High-fructose corn syrup is a common sweetener that is used in soft drinks, breakfast cereals, cookies, snacks and many other baked goods.
Like sucrose (table sugar), high-fructose corn syrup is made up of a combination of the sugars fructose and glucose. The main difference is that high-fructose corn syrup is processed to change the ratio of fructose and glucose. Why does that matter? Higher levels of fructose can make high-fructose corn syrup sweeter than sugar.
And although many experts think that fructose is digested the same way that sucrose is in the body, other experts think that high-fructose corn syrup has different effects and may be contributing to the current obesity epidemic. One study, "Dietary Sugars Stimulate Fatty Acid Synthesis in Adults," which appeared in the June 2008 Journal of Nutrition, concluded that fructose gets converted into fat more quickly than glucose.
Whatever you believe, the main warning about high-fructose corn syrup as an ingredient in food is that it is a sign that the food has added sugar, which you should likely avoid, whatever the source of the sugar.
