Is high-fructose corn syrup really worse than sugar?

I avoid HFCS because it's politically correct to do so. Yes, I know companies who use this sweetener claim that it's no different than sugar, but they are feeding us too much sweetness, and just for profit! Aside from my comments above, can anyone tell me why I find white corn at the supermarkets, but cannot find any fresh yellow corn? Is all the yellow corn being used to produce HFCS?

I don't think processed sugars are good for you at all. Eat organic cane sugar or honey. HFCS is horrible! It's a manmade byproduct of corn. I’ve never added corn to my tea to sweeten it. However, I have put raw sugar cane in tea to sweeten it. I think I will stick to the natural stuff thanks. Corporate cost cutting in our food supply is killing our bodies. We need to go back to the simpler times of food preparation. I want to be able to know what all the ingredients on a nutrition label are without having to use a dictionary.

In the 80's they did not even warn us they were putting it in the food. Now if you want barbecue sauce you have to make it yourself or eat high fructose corn syrup. The stuff is in bread, catchup, cakes, cookies, anything that we used to eat in moderation. I buy my own groceries and spend more time reading lables now. Sugar is sugar is not what my bathroom scales say, it is not what my tastebuds say, it is not what obesity rates say. The food companies are dense in the head if they can't see that.

I don't believe "a sugar is a sugar" especially when it comes to what our kids eat. My son can eat old fashioned sugar with no problem, but if he eats stuff with High Fuctose Corn sugar in it he is bouncing off the walls. It is bad for you, and especially bad for kids.

Another reason it's "in everything" is because farmers, not just the "family farms" we idyllically picture but the agribusinesses putting them out to pasture, are paid to grow corn. It's called a "subsidy." Some might call it "corporate welfare." A certain alleged "maverick" candidate changed his position from anti- to pro-subsidies AFTER he announced and before he hit . . . IOWA.

hello everyone, please learn about GLYCEMIC INDEX-
HFCS spikes your blood sugar, and so does any refined sugar...regular sugar. honey is great, but i think the best natural sweetener for you is AGAVE NECTAR- just ask someone at Whole Foods Market, or any Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner. agave nectar and honey, or noney, ha.
-enjoy the enlightenment.

Step away from the HFCS. And the trans fats too. I quit drinking sodas and juices with HFCS two years ago and I lost 20 lbs in six months.

Sucrose and fructose are not the same chemically. This can be seen by their condensed formulas: Sucrose has 12carbon,22hydrogen,11oxygen atoms(C12H22O11) and Fructose has 6, 12, 6, respectively (C6H12O6). They are both sugars and I believe it is correct that they are metabolized the same way (I'm a chemist not a biologist). Fructose is the sugar in fruits, while sucrose is derived from sugar cane or sugar beets. I did not understand the comment that sucrose is 50% fructose, perhaps it was meant that fructose has about half the number of the 3 component atoms (C, H, H) than sucrose, per formula unit. Are there some subtle physiological differences that make HFCS less desirable than granular fructose or sucrose? I suspect yes, because we find HFCS everywhere, and thus we cannot easily control our intake, unless we are very careful about what we eat in general. I avoid HFCS whenever I can.

Since my near death experience...which was diagnosed. . . no more High Fructose or Sorbitol . . . for you! I am now a HAPPY 74 year old and
still going. . . just like the ENERGIZER BUNNY!!!

Medical Science is actively studying the specifics about HFCS. Some psychiatrists have published negatively their take on HFCS and childhood behavior. It is a sweetner that would break the backs of Corn Growers if replaced. I am not a food scientist but know economics. There is a pattern from the time the HFCS entered the market and obesity. You can read both favorable and unfavorable articles so i don't bother but to avoid it as much as possible and started to in 1992. I am also the only one in the family whop has not gained weight. Everybody else is obese and or morbidly obese. Exercise is great in addition to taking responsibility over personal diet.

I wouldn't put it in my Espresso!

"Why would anyone put hfcs in bread?"
Very simple. A small amount of sugar is put in bread to help feed the yeast and enhance the texture. It's not an absolute requirement for breadmaking, but many types of bread use a small amount of sugar. Home bakers use table sugar or honey and some commercial bakeries use hfcs.

