Today’s reader question is about corn-based sweeteners, specifically corn syrup. There’s been some media reports lately discussing our corn-based food economy and its health implications. There are experts warning of the dangers of having a diet too heavily dependent on corn products.So is this all true, or is it hype aimed at selling more books and products? The answer is a little bit of both. There are definitely health risks to our corn-heavy diets, but the media is not always looking in the best places.
I’m certainly not a food manufacturing expert, but I believe the biggest risk factor right now is eating animals, primarily beef, raised on unnatural diets. This stems from the overproduction of corn due to massive subsidy and commodity-based markets. Excess corn and soy are the primary components of this animal feed. The problem is that cows, for example, are meant to eat grass and not corn, soy, and whey. It makes them extremely ill (requiring antibiotics) and it makes the resulting beef products far less healthy than grass-fed free-range beef.
But what about corn sweeteners? Corn-based sweeteners have replaced sugar mostly due to the cost of sugarcane. They pervade soft drinks and a vast number of products in your local grocery store. There’s a lot of hype behind the problems associated with high-fructose corn syrup.
So is sugar better for you than high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)? First of all, let’s look at what HFCS is comprised of. It’s made up of 45% glucose and 55% fructose. Fructose is obtained by treating the corn syrup (naturally all glucose) with enzymes to convert the sugar. This is done to make it sweeter. Fructose, the sugar found in fruit, is sweeter than glucose so it becomes more economically valuable.
Table sugar (sucrose) is comprised of 50% glucose and 50% fructose. So while there is a slight difference in the ratio, the overall difference between corn sugar and sugarcane sugar is minimal. As far as I know, no study has ever shown any health differences between the same blend of sugar (glucose/fructose) derived from different sources. So for the most part, sugar is sugar, even if it comes from corn.
Humans are meant to ingest sugars, though they are meant to do so in measured amounts in the presence of fiber. Other animals (such as cows and fish) do not have the biological capability to survive off this same diet without intervention. This is not to say refined sugars are healthy, but in limited quantities they are tolerable.
