High Fructose Corn Syrup Raises Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

Building upon the knowledge obtained from population studies showing an increased risk of cardiovascular disease from the consumption of high fructose corn syrup, a study from the University California Davis has shown for the first time that there is a “dose dependent” relationship between the amount of the sugar consumed, and the increasing risk.

The study’s participants were given drinks  sweetened with low, medium and high amounts of high-fructose corn syrup. The greater the intake of the sugar, the greater the increase in the measured risk factors for cardiovascular disease. The study’s lead researcher Kimber Stanhope says, “These findings clearly indicate that humans are acutely sensitive to the harmful effects of excess dietary sugar over a broad range of consumption levels.”

The study included  85  subjects, both men and women, between the ages of  18 and 40 years old.  They were placed in four different groups. Over a fifteen day period the study subjects were given, on a daily basis,  drinks whose consumption of the sugar equaled 10 percent of their total daily calorie intake, 17.5 %, or 25%, and they were compared to those given drinks which did not contain any high fructose corn syrup. At the start and at the end of the study, blood tests for three substances associated with cardiovascular disease were measured- lipoproteins, triglycerides and uric acid. The levels increased for all of the three groups who ingested the sugar containing beverages, with increasingly  greater changes seen the higher the percent of sugar ingested.

Dr. Stanhope advocates more studies in the hope of better defining dietary recommendations regarding sugar intake. Undoubtedly since high fructose corn syrup is  a manufactured product, not present in natural foods, the best advice has got to be to eliminate high fructose corn syrup from the diet entirely. In terms of public health officials’ advice to the public, however, that would probably be seen as too radical a departure from the way Americans eat to gain public acceptance. At least we should say that the less high fructose corn syrup you consume, the better.

This study will be published in the next edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

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