Experts dismayed by EU's backing of use of fructose
Fruit sugar has caused obesity to rise faster in the US than elsewhere, scientists say
Obesity experts in Europe are appalled by an EU decision to allow a "health claim" for fructose, the sweetener implicated in the upsurge in weight in the US.
Fructose, the sugar found in fruit, is used in Coca-Cola, Pepsi and other drinks in the US. Many believe high-fructose corn syrup has caused obesity to rise faster in the US than elsewhere. Europe mainly uses cane and beet sugar.
This opens the door for the … industry to start replacing sucrose with fructose, which is presumably cheaper
But the EU has now ruled that food and drink manufacturers can claim their sweetened products are healthier if they replace more than 30 per cent of the glucose and sucrose they contain with fructose.
The decision was taken on the advice of the European Food Safety Authority, on the grounds that fructose has a lower glycaemic index. It does not cause as high and rapid a blood sugar spike as sucrose or glucose.
But obesity experts say fructose is metabolised differently from other sugars. It goes straight to the liver and unprocessed excess is stored there as fat, building up deposits that can cause life-threatening disease. There is potential for products high in sugar including soft drinks and low-fat yoghurts to make health claims by using fructose.
Barry Popkin, a distinguished professor in the department of public health at the University of North Carolina, who co-authored the ground-breaking paper linking high fructose corn syrup to obesity in 2003, said the ruling would lead to claims from food and drink firms that would mislead consumers.