Fructose sweetener cause of US obesity

Filed under: Study — Tags: sweetener — @ March 30, 2004

According to a new study, high-fructose corn-based sweeteners, which have been used to sweeten food and soft drinks since the 1970s, may be partly to blame for America’s growing obesity epidemic.

The conventional wisdom is that poor diet, over-sized portions, and a lack of exercise are to blame for Americans’ expanding waistlines, but Bray’s study suggests that empty calories in this food sweeteners may be more of a factor than previously thought. Bray’s study noted that consumption of high-fructose corn sweeteners increased more than 1,000 percent between 1970 and 1990, far exceeding changes in intake of any other food or food group.