What would you do for HFCS?

While watching various matches of the Australian Open, we were bombarded by those videos from the Corn Refiner's Association claiming that your body can't tell the difference between cane sugar and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) - so they must be the same. But consider that your body can't tell the difference between air and carbon monoxide, either, and low concentrations of CO will kill you.

I can tell the difference - now. I could drink lots of sugary sodas when I was younger, but a few years ago I found out the hard way - buying Big Gulps (fountain drinks at 7-Eleven) on hot days - that drinking sodas with HFCS during the day gives me indigestion a few hours later. Cans of Diet Pepsi (which I have also given up) gave me a dry feeling, and eventually a dry cough, but didn't bring on the burning sensations. HFCS is soaked in sulfur dioxide during processing, so it and some caramel colorings contain sulfites, a common allergen than can affect sulfur sensitive people, but I don't know if that is my problem or not. 

But beyond my personal anecdotes, it gets worse. According to USA Today, a Medical College of Georgia study:

... of 559 teens aged 14 to 18 found that diets high in fructose were associated with higher blood pressure; diabetes-related measures such as higher fasting glucose and insulin resistance; and inflammatory factors that contribute to heart and vascular disease.

Teens who consumed large amounts of fructose also tended to have lower levels of cardiovascular protectors such as HDL ("good") cholesterol and the protein adiponectin.

The connection between consuming lots of fructose and cardiovascular risk factors was even more pronounced in kids with excess belly fat, which is another known risk factor for cardiovascular disease and diabetes, said the study in the February issue of the Journal of Nutrition.

Another study at the University of Colorado, published in Metabolism, and briefly described in the UC Campus Newsroom claims:

Both HFCS and sucrose have historically been considered to have nearly identical effects on the body. But this study finds that indeed there is a difference between the two. They found that the makeup of the sugars resulted in differences in how much fructose was absorbed into the circulation, and which could have a potential impact on one’s health. Sucrose is 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose that is bonded together as a disaccharide (complex carbohydrate), while HFCS is a mixture of free fructose (55 percent) and free glucose (45 percent). It’s the difference in fructose amount that appears to create the ill health effects on the body.

Their study was conducted at the University of Florida, where they evaluated 40 men and women who were given 24 ounces of HFCS - or sugar-sweetened soft drinks. Careful measurements showed that the HFCS-sweetened soft drinks resulted in significantly higher fructose levels than the sugar-sweetened drinks.  Fructose is also known to increase uric acid levels that have been implicated in blood pressure, and the HFCS-sweetened drinks resulted in a higher uric acid level and a 3 mm Hg greater rise in systolic blood pressure.

And that 55/45 proportion only describes HFCS-55. References to HFCS-90 have been scrubbed from most industry websites - though I saw it once - but 90 is used in jellies, sauces and frostings.

While Big Sugar and Big Corn are suing each other over their various claims, I've done my best to cut back on sugar and eliminate HFCS altogether, though I have been caught cheating from time to time.