Saturday August 24, 2007 (Foodconsumer.org) -- Soft drinks sweetened with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) are found high in reactive carbonyls, suggesting that the beverages may contribute to the development of diabetes, according to a study presented August 23 at the 234th national meeting of the American Chemical Society held in Boston.

The study led by Dr. Chi-tang Ho, chairman of the Department of Food Science at Rutgers University, and colleagues found one single can of a HFCS sweetened soft drink contained five times higher concentration of reactive carbonyls than the concentration found in the blood of an adult with diabetes.

Reactive carbonyls have been found by other scientists to have the potential to trigger cell and tissue damage that could lead to diabetes, according to a news release by the ACS reporting Dr. Ho's finding.  

These compounds are also found high in the blood of diabetics and linked to the complications of diabetes.   Some scientists have suggested that HFCS may contribute to the risk of diabetes and obesity, a claim that has been repeatedly rejected by the food industry.

HFCS is a sweetener widely used in many foods and beverages including non-diet soda pop, baked goods and condiments. It's preferred by food and beverage manufacturers as it is considered more economical, sweeter and easier to use than table sugar.

For the study, Dr. Ho and team tested 11 different carbonated soft drinks containing HFCS and found these beverages contained "astonishingly high" levels of reactive carbonyls.   Ho was cited as saying that these reactive carbonyls are associated with "unbound" glucose and fructose which are the sugar present in HFCS.   By contrast, table sugar does not contain reactive carbonyls.

Dr. Ho and colleagues also found that a green tea component known as epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) when added to the carbonated HFCS-laden soft drinks reduced the levels of reactive carbonyl species in a dose-dependent manner, by up to 50 percent.

Non-carbonated tea beverages with HFCS added, which contained EGCG, was found to have only one sixth the levels of carbonyls found in regular carbonated soda.

“People consume too much high-fructose corn syrup in this country,” said Ho. “It’s in way too many food and drink products and there’s growing evidence that it’s bad for you.”

EGCG provides a promising way to counter its potentially toxic effects, especially in children who consume a lot of carbonated beverages, he said.

Somehow, the reactive carbonyls are associated with carbonation of soft drinks.   Ho's team is probing the mechanism by which carbonation increases the amount of reactive carbonyls in soft drinks containing HFCS.  

Fruit juices with HFCS added, but not carbonated only had one-third the amount of reactive carbonyl species found in carbonated sodas with HFCS, the researchers found.

The concern about the potentially negative effect of HFCS in carbonated soft drinks may be relieved if the amount of HFCS is reduced or replaced with table sugar and or EGCG is added, Ho and his associates said.

The study was funded by the Center for Advanced Food Technology of Rutgers University, commissioned by the State of New Jersey.