HFCS vs. glucose-fructose syrup (Long Post)
#180741 - 05/23/05 08:22 AM
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Sand
Reged: 12/13/04
Posts: 4490
Loc: West Orange, NJ (IBS-D)
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PowerAde, made by Coca-Cola, contains HFCS. Gatorade contains "glucose-fructose syrup". As a result of a couple of threads on the Boards, I wanted to find out if they were the same thing. I couldn't find anything definitive using Google, so I emailed Coca-Cola and Gatorade. I show their responses below.
Based on this, I think HFCS and "glucose-fructose syrup" are NOT the same and I think glucose-fructose syrup might be safe for IBS:
- HFCS is 55% fructose
- The glucose-fructose syrup in Gatorade is only 42% fructose
- According to Coca-Cola, table sugar (sucrose) is 50% glucose and 50% fructose
If these numbers are correct, it would seem that any glucose/fructose combination that contains 50% or less fructose would be safe - or at least safe enough to try cautiously.
Having said that, however, I would take Coca-Cola's claim that sucrose (table sugar) is 50% glucose and 50% fructose with a grain of salt, so to speak. Somewhere in the great thicket of the Internet, I think I read that in sucrose the fructose is somehow bound by the glucose. If I actually read this and it's actually true, it may mean that the fructose in table sugar is less available to make digestive trouble. I wonder - maybe someone else knows - if HFCS is so sweet partly because the Japanese chemists who developed it figured out a way to unbind the fructose from the glucose?
One more thing, and this is pretty much a guess based on some labeling regulations I found on the Internet: It looks like "glucose-fructose syrup" can contain anywhere from 6% to 50% fructose; if a syrup contains more than 50% fructose, it must be called "fructose-gluctose syrup".
I still say that if I'd known I was going to end up with IBS, I would have taken chemistry in college. 
I hope this helps - rather than just confusing things more. As always with IBS, we all just have to try for ourselves, but at least this makes me willing to try something with "glucose-fructose syrup", rather than just dismissing it out of hand.
Here are my emails to PowerAde and Gatorade and their responses. (I have no idea what Gatorade is trying to convey by their last line regarding honey.):
I wrote to PowerAde (Coca-Cola):
PowerAde contains high fructose corn syrup; Gatorade contains glucose-fructose syrup. Can you tell me if the high fructose corn syrup in PowerAde and the glucose-fructose syrup in Gatorade are the same product? If not, can you explain the difference?
PowerAde (Coca-Cola) responded:
Thank you for contacting The Coca-Cola Company.
You may wish to contact Gatorade regarding the ingredients used in that product. However, we have provided some information below that we thought might be helpful.
Sucrose is composed of half glucose and half fructose and is obtained from sugar cane or sugar beets. The HFCS that is used in our soft drinks is derived from corn and is composed of approximately half glucose (45%) and fructose (55%).
If you have additional questions or comments, please visit our website again.
Lesley
Industry and Consumer Affairs
The Coca-Cola Company
I wrote to Gatorade:
Gatorade contains "glucose-fructose syrup". Is this the same as "high fructose corn syrup"? If not, can you explain what the difference is and what percent of fructose the syrup contains?
Thanks.
Gatorade responded:
Thank you for contacting us with an inquiry about the glucose-fructose syrup contained in Gatorade Thirst Quencher.
The glucose-fructose solution used in Gatorade is a more accurate description for one of the carbohydrate sugars in Gatorade, which is 58% glucose and 42% fructose. For that reason, glucose-fructose syrup is the appropriate descriptor. This is a descriptor that complies with FDA labeling codes.
Gatorade Thirst Quencher contains these carbohydrate sugars plus one other--sucrose--to provide a scientific mix of sucrose, glucose and fructose, which assures rapid fluid delivery. Gatorade uses all three sugars because they are absorbed at different rates and that is exactly what you want in a sports drink--sugars that help maximize fluid absorption to help rapidly replace sweat losses. Gatorade uses the combination of glucose and fructose because it increases carbohydrate use by active muscles, an important part of helping athletes improve their performance in practice or competition.
Drinks that contain only fructose or high levels of fructose should be avoided in beverages consumed during activity because they can't be absorbed as fast and can cause digestive distress. Maltodextrins or glucose polymers, whether from rice carbohydrates or other sources, offer no advantage in fluid or energy delivery.
Mother nature has her own version of High Fructose Corn Syrup--and it's called honey.
We hope this information is helpful.
Jennifer
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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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Quote:
I still say that if I'd known I was going to end up with IBS, I would have taken chemistry in college. That's what I say too! 
Drinks that contain only fructose or high levels of fructose should be avoided in beverages consumed during activity because they can't be absorbed as fast and can cause digestive distress. Maltodextrins or glucose polymers, whether from rice carbohydrates or other sources, offer no advantage in fluid or energy delivery.
Mother nature has her own version of High Fructose Corn Syrup--and it's called honey. OOHHH! BURN ON MOTHER NATURE!
Wow! Thanks for all your great detective work! So interesting to try to figure out what it all means and see what the companies have to say about it. My BF and I were discussing this same topic just this morning. I will have to have him take a look at this.
