What's So Bad About High Fructose Corn Syrup?

By Joyce Hendley, May/June 2009

The truth behind the buzz about this controversial sweetener.

READER'S COMMENT:

"I'm not a person that's stares at the food labels and think oh god I don't want that. It has evil things. Naughty. Recently there has been commercials about corn syrup and that is the same as sugar. Logically it makes sense so I found...

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“It’s natural, nutritionally the same as table sugar and has the same number of calories,” say ads for high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Others call the sweetener “a growing health hazard,” “naturally evil,” and worse. For now, the naysayers seem to be winning: the number of foods flaunting “No HFCS” labels is rising steadily. Even Snapple and Pepsi recently launched new beverages sans HFCS. But what’s the truth about HFCS? Here’s what we found when we looked at the science.

Next: Is HFCS the main culprit in the obesity epidemic?