Pick up most bottles of soda, salad dressing, even BBQ sauce and in the ingredient list you’ll find one of the most controversial food additives in nutrition history – high fructose corn syrup. 

We sip, slurp and swallow millions of tons of this sweetener each year. A lot of experts think it’s the root of numerous health problems, ranging from obesity to diabetes, but ads on TV tell us it’s perfectly safe and even natural. So what’s the deal? 

In a nutshell, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is man made. It starts with corn, which is processed to change glucose, a sugar from cornstarch, to fructose, another sweeter form of sugar. The result is syrup that’s cheaper than sugar and extends the shelf life of processed foods.

It’s found in so many foods that HFCS now supplies about 10 percent of all calories in the average American diet and up to 20% for many kids. The shear amount we consume is one of the reasons some experts have linked it to the rise in obesity. 

Excess sugar in any form (table sugar, fruit or HFCS) that’s not burned off will get socked away in your fat cells, but HFCS has some unique properties that may set it apart from other sweeteners – and not in a good way. 

Unlike table sugar (made from sugar cane or beets), HFCS is processed in your liver. Some studies show that once it hits the liver, a number of reactions may occur, from affecting the hormones that control fullness to bumping up heart disease risk by boosting triglycerides, lowering HDL (“good”) cholesterol, and inflating levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. And high intakes of fructose (HFCS’s main component) have also been linked to high blood pressure, inflammation and kidney and liver disease. 

You may have also heard that two recent studies found traces of mercury in HFCS. Some was detected in samples of HFCS itself and others from testing 55 brand-name foods where HFCS was the first or second ingredient listed. Not such sweet news! 

Here’s the upswing – 67% of consumers are trying to decrease their HFCS intake and it’s pretty easy to do. You won’t gain any nutritional or health-related benefits by including it your diet and there are enough HFCS free options these days to help you avoid it. In fact, the number of new food and beverages containing no HFCS nearly tripled from 2006 to 2007. 

If you want to go HFCS free (or limit your intake), all you need to do is check the label on any packaged food. Even organic products can contain HFCS, so reading the ingredient list is the only surefire way to find it. Bottom line: if you see those four little words, consider choosing another brand or better yet, an unprocessed alternative instead (like whole oats sweetened with fruit or honey instead of a sugary oat cereal).