Very interesting article. I'd seen the ads and also heard my mother and sister preaching at me about the horrors of HFCS. I have been curious as to why HFCS is so bad.
I really don't know much about the science of the whole thing but I'd think that the main reason obesity is skyrocketing in America has more to do with the fact that we eat more processed foods, more sweets and in larger portions than we used to. I remember when bottles of soda were 16 oz. and they were considered a lot of soda. Now they're 20 oz. and people treat them as a single serving. When I was a kid, soda was a rare treat. Now kids drink it every day. Yes, HFCS is part of the problem since it seems to be in everything, but I think our eating habits are the real issue.

Rowdygirl, I don't know where you are located but here on the east coast I found Arnold Dutch Country 100% whole wheat which doesn't contain HFCS. The packaging looks to be Oroweat from the west coast.

Those commercials are BS. They say that HFCS is fine in moderation and it's the same as sugar.... well if HFCS wasn't in EVERYTHING you can purchase at the grocery store maybe we COULD actually eat it in moderation. Go vegetarian!!! and get rid of the processed foods!! Read Skinny Bitch, it will open your eyes!!

YES, it is worse than sugar...fructose raises cholesterol and causes more adverse effects on collagen than sugar..since i have eliminated HFSC from my diet(not easy to do, the stuff is in everything) i have not only lost weight but i have an easier time of maintaining my weight year round...

This article is so irresponsible!!!!!

The thing about HFCS is it bonds to the "sweet" receptors ten times stronger than sucrose, regular table sugar. I don't remember the actual table (I sold back almost all of my college textbooks - Biology is expensive!), but it's probably online somwhere. Fructose is the sweetest natural sugar out there.

What happens with HFCS's is companies can buy them for relatively cheap and use LESS of it than acutal sugar to make things as sweet as they are. This was a revolution in the breakfast ceral industry, as the competition for sweet, sugary products heated up, this provided a way to keep costs down, keep the sweetness, and maximize profit.

Well, we now regulate breakfast cereals because we realized they were downright bad for us. But the legacy continues. It's just smart business to use HFCS instead of sugars because you use less of it to make it much sweeter than you could otherwise.

Now, the problem may be that this trigger works on the pleasure center in the brain and ultimately feeds an addiction to sweet. People really should avoid it like the plague and train their brains to taste natural sweet and less sweet tastes than the artificial sweeteners.

By the by, did you know the stuff that makes aspertame sweeteners (NutraSweet, Equal, etc) is actually an amino acid? Yup, for some reason it binds to sugar receptors.

HFCS, as many others have mentioned, is in nearly everything, making it impossible to take in moderation unless you are a label reader. Sugar is in much as well, and it's good to watch for too much sugar also. However, I developed an adult-onset food allergy to HFCS, not sugar. I chalk that up to having unknowingly digested tons of it from childhood on. Avoid it - it's not worth eating. It's man made, our bodies do not process it the same way as we do natural sweeteners (cane sugar, juice, etc). It's frightening to really sit down and think of how much is ingested particularly with younger people. If your child has cereal for breakfast, it's probably in the cereal. The same goes for breakfast bars, yogurt (particularly "Go-gurt" and other supposedly kid-friendly dishes), applesauce, sausage, ham, and if given a frozen egg sandwich meal, it's in there too. If the same kid has a sandwich for lunch, it's likely in the bread, meat, condiments. It will be in most juices(unless they are specified as 100% juice), and in all soda except for diet, and don't even get me started on the dangers of aspartame and other artificial sweeteners (and I used to be the biggest diet coke-head on the planet - since I gave it up, I no longer have heartburn and I sleep like a baby through the night). HFCS is certainly in most cookies, crackers, candies and other snacks. If your child eats sliced carrots or celery with ranch dressing, it may be in the ranch dressing (and most other salad dressings). It's hard to avoid, but not impossible. Most of the above-mentioned items can be found without corn syrup if you read the labels and do comparisons. The best part of avoiding HFCS is that usually if you find a healthier version without it, you will also avoid other lousy and unnecessary additives.

Friends,
You better all wake up. Corn Syrup is crap. This is just the tip of the iceberg.There are no safe sugar substitutes. At least snake oil has some EFA's !