Bad by association.
I have to admit, I was a little surprised to learn that the American Medical Association recently released comments in defense of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Their statement is accurate: “To date, we have no data to confirm that it is any worse than other sweeteners [1]."
The small studies that have been done show hunger as well as insulin levels were no different among those who ingested HFCS and those who ingested sucrose (table sugar). To be fair, I don’t think a study has been designed properly, with a large enough sample size, or tracked for a significant period of time to prove it to be as evil as the nutrition-minded community believes it is.
For those at home, keep this in mind: When major medical organizations support something, or at least don't lash out against it, it's not because it is safe. It merely means that it hasn’t been proven by strong scientific evidence to be harmful. I once heard an integrative physician speaking about the difference between the beverages offered at holisic professionals' conferences and those served at traditional medical conferences. At holistic and integrative conferences, the tables are full of green tea and water, while soda dominates the palate with the conventional folks.
In this case, I think the issue is a matter of common sense, not science. The rise of obesity in this country has trailed a rise in the consumption of HFCS. While before 1970 it was zero, the average American now consumes up to 79 pounds of HFCS per year [2]. With my family of four consuming zero pounds, someone is eating their weight in this stuff. A lot of Americans are. The devastating part is that a large portion of the population contributing to this statistic are children.
Maybe it's guilt by association, as it’s the foods and beverages with HFCS that are highly processed; stripped of vitamins and minerals and loaded with preservatives, colors and artificial flavors. Either way, the stuff is best avoided.
I recently saw that Gatorade no longer contains HFCS. The sweetener at the top of the list of ingredients mind you, is glucose-fructose syrup. I wonder if they made this deceiving move because they realized people are now looking for HFCS. Either way, it hardly constitutes an “athletic performance beverage.”
All in all, I think the sugar industry is pretty happy about HFCS. The pressure is off. I can just picture a sugar packet pointing to a HFCS-containing competitor, “I didn’t cause obesity, he did!” Now we see cane sugar, cane juice, brown rice syrup, molasses, honey and stevia as ingredients fueling organic processed products. Manufacturers hope they will be seen as the new “all natural sweeteners”. Sorry, but sugar is sugar is sugar. The body was just not meant to process it in moderate to large amounts, regardless of what form it's consumed.
The first goal of optimal nutrition is to limit the desire and craving for sweetness and focus on real foods. After giving up sugar for a week, it’s the real foods (beans, raw nuts, vegetables) that begin to taste good.
So, even though it has yet to be proven that HFCS is worse for you than sugar, I wouldn't take it to the bank just yet. Let the major groups in this country, who often cater to what’s best for certain industries and lobbies, stand behind the lack of solid evidence. For you and your family, read the labels carefully and scan for high fructose corn syrup, or any other version of the ingredient. It might not be worse for you than other sugars on its own, but like the kid at school that your mom didn’t want you to play with, it runs with a bad crowd.
References:
1. http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20080618/sweetener-gets-unlikely-ally
2. http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/kingcorn/taste.html
Other Trusted Sources:
Mayo Clinic
Diabetes Health
