High-fructose corn syrup is a mixture of simple sugars, but contains more fructose than other types of sugar. Fructose has long been a concern of public health officials because accompanying a rise in consumption of the sweetener has been an epidemic increase in obesity. Scientists think the two are linked and research has uncovered several adverse ways high-fructose corn syrup can affect your body. Known troubles are spikes in your blood pressure, extra belly fat and a decrease in your body's sensitivity to insulin and leptin. These conditions put you at risk for Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, heart attack and stroke.
High Blood Pressure
A diet with just a moderate amount of extra high-fructose corn syrup, or HFCS, can significantly increase your risk of high blood pressure. Medical News Today reports that 74mg of the added sugar, or roughly 2.5 sugary drinks per day, raises your hypertension risk 28 to 87 percent. HFCS may cause a rise in uric acid levels in your bloodstream. Uric acid is waste product created after your body breaks down a substance called purines, which is found in foods and drinks. Too much uric acid can tax your kidneys and is usually a precursor to high blood pressure. Unchecked high blood pressure is often a precursor to kidney failure, heart attack and stroke.
Excess Belly Fat, Fatty Liver and Weight Gain
Consuming too much HFCS is linked to weight gain, especially fat deeply embedded beneath your belly. This visceral fat is dangerous because it starts to form around internal organs, including the liver. Up to 20 percent of Americans have fat "silently" growing around their livers, which puts them at risk of a host of problems, such as scarring and cirrhosis, states the National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse. In experiments with rats, those that ate more HFCS gained more weight in the belly and had higher levels of triglycerides in their bloodstreams, which promoted more fat deposits around their bodies, according to a study published in 2010 in the journal "See Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior."
Insulin Resistance
Because HFCS has a role in promoting excess body fat, it also promotes the development of insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is a hallmark of diabetes and the range of disorders grouped under the term "metabolic syndrome." HFCS is metabolized differently than other sugars. It essentially goes unchecked to the liver and converts more readily to fat. So a high-HFCS diet causes too much fat and can impair your liver, both of which lead to problems in using insulin to regulate your blood sugar, conclude researchers at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, whose findings were published in the journal "Cell Metabolism" in March 2009.
Leptin Resistance
Another reason you may gain weight from consuming too much HFCS is because your brain may not recognize that it's food. You have a hormone called leptin being produced by your fat cells while you are sleeping. Leptin binds with receptors in your brain and signals when you've had enough to eat. But high-fructose corn syrup may skip all the processes that would trigger the work of leptin. In addition, having too much fat causes leptin resistance, or an inability of your brain to pick up on the signaling of leptin, according to Science Daily.
References
- Medical News Today: A Recipe for Hypertension: High-Fructose Corn Syrup
- "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition"; Potential Role of Fructose in the Epidemic of Hypertension, Obesity; Richard J. Johnson; October 2007
- "Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior"; High-Fructose Corn Syrup Causes Characteristics of Obesity in Rats: Miriam Bocarsly, et al.; 2010
- "Cell Metabolism"; A Sweet Path to Insulin Resistance Through PGC-1b; Carlos Hernandez, Jiandie D. Lin; March 2009
- National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse (NDDIC): Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis
- Science Daily: Fructose Metabolism by the Brain Increases Food Intake and Obesity, Review Suggests
Member Comments