sugared drinks can double the risk of diabetes; half the risk is due to the excess weight gain, and the rest due to the high sugar content — mostly fructose.
“This study provides the best argument yet that we should either decide to consume less sugar-sweetened beverages in general, or that we should conduct more research into the possibility of using other sweeteners that may be more glucose-based,” says Matthias Tschoep, an obesity researcher at the Obesity Research Center in the University of Cincinnati. But don’t expect changes any time soon. We have become used to sweet drinks and foods, and fructose tastes sweeter than sucrose or glucose.
A recent government survey showed that sugary drinks account for 16% of the average American’s calorie needs every day. Maybe the lesson here is to take the time to think before you drink.