High-fructose corn syrup, which is an artificial sugar made from corn syrup, is not very different from regular table sugar in its makeup, although the former typically contains a higher percentage of fructose when compared to glucose — sometimes as much as 55%.
While all types of sugar consumed in excess are bad for you, the problem with fructose lies in the way it’s converted into energy. With glucose, your body is able to more readily use the sugar as an energy source, but with fructose, your liver is involved in the conversion process, and this is where cholesterol-related problems arise. When fructose is turned into glucose, glycogen, or fat by your liver, before becoming viable as an energy source, it “starts a fat production factory,” explained functional medicine physician Dr. Mark Hyman (via Cleveland Clinic). “It triggers the production of triglycerides and cholesterol.” A 2017 study done on mice and published in Acta Scientiarum Polonorum Technologia Alimentaria found adverse blood lipid parameters, weight gain, and peri-organ fat deposits with HFCS consumption.
Your cholesterol levels mean more than you think. While your total serum cholesterol is a number doctors will look at, there are also other particulars as we mentioned before: LDL cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (sometimes referred to as “good” cholesterol or HDL), and triglycerides (a type of fat circulating in your blood). When you have high cholesterol, your LDL and triglyceride levels are high, while your HDL is low. The opposite is true for healthy cholesterol levels.