Obesity in America: Why now?

Nick C. Parker, PhD

Global Scientific, Inc.

In February 2008 an article by the Associated Press carried the headline “Doctors cite obesity in women’s strokes.” A figure, based on data from the Department of Health and Human Sciences, revealed a sharp increase, starting in about 1976, in obesity in women aged 20 to 64 years (Fig. 1). Doctors reported that strokes have nearly tripled in women in recent years. In a federal health survey, 2 percent of the women age 35-54 reported having had a stroke. Strokes had increased even though women were on medication to control cholesterol and blood pressure – medications that should have reduced the incidence of strokes.

Women’s waistlines had increased 2 inches over the last decade and body mass index rose from 27 to 29, reflecting the increase in obesity. Abdominal obesity, or belly fat, increased from 47% of the women in an earlier population of survey to 59% of the women in the most recent survey.

The Associated Press article on obesity and strokes in women failed to address the cause of the sharp increase in obesity that occurred in about 1976. Another recent article reported in a study by the Center for Disease Control found 32% of children were overweight or obese and 16% were definitely obese. This trend of obesity in children had been observed for the past 25 years. The CDC study suggested that obesity in children may be leveling off, but the unanswered question is why did it begin to increase 25 years ago? Could the answer be high fructose corn syrup and aspartame?

High Fructose Corn Syrup

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) was first developed in 1957, but began to replace table sugar, or sucrose (a disaccharide of 50% fructose and 50% glucose), over the period of 1975 to 1985 (Fig. 2). HFCS is easier to transport and blend, since it is a liquid, than is the dry, solid cane sugar or sucrose. The shelf life of processed foods and soft drinks is somewhat greater when sweetened with HFCS instead of sucrose. HFCS also has the advantage of being produced in the US from corn and is, therefore, cheaper, due to the high import tariff, than imported sucrose.

The major soft drink bottlers, Coca-Cola and Pepsi began using HFCS in 1984. However, sucrose is still a major sweetener in other countries. The per capita consumption of sucrose in 2002 was 56.2 kg in Australia, 59.7 kg in Brazil, 40.1 kg in the EU and only 32.4 kg in the US. HFCS is commonly found in breads, cereal, condiments, and soft drinks in the US. There are very few beverages and processed foods in the US that do not contain some level of HFCS. The average American today consumes about 70 pounds of HFCS annually.

Numerous studies have been conducted to compare taste and metabolism of HFCS and sucrose. Those studies that have reported no differences have primarily been authored by researchers funded by the “American Beverage Institute” and the “Corn Refiners Association”. Other studies may have been influenced by the huge and powerful corn growers lobby.

HFCS is a mixture of two monosaccharaides, fructose and glucose.  The ratio of these two sugars as used in drinks and processed foods is typically about 55% fructose but commonly ranges from 42 to 90% in some foods..  The higher the fructose content the sweeter the taste.

Fructose is metabolized in the liver; whereas, glucose is metabolized in every cell of the body to produce energy.. HFCS produces fatty livers and is believed to elevate cholesterol levels, to create blood clots, to inhibit action of white blood cells, to interfere with insulin and may be responsible for the recent increase in type-2 diabetes, and especially diabetes in children.

Fructose has also been shown to increase accumulation of uric acid, an indicator of heart disease, and of blood lactic acid. Fructose inhibits copper metabolism and suppresses the production of the hormones insulin and leptin, both of which control food intake and energy expenditure.

Aspartame

The artificial sweetener, aspartame, is widely used in “diet” soft drinks in the US.  In one study (Denoon, 2005) individuals who drank diet soft drinks gained more weight than did those who drank soft drinks sweetened with HFCS (Fig. 3).  Even though aspartame is very common in chewing gum, Listerine strips, in diet products and is packaged as NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, and Canderel, it has a dark side. For 16 years the FDA denied approval of aspartame and sought to have GD Searle indicted for “their willful and knowing failure to make reports to the FDA required by the Act 21 USC 355(i) and for concealing material facts and making false statements in reports of animal studies conducted to establish the safety of aspartame.” Interestingly, aspartame was approved by the FDA once Donald Rumsfeld, former CEO of G.D. Searle, moved to the White House as part of President Reagan’s transition team. The story of aspartame’s approval was captured in a documentary titled “Sweet Misery: A poisoned world.”

Aspartame has been implicated as the cause of brain tumors in court cases in New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Mississippi. A more subtle effect of aspartame is the suppression of the neurotransmitters, norepinephrine and serotonin. These neurotransmitters promote the sense of well-being and satisfaction. After a big meal, serotonin levels in the brain are normally quite high and prompt one to push back from the table and luxuriate in satisfaction. When aspartame suppresses serotonin, the sense of satisfaction is absent and one continues to eat, even to the point of binging.

Dr. Betty Martini of Mission Possible International, Duluth, GA, views “depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder, impulse control disorder, and eating disorders” … “as a continuum of disorders all involving some degree of dysregulation of serotonin.” She further states that “there is overwhelming evidence that aspartame contributes to this dysregulation.”

Individuals drinking diet soft drinks sweetened with aspartame do not readily achieve the sense of fullness and satisfaction. They commonly seek larger size drinks and go for second or more refills. While consuming a “diet” drink, they may justify eating an additional doughnut, a candy bar, an ice cream, or other processed food sweetened with HFCS. The pounds pile on and health suffers, and we as Americans become far less fit than were our ancestors, or those in other parts of the world eating non-Western diets. A switch in our diets to water, fresh fruits, vegetables and non-processed foods would yield benefits in both quantity (length) and quality (satisfaction) of life.

Figure 1.  Overweight and Obesity, by Age: United States, 1960-2004 Source: CDC/NCHS, Health, United States, 2006.

Figure 2.  US sweetener consumption, 1966-2004. It is apparent  from this graph that overall sweetener consumption, and in particular glucose-fructose mixtures, has increased since the introduction of HFCS. Thus, the amount of fructose consumed in the United States & Canada has increased since the early 1980s. This would be true whether the added sweetener was HFCS, table sugar, or any other glucose-fructose mixture. However, because HFCS has slightly more fructose than does table sugar, the proportion of fructose as a component of overall sweetener intake in the United States has also increased, which would not be true if the increase in overall intake was table sugar.

Figure 3. The risk of obesity increased as the number of soft drinks consumed per day increased from 0.5 to 2.0 or more. The risk of obesity was greater in those who drank diet soft drinks sweetened with aspartame than in those who drank regular soft drinks sweetened with HFCS (Denoon, 2005).

References

1. Martini, Betty. 2005. Crucial warning about aspartame in diet drinks and food. Online Journal: Health. onlinejournal.com/health/071605Martini/071605martini.html
2. DeNoon, Daniel J. 2005. Diet soda drinks gain weight: overweight risk soars 41 percent with each daily can of diet soda. CBS News. cbsnews.com/stories/2005/06/13/health/webmd/main701408.shtml
3. 2008. Obesity in US children may have leveled off.
4. Sanda, Bill. 2004. The double danger of high fructose corn syrup. The Weston A. Price Foundation for Wise Traditions in Food, Farming, and the Healing Arts. westonaprice.org/modern food/highfructose.html
5. 2008. high fructose corn syrup. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/high_fructose_corn_syrup.