Academic Researchers

Researches weigh in on high fructose corn syrup
(HFCS) facts and information.

“We were wrong in our speculations on high fructose corn syrup about their link to weight.”

Barry M. Popkin, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
FoodNavigator-USA.com, September 16, 2009

"This is a marketing issue, not a metabolic issue… The real issue is not high fructose corn syrup. It's that we've forgotten what a real serving size is. We have to eat less of everything."

David Klurfeld, Ph.D., Human Nutrition National Program Leader, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture
Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting, June 8, 2009

"So it got a bad name, the word fructose. Now you have high fructose corn sweeteners and it says high fructose. So immediately, the public is going to assume this is bad because fructose may not be so great for you. But it's really close to the same chemical composition as table sugar, sucrose. So it's really misinformation."

Allen Levine, Ph.D., Dean of the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, University of Minnesota
Minnesota Public Radio, May 6, 2009

“There’s no evidence to date that HFCS affects appetite any differently than sucrose.”

Karen Teff, Ph.D., Associate Director, Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism, University of Pennsylvania
EatingWell, May 2009

“A common misconception about HFCS is that it is sweeter
than sucrose and that this increased sweetness contributed to the obesity crisis by encouraging excessive caloric food and beverage consumption. HFCS is not sweeter than sucrose.”

John S. White, Ph.D., Caloric Sweetener Expert and President, White Technical Research
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, December 2008

"A number of recent studies...have convinced me that HFCS does not affect weight gain."

Barry M. Popkin, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hil
Los Angeles Times, July 14, 2008

“HFCS is glucose and fructose separated. Table sugar is glucose and fructose stuck together, but quickly separated by digestive enzymes. The body can hardly tell them apart.”

Marion Nestle, Ph.D., Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health, New York University
Spokesman Review, January 2, 2008

"The culprit in obesity is not the high fructose corn syrup...but it's the overconsumption of calories contributing to the weight gain."

Madelyn Fernstrom, Ph.D., C.N.S., Director, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Weight Management Center
The TODAY Show, October 9, 2007

"Like all nutritive sweeteners, it [high fructose corn syrup] contains calories. But critics who attack a single ingredient as the sole cause of obesity are wrong and counterproductive. A quixotic search for an easy answer means true solutions to the obesity problem are not being found."

John S. White, Ph.D., Caloric Sweetener Expert and President, White Technical Research
The New York Times, July 9, 2006

"There's no substantial evidence to support the idea that high fructose corn syrup is somehow responsible for obesity." "If there was no high fructose corn syrup, I don't think we would see a change in anything important. I think there's this overreaction."

Walter Willett, Ph.D., Chairman of the Nutrition Department, Harvard School of Public Health
The New York Times, July 2, 2006

"I don't think it is likely that things would be very different if people consumed increased amounts of either sucrose or high fructose corn syrup." "Overconsumption of either sweetener, along with dietary fat and decreased physical activity, could contribute to weight gain."

Peter J. Havel, Ph.D., Associate Researcher, Department of Nutrition, University of California - Davis
The New York Times, July 2, 2006