Beverages sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup contain more fructose relative to glucose than table sugar does, and because dietary surveys treat all added sugars as if they were table sugar, they...

Pro

Against

Mechanism

Synthesis from 1 study

How it works

Drinks with high-fructose corn syrup have more fructose than regular sugar does, but nutrition labels treat all sugars the same. This means people might be consuming more fructose than they realize, and since the body handles fructose differently, this extra amount could affect how the liver...

Most probable mechanism

In Simple Terms

When people drink beverages with high-fructose corn syrup, they take in more fructose than glucose compared to drinks with regular sugar. Because the body processes fructose differently than glucose, this extra fructose goes mostly to the liver, where it gets turned into fat or other substances, which can affect metabolism over time.

Causal chain

Beverages sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup deliver a higher proportion of fructose relative to glucose compared to those sweetened with sucrose.

Supported by evidence

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

Community contributions welcome

Fructose content in popular beverages made with and without high-fructose corn syrup.

Cross-Sectional Study

2014 Jul-Aug

Contradicting (0)

Community contributions welcome

No contradicting evidence found

Gold Standard Evidence Needed

According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.

Source Study

Fructose content in popular beverages made with and without high-fructose corn syrup.

Score: 33

DOI: 10.1016/j.nut.2014.04.003

Similar Assertions

Beverages sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup have about 60.6% fructose and 40.4% glucose by weight, making fructose 50% more abundant than glucose. This differs from table sugar, which contains equal amounts of fructose and glucose.

90%

When scientists measure the sugar in drinks sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup using three different lab methods, they get the same results for the ratio of fructose to glucose, showing the measurements are consistent.

86%

Lab studies that give people pure fructose or pure glucose don’t reflect what people actually eat — we usually consume sugar as table sugar or corn syrup, which are mixtures, so those lab results don’t apply to real life.

79%

Some sweetened drinks and fruit juices have more unbound fructose sugar than table sugar, which is made of fructose and glucose molecules stuck together.

79%

Drinking sugary drinks with high fructose corn syrup every day for just two weeks can make your body worse at handling sugar — and the more you drink, the worse it gets, even if you're young and healthy.

76%