Sandi Kaplan, MS, RD, Associate Director, Clinical Development & Support:

There is tremendous marketing power in how our foods are labeled and the Corn Refiners Association knows that only too well. Recently, this industry group applied to the federal government for permission to use a new name for high fructose corn syrup on food labels: "corn sugar."

Most Americans eat a large amount of high fructose corn syrup. According to the Agriculture Department, the average American ate 35.7 pounds of high fructose corn syrup last year. That is not hard to do as it is used as a sweetener in a myriad of products including soda, ketchup, yogurts, breads, crackers, sauces and frozen foods.

High fructose corn syrup is very popular in food production because it is less expensive than regular sugar and it is produced in a liquid form which is easy to use. It is also significantly sweeter than sugar so less of it can be used which means even more cost savings for the food manufacturers. It also increases the shelf life of foods. Noticeably, in the past five years, more and more consumers have been shying away from high fructose corn syrup because of its potential health damaging properties.

There is a strong research base that links table sugar as well as high fructose corn syrup to weight gain, high triglyceride levels and higher risk of Type 2 diabetes.

However, there is evidence to suggest that high fructose corn syrup has some negative health effects that regular table sugar may not have. High fructose corn syrup is a synthetic, manufactured product. Its chemical structure does not exist in nature. Our bodies have no evolutionary history of metabolizing this structure and yet many of us ask our bodies to deal with large quantities of it each day.

Table sugar (sucrose) does exist in nature. Our bodies are not designed to metabolize sucrose in large quantities but small quantities do not seem to have adverse health effects for most people.
High fructose corn syrup has also been shown to contain mercury which can have toxic effects on our body systems. It is also, as mentioned previously, much sweeter than sugar and there is research to support that high fructose corn syrup stimulates appetite in many people. It may also cause stress to the kidneys although more research is needed in that regard.

Some large companies, like Sara Lee, Snapple and Gatorade, are scared of losing customers and so are pulling high fructose corn syrup from their ingredient lists. Thus the response of the Corn Refiners Association is to change the name. They claim that corn sugar is a more accurate name for high fructose corn syrup. When I hear the term “corn sugar,” it makes me think that the corn on the cob has been squeezed to produce a natural sugar. When it comes to the production of high fructose corn syrup, there is nothing natural about it.

I would like to see the term "high fructose corn syrup" remain in use. And I would like to see this ingredient removed from the food supply. Americans all need to be eating far less sugar even if it comes from natural sources. There is no space in our diets for chemically produced sweeteners which may damage our health even more profoundly.