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High-Fructose Corn Syrup Use in Beverages: Composition, Manufacturing, Properties, Consumption, and Health Effects

  • Chapter
Beverage Impacts on Health and Nutrition

Part of the book series: Nutrition and Health ((NH))

Abstract

High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has been used in beverages for more than 30 years. Technology to produce it was developed in the 1960s, it was introduced to the food and beverage industry as a liquid sweetener alternative to sucrose (sugar) in the 1970s, and it fully replaced sucrose in the USA in most beverages by the mid-1980s. Made from abundant and relatively price-stable domestic corn, HFCS has been a safe and reliable sweetener for the beverage industry. All of that changed in 2004, with the publication of a commentary promoting the hypothesis that HFCS-sweetened beverages held significant and unique responsibility for the current obesity epidemic [1]. While the ecological data suggested a possible relationship between HFCS and obesity, the population-based association utilized crude estimates of sugar consumption and did not control for confounding effects of other relevant variables.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. White Technical Research, 8895 Hickory Hills Drive, Argenta, IL, 62501, USA

    John S. White Ph.D.

  2. Department of Pediatrics, Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Baylor College of Medicine, 1100 Bates Street, Houston, TX, 77030, USA

    Theresa A. Nicklas Dr.P.H.

Authors
  1. John S. White Ph.D.
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  2. Theresa A. Nicklas Dr.P.H.
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Correspondence to John S. White Ph.D. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Winona State University Department of Biology, Winona, Minnesota, USA

    Ted Wilson

  2. Athabasca University Centre for Science, Athabasca, Alberta, Canada

    Norman J. Temple

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White, J.S., Nicklas, T.A. (2016). High-Fructose Corn Syrup Use in Beverages: Composition, Manufacturing, Properties, Consumption, and Health Effects. In: Wilson, T., Temple, N. (eds) Beverage Impacts on Health and Nutrition. Nutrition and Health. Humana Press, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23672-8_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23672-8_20

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-23671-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-23672-8

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