Cane Scrutiny

(Image from ACSH)

There is a fairly widespread notion that sweeteners made from cane sugar are healthier than those from corn syrup. However, nutritionists say that science does not support that belief.

What’s the difference between high-fructose corn syrup and cane sugar?

Sugars are carbohydrates with a sweet taste, said John Coupland, a professor of food science at Pennsylvania State University. Fructose and glucose are among the simplest of sugars. Other sugars, such as sucrose, are made up of combinations of these simple sugars. High-fructose corn syrup and cane sugar, which is a type of sucrose, are both made up of glucose and fructose.

The high-fructose corn syrup often used in soda is typically made up of 55% fructose and 45% glucose. Table sugar is composed of 50% fructose and 50% glucose. Both sweeteners are highly processed and refined.

“Both of them are just a natural food stripped way down to nothing but sugar,” said Kimber Stanhope, a research nutritional biologist at the University of California, Davis.

To make high-fructose corn syrup, starch from corn is first turned into a syrup composed mostly of glucose. Manufacturers add enzymes to convert some of that glucose into fructose, which tastes sweeter, Coupland said.

To make table sugar, manufacturers use machines to squeeze juice out of sugar cane or sugar beets, then purify the liquid and refine it through heating and other processes to turn it into the white crystals we buy in bags at the supermarket.

Does cane sugar affect your health differently from high-fructose corn syrup?

Some studies have found little difference between the health impacts of drinks made with high-fructose corn syrup and those made with sucrose.

“The calories will be the same, the impact on blood sugar is almost the same, and the risk of obesity will be the same,” said Eric Rimm, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

People who drank three servings a day of beverages with high-fructose corn syrup had higher levels of bad cholesterol and triglycerides and more liver fat, markers of decreased insulin sensitivity and increased heart-disease risk, after 12 days, according to a study by Stanhope and colleagues. So did the people who had the same amount of drinks sweetened with sucrose. The study involved 75 participants and was published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism in 2021.

A (slightly) less bad option?

The modestly higher percentage of fructose in drinks with high-fructose corn syrup could make those products slightly worse for health over the long term, compared with ones with sucrose, Stanhope said. This is because of how fructose and glucose are handled by the liver.

The glucose that isn’t used by the liver is sent to the rest of the body to be used for energy. But when fructose gets to the liver, it largely stays there, she said. What isn’t needed for energy is turned into fat. Fat in the liver can cause inflammation and raise the risk of cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes.

“Maybe the negative consequences are slightly smaller, but don’t think you’re doing your body any favors” by picking soda with sucrose, she said.

I am psychologically inclined to prefer cane sugar because it reminds me of my childhood, when sugar cane and pineapple fields were plentiful on Oahu. A chunk of cane stalk had more intense sweetness than cotton candy.

Although I wanted cane to be healthier than corn, the difference in favor of cane is slight at best. That's disappointing.