High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and its effect on obesity
John S white, has a Ph.D in biochemistry, and is founder of White technical research, which specializes in caloric sweetener. He is affiliated with institute of food technologies (Chicago, IL), the caloric council (Atlanta, GA) and the Corn Refiners Association (Washington DC). He brings arguments to defend High fructose corn syrup (HFCS), and tries to remove its association with obesity. Knowing that he is affiliated with above food institutes, makes me doubt the credibility of his research. He tells that HFCS has similar composition to sucrose, so it would be metabolized in a similar manner. However, the authors of M.E Bocarly et al tells that HFCS-55, has slightly more fructose than sugar, glucose cause release of insulin which allows cells to absorb it. But pancreas lack fructose transporter, so it does not efficiently produce insulin when fructose consumed. Fructose gets broken down, and transformed into glycerol and fatty acid, which are used by adipose tissues (fat cells). Insulin released after sucrose consumption inhibits eating and increases leptin which increases satiety.
He tells that U.S obesity crisis continues to worsen even if per capita calories from HFCS have been stagnant. HFCS is used in various foods and beverages like baking goods, sauce, frozen food, soft drinks, sports drinks, bread, cereal bars, and many other food products. It is hard to avoid food with HFCS, when there is food desert, and when there is lots of fast food. There is a high chance of consumption of food and beverages, with HFCS, so, the measurement of HFCS consumption.
In the next part he compares obesity rate with use of HFCS in U.S and other countries like South Korea, Japan, and Mexico, Canada, and Argentina. White says that HFCS is not predictive of global obesity because of the data between HFCS and obesity rate in those countries. However, this data is only correlation, and we know that obesity is caused by various factors like gene, diet, consumption of alcohol, physical activity, medication, health and emotional condition, and sleep. Since obesity can be cause by various factor, the best way to see its impact would be to control other factors, and study the effect of HFCS separately on obesity. This was done by M.E Bocarly et al, who are group of graduate students. They did an experiment on the effect of HFCS on obesity. They had two groups of rat (control and treatment group), and they gave equal amount of calories to both group. Even though the 12-h HFCS group consumed fewer calories from HFCS, than the sucrose group that ingested sucrose, they found that rats with 12-h HFCS access gained more weight in 8 weeks than animals with equal access to sucrose. When another similar experiment was conducted for 6 months, they found increased body weight, abdominal fad triglyceride. This showed that sucrose and HFCS can have different effects on body weight and obesogenic measure, which goes against White statement about them having similar effect, because they have similar structure. M.E Bocarly et al were able to show that HFCS does cause significant increase in body weight, characterized by increase in adipose fat, and elevated triglyceride levels which are found in obese individual.
White blames obesity to increasing calorie consumption, but we know that obesity is caused by various factor and high calorie consumption is just one of the factors. In another argument White tells that eliminating HFCS would not have a significant effect on obesity. He tells that if we eliminate or restrict HFCS, people would seek for other alternative sweetener. This statement implies that removing HFCS does not have an effect of increasing obesity rate because it would simply be substituted by other alternative sweetener, so the rate would not be affected. Here the statement about the possibility of HFCS bring replaced is true but that does not explain how it would not have a significant effect on obesity. Rather it tends to imply that HFCS is contributing to obesity, and removal of it would simply lead to use or creation of other sweetener which would continue contributing towards obesity.
Obesity is caused by many factors but the food we consume is one of the main factor. White’s statement about having customer displeasure about removing HFCS, shows our dependency on sugar, and its excessive use in food and beverages. We need to have stricter guidelines for labeling food ingredients and transparency, and educate people to consume healthy food. White’s statement about increase in price for products as sucrose in substituted for less-expensive HFCS, may be false because market will always try to provide cheap products. As the price of products go up, the demand would go down, and people would choose products with sugar free or less sugar. So, it is in the best interest for market to provide cheap products to the consumer. Other countries do not have as much sugar like it is found in U.S, it is because of the food industries introduction of HFCS or sugar to food in large concentration that has made even a simple bread taste sweet. It is not necessary to add sugar to everything. The carbohydrate and fruits we consume naturally has enough sugar. Sugar should be consumed in moderation like any other food, and consumer’s educated choice can make difference in how food are sold by food industry, but the consumer should also demand for the change, for it to happen.
Tenjing Sherpa 