High fructose corn syrup is just as healthy as honey, says social media’s favorite doctor, dispelling common myth

High fructose corn syrup is as healthy as honey, say diet experts.

Dr. Jen Gunter, a Canadian gynecologist who has a New York Times column on women’s health, responded to a “worrying” claim made by Mindy Pelz, a chiropractor with more than half a million followers on Instagram.

Ms Pelz said high fructose corn syrup is “the deadliest carbohydrate” in the world.

This is because it “passes through your bloodstream and goes straight to your liver,” she claimed.

Pelz’s theory, as explained in a video on her YouTube channel, is that the sweetener is particularly harmful because it is converted into fat in the liver, which is thought to damage the organ and lead to obesity.

High fructose corn syrup is very common in popular foods because a small amount is incredibly sweet, making it cost-effective for food manufacturers.

High fructose corn syrup, also known as HFCS, is a sugar or sweetener, and technically a form of carbohydrate, explained Dr. Make fun of her. blogging.

The product is usually made from a form of sugar called glucose. However, to make it sweeter and more similar in taste to regular table sugar, some of that glucose is converted into fructose (fruit sugars) with the help of enzymes.

Different types of high fructose corn syrup provide different amounts of fructose.

However, research shows that this process only leads to very small differences in the proportions of different types of sugar.

For example, when added to soft drinks, it consists of about 55 percent fructose.

In jam products it is 42 percent fructose. Table sugar, on the other hand, consists of 50 percent fructose and 49 percent honey, so not a big difference.

But why is HFCS demonized when it contains the same amounts of fructose as honey, asks Dr. Allow yourself to indulge.

Scientists have previously debunked the theory that fructose damages the liver.

In 2019, Catherine Collins, a hospital dietitian who works for the NHS in the United Kingdom, told the British contingent of DailyMail.com, The Mail on Sunday, that fructose is only converted to fat if you consume a surplus of calories – like any food .

“Excess food would eventually turn into fat,” she said.

A large review of 155 studies published in 2018 in the British Medical Journal found that fructose had no harmful effect on blood sugar levels and therefore did not increase the risk of diabetes.

The topic of how healthy high fructose corn syrup is has long been up for debate.

The idea that HFCS is exceptionally bad stems from a 2004 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition article, which hinted at a link between HFCS in beverages and obesity.

A 2023 paper explored the hypothesis that HFCS causes biological changes in the human body, making it physically easier to get fat and harder to lose weight.

But there are numerous credible sources that say HFCS is no worse than any other type of sugar.

The FDA website states: ‘We are not aware of any evidence, including the studies cited above, that there is a difference in safety between foods containing HFCS 42 or HFCS 55 and foods containing comparable amounts of other nutritional sweeteners containing approximately equal amounts of glucose and fructose. content, such as sucrose, honey or other traditional sweeteners.

“The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that everyone limit consumption of all added sugars, including HFCS and sucrose. FDA participated in the development of the Dietary Guidelines and fully supports this recommendation.”

Toronto dietitian Abby Langer said, “…even though your body may process some sugars differently, in the end it’s all the same for your body.

“For example, if a product is advertised as being made with maple syrup instead of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), that is nothing more than a cheap marketing ploy. “Nothing about maple syrup is healthier than any other sugar,” she said.

‘There is no convincing evidence that one sugar is worse for our health than another. That said, as a population it is common knowledge that we eat too much added sugar, and no one would dispute that,” Langer added.

Meanwhile, Daniel Feldman, a registered dietitian with a Master of Science in Human Nutrition, told Dr. Gunter, “If other aspects of your diet are in order (total calories, macronutrients, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and water), then There is no need to worry about HFCS.

That said, since HFCS is a sweetener found in processed foods, and processed foods tend to be less nutrient-dense and more calorie-dense than unprocessed foods, foods containing HFCS should generally make up a small portion of your diet (especially if your goal is weight loss).

“But there is nothing inherently bad about HFCS,” he added.

A research article published in 2008 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition said that HFCS “does not differ meaningfully in composition or metabolism from other fructose-glucose sweeteners such as sucrose, honey, and fruit juice concentrates.”