Sugar is worse than High Fructose Corn Syrup(HFCS)? Misconception of HFCS

1. HFCS × 6 = SUGAR ?!

I'd say, from the conclusion, this is the false rumor which has unidentifiable origin.

This satement is widely spread and often used in broadcast. 

Here is several major sweetness of various compounds.

Sweetness of various compound (Source:wikipedia)

As you can see, the standard material of sweetness is sugar.

When it comes to considering sweetness of sugar as 1, that of glucose is about 0.7 times and that of fructose is about 1.6 times as sweet as sugar.

However, it is not HFCS but fructose that is sweeter than sugar.

In other words, fructose is not equal with HFCS.

Since HFCS is a mixture of glucose and fructose(usually 55% fructose), it is less sweet than pure fructose.  

HFCS is defined as a sweetener, which is composed of fructose(55%), glucose(40%), maltose(5%) etc., and components of HFCS and those of sugar are little different, so sweetness is similar or HFCS’s sweetness is slightly stronger than sugar.

Fructose, unlike sugar, has various sweetness depending on temperature.

The lower temperature, the stronger sweetness.

On the contrary, the higher temperature, the weaker sweetness and over the room temperature, fructose has lower sweetness than sugar.

(As sweetness is hard to measure accurately, the approximate trend is like that.)

Because people feel sweetness when beverages are cold in spite of little amount of fructose, fructose is used as a sweetener of beverages.

2. The fact of HFCS(High Fructose Corn Syrup)

As I mentioned before, HFCS is a mixture of glucose and fructose.

There are different kinds of HFCS depending on mixtures ratio of glucose and fructose.  

Usually, HFCS is divided as HFCS-42, HFCS-55, HFCS-90 and the number mean the portion of fructose in each HFCS. For example, HFCS-42 has 42% fructose and 58% glucose. 

Although fructose is 1.5 times sweeter than sugar, glucose is 0.7 times sweeter than sugar. Therefore, the more fructose of HFCS, the stronger sweetness of HFCS. For instance, HFCS-42 is less sweet than sugar, HFCS-55 has similar sweetness of sugar and HFCS-90 is sweeter than sugar. 

3. HFCS is harmful?

The rumor that HFCS is harmful is prevalent but, in fact, I think, it seems more persuasive that fructose is harmful rather than HFCS.

Moreover, I think, it is exaggerated that HFCS is unhealthier than sugar. HFCS seems to be a new target because people already aware of the risk of sugar

4. The risk of ‘SWEETNESS’

There is a interesting paper published in Nature Communications.

Human-relevant levels of added sugar consumption increase female mortality and lower male fitness in mice

(a) Fructose/glucose-fed females experienced a death rate twice that of control females (proportional hazards, n=98,P=0.048). (b) This pattern was not not seen in males (n=58).

(a) Fructose/glucose-fed females produced more offspring early in the study, though this effect was negated owing to a decrease in fructose/glucose-fed female reproduction over time (GLMM, P=<0.001). (b) fructose/glucose-fed males control 26% fewer territories and produce 25% less offspring.

Most researches about harm of sugar, so far, said that excessive use of sugar is problematic. However, this research use the maximum amount of sugar that is regarded as safe in U.S. The amount is 25% daily energy. If we go in person, this amount corresponds to 3 soda cans a day.

Also, the method of experiment is distinctive. (some comments argue that this method is wrong, however.) Researchers caught wild a couple of rates, raised them to reproduce their babies, gave them glucose and fructose. And then, let the other rats, which ate corns and starches for 26 weeks as the control, got into the rats who ate glucose and fructose for 26 weeks and put them up for competition.

As a result, female of experimental group had twice higher mortality than that of control group. Male of experimental group got 26% less territory and 25% less productive than that of control group.

Interestingly, health index ( such as weight, insulin level etc.) had no difference between the experimental and the control. 

5. Eat properly!

Then ‘HOW MUCH DO WE HAVE TO EAT?’

Some people may say that this paper speaks for food industry, but truth will be revealed someday.

In my opinion, the real problem is ‘HOW MUCH DO WE EAT’ and regardless of what do we eat.

Therefore, suitable amount of intake is not harmful, but both of excess intake of HFCS and that of sugar are harmful.

By the way, the new WHO recommendation of daily ‘sugar’ intake in 2014 is less than 5% total daily energy. This amount is 25g for adult and 17.5g for child on average.