Is Sugar the New Health Food Craze?

High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) isn’t much different metabolically than table sugar. Table sugar (sucrose) is comprised of 50% glucose and 50% fructose. Fructose, as compared to glucose, is digested differently because glucose is absorbed in the upper intestine into the bloodstream, whereas fructose is metabolized in the liver first, and then gets into the bloodstream. While fructose is thought to reduce the blood sugar response after eating it, there is evidence that it may promote fatty liver, which leads to a whole host of metabolic issues.

The type of high-fructose corn syrup used in the US food supply is referred HFCS55 (55% fructose; 45% sucrose). Metabolically, the difference of 5% fructose from table sugar to HFCS cannot be the culprit in our nation’s expanding waistline.

Recent studies have suggested that HFCS now represents more than 40% of the sweetener market and is the number-one sweetener used in soft drinks. A very conservative estimate is that we consume, on average, 145 pounds of sweeteners per year—or about 130 calories just from HFCS each day!