What is high fructose corn syrup and how is it made? Discuss the evidence that supports and disputes ...

High fructose corn syrup is a sweetener added to many processed foods. It is made by converting the starch in corn to glucose and then converting some of the glucose to fructose, which is sweeter.

Fructose is absorbed further down the small intestine and so does not stimulate insulin release. Insulin inhibits food intake in humans so the lack of insulin may cause an increase in energy intake. Additionally, the transport protein responsible for moving fructose across cell membranes is not present in brain cells so satiety is not stimulated.

Soda and other sweetened beverages contain the disaccharide sucrose, which is made up from glucose and fructose. Consumption of these beverages (Statistics Canada, 2009) and other high-energy processed foods has increased over the last twenty-five years and parallels the increase in obesity. It has been proposed that the impact that soft drinks have had on obesity is not due to whether they were sweetened with fructose or sucrose but rather the increased consumption of them due to advertising, larger serving sizes and increased accessibility to them (Jacobson, 2004). The findings from this study were supported by another study by Lê et al., 2006 which found that increased fructose consumption does not cause weight gain in humans. Since weight gain is a world-wide problem, even in countries that do not use high-fructose corn syrup as a sweetener, we can conclude that this is not the only factor contributing to overweight and obesity.