High-Fructose Corn Syrup: Safe as sugar?

Here is an example of one of those cigarettes are good for you ads (with an unrelated toy ad afterward):

What is the difference between sugar and high-fructose corn syrup? What makes it less healthy than sugar? Moderation being the key...anything can be bad for you if consumed in large quantities. Couldn't the high-fructose corn syrup being so bad for you be a misnomer put out there by someone trying to boost their own sales? I have noticed the huge campaign though. It is in every magazine I have picked up as well as on TV.

See, this is much more lamentable.

I hate HFCS and try to avoid it if possible. It's one of the main reasons for the obesity we see in America. It invades our lives everyday and I'd like to see an end to it.

http://www.noweightgaincookbooks.com/worse_than_sugar.htm

yikes...if these claims are true - it is definitely not good for you.

I saw that ad last night. One of the few times I've been seriously tempted to throw something at the television.

HFCS is evil evil stuff. Lots of studies out there on it. I've been an even more intense label reader since I first started learning about HFCS. They sneak that crap into so many foods.

I was buying into the add until I read that link I posted. I really need to be a better label reader...but we eat a lot of whole foods...I need to go check my yogurt.

The chemical composition is different, and while the HFCS producers have studies saying that there is no difference in its metabolizaiton versus that of sugar I am not yet convinced they are right.



Putting aside the question of whether the different composition is more unhealthy I agree with you. Moderation in the intake of these junk calories is, indeed, the most important part of the health equation here. But the difference in the subsidies and costs for the HFCS might also contribute to the higher consumption of the junk calories. It wouldn't be an inherent downside to HFCS but would certainly be something to stop subsidizing or protecting through trade protectionism.

A correlation has been established between the rise of obesity and the rise in use of HFCS but the causation has not yet been established to my own standards. I don't think they have ruled it out well enough to make the claims their ad campaign does and think it ignores a lot of the other criticisms that don't center on the metabolization.

For example, there are market motivations created by trade politics (sugar tarrifs) that result in the fact that Coca Cola is made with sugar where I live, and with HFCS where you live. Maybe that protectionism for the corn refiners should not continue.

wow.
I thought it was common knowledge how that stuff is awful for your body, addicing, connected to cancers, in almost everything you eat, bad for the blood sugar, deadly to diabetics, addicive and mood altering to children..probably a key player in many misdiagnosed ADHD and ADD cases... I mean,..****....

I've read comments against hfcs for years, but don't remember the details. I do think it is snuck into a lot of foods unnecessarily, and, if only by virtue of that, can see its involvement in our fattening up.
Based on this thread, I'll do some googleing.

Meantime, regular refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup are both sugars, but one is sucrose and the other is fructose.
I remember the sucrose biochemical cycle fairly well (kreb's cycle, if I'm right), but don't remember if the fructose cycle differs from it, other than what the starter sugar to be metabolized is, nor do I know if something called high-fructose is more problematic, re calories, diabetes, than ordinary sucrose, or ordinary fructose from eating fruit.

Heck, even corn tastes too sweet and less corn-y in flavor to me now, what with the move to high sugar hybrids.

Didn't see the ad -- probably a good thing. I've been lamenting HFCS since I had kids and started really paying attention to what we eat. It gets worse when you find out how the government's subsidies more or less caused it to be so ubiquitous in our prepared foods.

Agreed!

Avoid contact whenever possible.

I can't remember when I last owned a bottle of corn syrup, and why. Long time ago, anyway.

Hmm, wonder what maple syrup is.. I do like that, the real stuff, though not very often.

Thinking.. someone should (nemmee) start a breakfast place with really good pancakes and waffles (interesting flours, etc.) and real syrups, not just the cheap crap.. and powdered sugar and lemon for certain thin pancakes, and real jams. And, I suppose, with really good eggs raised well, with wonderful butter (I hear real irish butter is great) - and actual good bacon (been to IHop lately?).

And crepes, a good selection, and omelettes, and frittatas... even maybe dutch babies (german pancakes)..

and baked eggs, and breakfast burritos with homemade tortillas..

Bet they'd have to build new banks.

Excuse me, I got carried away.

Definitely mood-altering for my niece. She's allergic to corn starch, which which HFCS is loaded. She used to be crazy hyperactive, but her entire personality changed when her mother put her on a corn-free diet.

When do you open?

If you want to know the history of HFCS you should see the documentary King Korn. The more HFCS you find in a society's diet the higher the rate of obesity and diabetes. I categorize anything with HFCS as junk food. It's as bad for you as partially hydrogenated oils.

Yes - you will be surprised where that crap shows up. I was horrified when I saw it as one of the top items in supposedly fresh rolls from the bakery!

It is in almost every sauce you buy at the grocery store. I was looking for barbecue sauce this weekend and gave up as all the ones I looked at this crap was number one. I did find that "Ken's brand" does not have it.

Connect me with a few venturous capitalists and I'll work on that date.

I suppose that all needs refining. I'm not thinking of a phantasmagoria of mediocre tastes. More like a gourmet (so called) cook doing the real thing with each dish.

We had a place like that called Crepes Etc...it closed down. Very disappointing.

We just do our best to limit the junk. We don't even drink that much juice - mostly water and milk ( though I know some folks have issues with milk as well). I guess we are fortunate that the kids don't seem to be affected by the sugar or HFCS unless they get too much - and that happens a lot at the Grandparents house...know from that to limit it as much as possible.

I need to be more like you all and pay attention to the labels...I just figure staying away from most packaged snacks is the safest route.

Not always easy though.