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Wow, interesting stuff Sand. You're right about sucrose (table sugar) being made up of both glucose and fructose (not sure if it's 50-50 but it's probably pretty close), and that the fructose is chemically bound by the glucose in table sugar, which makes it more digestible. It seems to me that 'glucose-fructose syrup' is really similar to sucrose because it has both, but my bet would be that it's an artificial chemical creation (like HFCS) made to mimic sucrose maybe (which is probably much, much cheaper to use for manufacturers).
So like you I did some searching and found that they way they create glucose-fructose syrup (another name for which is invert syrup) is by the hydrolysis of sucrose to glucose and fructose, and it appears to me from the scientific jargon that this breaks the binding between the two (link).
So, not sure what this says really. My guess would be that this syrup has, like HFCS, the frucose no longer bound up with the glucose and thus would be problematic like HFCS. But really, I'm no scientist or chem major 
(LOL... that line about the honey is hilarious. Is (s)he trying to say that HFCS is somehow natural because nature makes a high-fructose sweetener in honey??? Please!)
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According to one chem site I checked out ... Quote:
High fructose corn syrups are classified according to the fructose content (i.e. 42%, 55%, 90%).
So glucose-fructose syrup with a fructose content of 42% is actually still a kind of HFCS...just a less sweet version. I guess our problem is that they don't specify the fructose content of the compound on the ingredient list.
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...no idea how reliable it is, but I found it interesting.
Dangers of fructose
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Quote:
According to one chem site I checked out ... Quote:
High fructose corn syrups are classified according to the fructose content (i.e. 42%, 55%, 90%).
So glucose-fructose syrup with a fructose content of 42% is actually still a kind of HFCS...just a less sweet version. I guess our problem is that they don't specify the fructose content of the compound on the ingredient list.
In other words, glucose-fructose is just a sub-class of HFCS so that companies don't have to come out and say it is HFCS? Could this be because many people are now realizing HFCS isn't good for your health and are trying to avoid it? In that way, it seems that these classifications and labels are there to help companies, unless consumers take the time to learn what each "sub-class" of HFCS really means. But how many of us were even aware that there is a variety of HFCS? This is definitely annoying! 
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If I'm reading it right - I can actually feel my brain cells frying at this point - it might explain why my triglycerides went down once I started Heather's diet even though I was eating a lot of sugar. It sounds like the sugar I was consuming as table sugar was less likely to cause my triglycerides to go up than the fructose I was presumably consuming by eating processed foods pre-Heather.
I was surprised at this:
Quote:
Although he has been retired for almost 20 years, Yudkin regularly publishes articles and letters about sugar and heart disease in the leading medical journals. In a phone interview, he was surprised to hear that fructose and HFCS had become common sweeteners in the United States. He said they were virtually unheard of in England, where overall sugar consumption has been declining.
because the first post I ever saw that mentioned glucose-fructose syrup was this one talking about the use of glucose-fructose syrup in UK Rice Krispies.
At this point, I going to change my mind again and decide that glucose-fructose syrup, like HFCS, is something I'll try to avoid. Sigh.
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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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I found the "invert sugar" stuff, too, and my understanding was also that it somehow freed the fructose. Like you, though, chemistry is not my strong point. (About all I remember from high school chem is the "noble gases" - for some reason they stuck in my head.) From a quick look at your article, it sounds like some of the benefits of invert sugar in food manufacturing are the same as the benefits of HFCS, so it does seem like they're related somehow.
The really weird thing about the honey comment is that it was made by the company that uses "glucose-fructose syrup", NOT HFCS. It does make them sound kind of defensive, so I guess that's another strike against their syrup.
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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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My guess would be that the "high fructose corn syrup" label is probably reserved (required?) for syrups above 50% fructose. It may also be reserved for syrups created from corn as opposed to, say, beets or cane. Not because there's necessarily any chemical difference except for the percent of fructose, but because of legal (probably FDA) labeling requirements. The Gatorade response talked about "glucose-fructose syrup" being Quote:
a descriptor that complies with FDA labeling codes.
It's also possible the labeling requirements are different in different countries.
Whatever the percentage, I think it's beginning to look like "glucose-fructose syrup", like HFCS, has unbound fructose that may be problematic for IBSers. How problematic probably depends on how high the percentage of fructose in the syrup (which we can't see) and how sensitive each of us is to fructose.
And, yes, this is annoying! 
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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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That is great that you found that out! I was so curious but you did something about it. It makes sense that more than 50% fructose would be fructose-glucose and not the other way around. So far I haven't had problems with Gatorade if I don't drink it ice cold and don't chug.
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IBS-A for 20 years with terrible bloating and gas. On the diet since April 2004. Remember this from Heather's information pages:
"You absolutely must eat insoluble fiber foods, and as much as safely possible, but within the IBS dietary guidelines. Treat insoluble fiber foods with suitable caution, and you'll be able to enjoy a wide variety of them, in very healthy quantities, without problem." Please eat IF foods!
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thanks for sharing..
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Dietetics Student (anticipating RD exam in Aug 2010)
IBS - A
Dairy Allergic
Fructose and MSG intollerant
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