“Whether it’s corn sugar or cane sugar, your body can’t tell the difference. Sugar is sugar.”
This is from a commercial by the Corn Refiners Association, the people who make high fructose corn syrup. It is one of many they put out in response to the recent swell of opinion against their product.
Their golden goose is in jeopardy, so they are trying to protect the precious profit egg, asserting that their kind of sugar is just the same as any other kind, and therefore benign. It’s a clever little claim, but is it true?
High fructose corn syrup was developed in the 1960s in Japan, and made its way to the U.S. in the 1970s. It is made by spinning corn kernels with enzymes that break them up and rearrange them into a thick syrup that is very sweet and very durable. It is also very cheap, a key factor in the explosion of its use in our country.
Most high fructose corn syrup consists of 55 percent fructose, 42 percent glucose and 3 percent other sugar-like molecules. Table sugar, also known as sucrose, the “cane sugar” in the commercials, is 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose. High fructose corn syrup is sweeter than sucrose, probably due to the extra fructose, which by itself is far sweeter than glucose.
So technically, they are not exactly the same, although, as you will see, the devil is not in the difference. High fructose corn syrup is a man-made substance, has those extra molecules in it and doesn’t hang together as tightly as the nature-made and naturally bonded sucrose. These factors may prove to matter eventually, but in essence, and as much as it vexes me to agree with a commercial, the corn growers are correct.
Now, wait. That does not mean high fructose corn syrup is good for you. It is not. But neither is sucrose. Both corn sugar and cane sugar harbor the fugitive fructose, and it turns out this little rascal wreaks havoc on your body. To understand, we first have to look at glucose, the innocent bystander.
Glucose is the building block of life. Every cell in your body uses it. Our bodies are designed to manage glucose. When we eat glucose, most of it is used right away, some is stored, and a small amount becomes fat.
Glucose is handled by the hormone insulin, which transfers glucose out of the blood and into the tissues where it is used. This is what happens to about 80 percent of the glucose you ingest. The other 20 percent goes to the liver, where it is either stored as glycogen, to be mobilized back into glucose as needed, or metabolized further.
Glucose also stimulates the production of leptin, a hormone that tells us we have had enough to eat, and it suppresses ghrelin, a hormone that tells us we’re hungry. Don’t you love those names? I can just see a leprechaun-like leptin. “That’s enough now, laddie. Up from the table with ye.” A few hours later, the growling ghrelin wakes up. “Grrr! Food! Must have food!” But I digress.
Fructose is another story. Fructose does not interact with hormones. If you are hungry, which your body knows by high levels of ghrelin, you can pour fructose down your throat all day and not feel satisfied. The growling ghrelin prowls while the leptin leprechaun slumbers. Meanwhile, you have another soda. And another. One might even venture the word “addiction” when speaking of sugary drinks and foods.
Fructose doesn’t connect with insulin either, so instead of going into your tissues, all the fructose goes into the liver, the body’s ultimate filter and processor. There, it is turned into all kinds of nasty stuff such as uric acid and fat.
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Uric acid increases blood pressure and causes gout. Fat damages the liver and makes it resistant to insulin, resulting in higher levels of insulin in the blood. Higher insulin in the blood goes to the brain, and blinds the brain to leptin. Blinds, not binds.
The poor leprechaun can jump up and down and do a jig, and nobody sees him. High insulin also leads eventually to insulin resistance, weight gain and diabetes. I’m telling you, fructose is fraught with peril.
But wait, you say. Fructose is natural, the sugar of fruit. How can it be so terrible? You’re right. It is in fruit, and if you eat it that way it is much safer. This is because fruit is full of fiber, and fiber is your friend.
Fiber decreases absorption of sugar and speeds your gut along, propelling contents into the part of the small intestine that helps signal fullness. It also inhibits the absorption of some free fatty acids until they get to the colon, where bacteria change them into more useful forms that actually suppress insulin.
Fructose in fruit is fine. But we don’t eat much of it that way. We drink it in sodas, and we eat it in bread, salad dressings, jams, ketchup, cereals and many processed and packaged foods. Try reading some labels next time you’re in the grocery store.
You’ll be disgusted. Americans, on average, consume 63 pounds of high fructose corn syrup per person per year. It’s everywhere. No wonder we are an obese nation.
Sugar is sugar. Your body can’t tell the difference. This should not reassure you. Sucrose and high fructose corn syrup are both bad for you. Do yourself a favor and slow down on the stuff. The leprechaun will thank you, too.
_Dr. Peggy Spencer is a student-health physician. She is also the co-author of “50 ways to leave your 40s.” Email your questions directly to her at pspencer@unm.edu. All questions will be considered anonymous, and all questioners will remain anonymous.
This column has general health information and cannot replace a trip to a health provider._
