ABA questions research linking HFCS to diabetes and obesity

Food & Drink Weekly, Sept 3, 2007

The American Beverage Association (ABA) has responded to a paper on soft drinks sweetened with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and diabetes presented by the American Chemical Society. The ABA said last week that techniques used in the American Chemical Society paper's findings "may have been affected by the simple presence of acidity and carbonation, but that there is nothing unique to HFCS".

The association also claimed that, as industry critics have not found links between HFCS and metabolic responses or obesity, it was "a stretch of the imagination to link the laboratory findings of this unpublished in vitro study with the occurrence of diabetes in humans". The ABA continued to counter the paper's links, adding: "neither the National Institutes of Health nor the American Diabetes Association lists soft drinks, fruit juice consumption or sugar intake as risk factors for type 2 diabetes."

ABA scientific consultant Dr. Richard Adamson said: "There is absolutely no unique link between soft drinks sweetened with HFCS and diabetes, in children or adults. This work is solely a chemical analysis and does not take into consideration normal digestive and metabolic processes. The researcher's findings simply cannot be extrapolated to people." Adamson said: "Singling out any one food, beverage or ingredient as a unique cause or contributor to diabetes is simply not supported by science."