Sep 30, 2008 11:43 pm US/Eastern
The Truth About High Fructose Corn Syrup
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
Just because you're cutting back on sugar in your diet doesn't mean you're taking in fewer calories. High fructose corn syrup is now a popular sweetener in many foods and drinks.
A new multimedia campaign portrays it as a natural substitute, but not everyone agrees.
An ear of corn certainly appears to be healthy; after all, it is a vegetable. But it can be made into the corn syrup many of use at the grocery store, the kind used to make a pecan pie.
But through a chemical process, that corn syrup can be changed again, and made even sweeter. That's when it becomes high fructose corn syrup.
Melanie Pearsall, a clinical nutritionist from Massachusetts General Hospital, says at that point it's a very processed food. There is no fiber or protein left in it, for example.
High fructose corn syrup is now found in many processed foods, from ketchup to cranberry sauce. Even one whole grain bread lists it as the third ingredient. A two liter bottle of soda, on average, contains about 15 ounces of this sweetener.
Manufacturers like high fructose corn syrup because products can sit on the store shelf longer. It's also cheaper than sugar. Because it's so prevalent now, Americans consume more of it than they probably realize, and it does contain the same amount of calories as sugar. Critics point to it as a culprit in the nation's obesity problem.
Even more troubling is one theory, still unproven, which suggests fructose is more readily converted into fat by the liver than sucrose.
As Pearsall explains, "The way that fructose is metabolized can lead to high triglyceride levels and that can lead you to be overweight, a marker for heart disease if you have got a lot of high triglycerides floating around in your blood."
The Corn Refiners Association is now fighting back with a new multimedia campaign. The goal is to convince consumers of their contention that high fructose corn syrup is natural, and just fine if used in moderation.
Shoppers we talked to are skeptical of those claims. Some don't believe it is a healthy alternative, and others say they try to avoid high fructose corn syrup by reading labels closely.
There are some easy ways to cut back on high fructose corn syrup, particularly with drinks. Try to buy 100 percent juice instead of fruit flavored drinks. If you buy canned fruit, try to get it packed in its own juice. And in general, try to drink more water, and less soda.
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