Washington: A new study has revealed soda consumers may be getting a much higher dose of the harmful sugar fructose than they have been led to believe.
According to a study by the Childhood Obesity Research Center (CORC) at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC), beverages and juices made with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Dr Pepper, Mountain Dew and Sprite, all contain 50 percent more fructose than glucose, a blend that calls into question claims that sugar and HFCS are essentially the same.
The researchers have found that what ends up being consumed in these beverages is neither natural sugar nor HFCS, but instead a fructose-intense concoction that could increase one's risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease and liver disease.
Michael Goran, Ph.D., director of the CORC and lead author of the study, said that the human body isn't designed to process this form of sugar at such high levels and unlike glucose, which serves as fuel for the body, fructose is processed almost entirely in the liver where it is converted to fat.
The findings also suggested that the ingredients on some product labels do not represent their fructose content, for example, the label on Pepsi Throwback indicates it is made with real sugar (sucrose) yet the analysis demonstrated that it contains more than 50 percent fructose.
The study was published in the journal Nutrition.
