The Corn Refiners Association (and others) would have you believe that High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is essentially the same as table sugar (sucrose) and that your body processes them the same way. The research has been mixed on the subject, with some studies indicating that it contributes to obesity and others not. In the absence of strong evidence, my stance on HFCS is that its presence on a food label indicates a highly-processed food that you shouldn’t be eating anyway. That said, sugar in any form in the first few ingredients of a food should caution you away from eating it as well.
A just-released article in the journal Metabolism approaches the question acutely, measuring the reactions of 40 healthy men and women to drinking equal amounts of soft drinks sweetened with either High Fructose Corn Syrup or sucrose.
The men and women recruited for the study were between 18 and 52 and had no history of hypoglycemia, gout, kidney or liver dysfunction, diabetes, or high blood glucose levels. On two occasions the participants visited the research lab and were given 24 ounces of either regular Dr. Pepper, sweetened with HFCS, or the sucrose-sweetened Dr. Pepper (called “Heritage Dr. Pepper” and marketed as “sweetened with real sugar”). HFCS vs. Sucrose
