healthy for life

I caught a this week about how food marketers are promoting table sugar as a “natural,” “healthier” ingredient compared to high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). This comes on the heels of you’ve probably seen, sponsored by the Corn Refiners Association, claiming that HFCS actually isn’t any worse for you that regular sugar. Who’s a girl with a sweet tooth to believe?
Here’s the truth: 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.