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Is High Fructose Corn Syrup Making You Fat?

Tom Coffey

September 10, 2018

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For almost two decades, corn syrup has been playing the villain in the story of American Weight Gain.

Many people believe eating foods with high fructose corn syrup — which could be anything from sodas to salad dressings — is a surefire way to see your belly, but not your toes. But is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) causing obesity? What if this simple sweetener has been wrongly accused?

In this article, we’re putting HFCS under the high-powered microscope. Now you’ll know for sure if this sweetener is really the nemesis of fat loss, or just a victim of nutrition fear-mongering. Let’s dive in.

High Fructose Corn Syrup vs. the World

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is getting a lot of blame for American weight gain. But, as one recent study points out, this blame may be unjust.

HFCS is similar in chemical makeup, nutritional value, and sweetness to other common sweeteners, including table sugar [4]. And, while many will claim that HFCS still has some indefinable, evil ability to build fat, a recent study showed that it didn’t matter whether dieters ate HFCS [1]. So long as they controlled their calories, they lost the same amount of weight.
This seems to lend support that the villainous HFCS may not be so evil after all. But let’s dive a little deeper down the rabbit hole…

Another study found that, despite warnings from the American Heart Association, over 90% of Americans eat well over the recommended daily sugar intake [2]. Interestingly, studies have also found that when people eat a calorie-controlled diet they neither lost or gained weight, even when eating large amounts of HFCS [4].

These findings are interesting and should make you stop and scratch your head: “Is weight gain caused by more than just eating high fructose corn syrup?” You’re on the right track.

Science has turned corn into delicious. Is that a crime?

With the rise of easy-access, fast, affordable, super-calorie dense foods, Americans are eating far more food than ever [3].

Unfortunately, all those tasty packaged foods and sodas contain a boatload of sugar. And sugar, whether it’s in the form of common table sugar, or HFCS, has calories. Overeating any type of food (calories) leads to weight gain, regardless of its ingredients.

You can gain weight by overeating even healthy foods, like avocados, which contain no high fructose corn syrup. So, is the current trend of American weight gain due to HFCS, or simply overeating?

Based on the current research, you should be leaning toward the second one.

The Innocent, Accused

As the research above points out, weight gain is linked to overeating too many calories in general, not just consuming HFCS.

Powerful groups like The American Medical Association and The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics agree. Both establishments concluded that HFCS is not the underlying cause of obesity but could play a small role in the bigger picture [8].

Now, this doesn’t give you a free pass to go and eat all the foods you can find with HFCS in the ingredients.

The truth is, overeating HFCS will certainly cause weight gain. But again: overeating any food will cause weight gain, even if that food contains no HFCS at all.

When someone tells you that apple-carbs and HFCS are the same carbs, with the same calories.

Final Deliberation

It’s clear now that HFCS has been wrongly accused.

General overeating is the likely cause of wider waists, and, while HFCS does play a role, it’s a small one. HFCS is, at most, an accessory to the crime — not the mastermind.

Luckily, this shows us the smartest way forward, too. Instead of trying to lose weight by just avoiding HFCS, you can make a more effective plan by attacking the stronghold of obesity: calories. If you want to lose weight, control your calories. If you do that, you’re all set, even if you still eat HFCS [1,7].

The truth is sweet.

REFERENCES
  1. Lowndes J, Kawiecki D, Pardo S, et al. The effects of four hypocaloric diets containing different levels of sucrose or high fructose corn syrup on weight loss and related parameters. Nutrition Journal (2012). 11: 55.
  2. Lowndes J, Sinnett S, Pardo S, et al. The effect of normally consumed amounts of sucrose or high fructose corn syrup on lipid profiles, body composition and related parameters in overweight/obese subjects. Nutrients. 2014 Mar;(6):1128–1144.
  3. Desilver D. What’s on your table? How America’s diet has changed over the decades. Pew Research Center (2016). [Retrieved from webpage]
  4. Forshee RA, Storey ML, Allison DB, et al. A critical examination of the evidence relating high fructose corn syrup and weight gain. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition2007 Jul;21(6):561–582.
  5. Bravo S, Lowndes J, Sinnett S, et al. Consumption of sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup does not increase liver fat or ectopic fat deposition in muscles. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, 2013 Jan;38(6):681–688.
  6. Bray GA, Popkin BM. Dietary sugar and body weight: Have we reached a crisis in the epidemic of obesity and diabetes. Diabetes Care. 2014 Apr;37(4):950–956.
  7. Tappy L, Lê K. Metabolic effects of fructose and the world wide increase in obesity. Physiological Reviews. 2010 Jan;01(1)23–46.
  8. Klurfeld DM, Foreyt J, Angelopoulos TJ, et al. Lack of evidence for high fructose corn syrup as the cause of the obesity epidemic. International Journal of Obesity. 2012 Sep;18(6):771–773.
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