High Fructose Corn Syrup Proven to Cause Human Obesity


By Vanessa Barrington
EcoSalon
December 24, 2009


A new study indicates that high fructose corn syrup may be the cause of the huge upswing in childhood obesity and diabetes.


You've heard it before: a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. If people are fat, it's their own fault for eating too much.

These words are usually spouted by PR hacks for the corn refiner's association – or the dietitians paid by them. They may not, as it turns out, be true.

We finally have the smoking corn cob, as it were: the study processed-food foes have been waiting for, indicating that high fructose corn syrup may be the cause of the huge upswing in childhood obesity and diabetes.

American consumption of all sugars is much higher than it should be for our health, but high fructose corn syrup has become a larger share of our sugar consumption due to the fact that much of our ingestion of this super cheap, highly processed sugar is involuntary. That's because it's not just used as a sweetener in cookies and sodas but as a food additive in things like bread, ketchup and other condiments, pasta sauce and coatings for frozen fried foods.

Why is it used so liberally? It increases shelf life and has other characteristics that food processors like. The reason it's really cheap is because the government subsidizes corn so heavily (and if you've read your Michael Pollan you already know this so I'll shut up now).

The rise in childhood diabetes and obesity roughly corresponds to the period of time in which food processors started using high fructose corn syrup with such prevalence. That's why so many scientists have been trying to determine if there's a link between the two.

Depending on whom you ask, Americans consume anywhere from 45 to 60 pounds of the syrup a year. Scientists and food activists have long thought that the body metabolizes the high fructose corn syrup differently than regular sugar and that it is therefore a big problem for our health.

But the corn refiner industry has been spending a lot of money debunking this hypothesis. Over the past few years, ads have flooded the web, print and TV. Consumers were encouraged to get “the truthâ€