What's the Difference Between Sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup?

This week Reactions is taking to science and chemistry to let you know what the difference between sugar and high fructose corn syrup is.

It seems like it's in just about every product on store shelves: High fructose corn syrup. What is it and how is it different from regular old sugar? Reactions is here to answer those sweet questions.

Sources:

More Reading:

Video/Words: Kirk Zamieroski
Scientific Consultant: Robert McGorrin, Ph.D.

Find us on all these places:

[joejones]

I cut out added sugar all togethet for a year and went from 210lbs to 170 lbs.

[MrOZ]

fructose will not be released to the bloodstream like glucose. The liver uptakes almost all the fructose and processes it. Thus high fructose intake results in much dramatic metabolic stress. The reason is only liver can uptake and process fructose and the enzyme in that process has a very low Km and high V-max for fructose which is not under the control of insulin. Check out:
''Metabolic Effects of Fructose and the Worldwide Increase in Obesity''
One of the best articles on the subject.
Love your work! Keep it up :)

[sabrownell]

Was looking for some strong naturalism biased comments but none so far. Good job Internet.

[MrBomasBalloons]

You can buy hfcs on the shelf! It is under the brand name Karo Syrup.

[Keewaf]

i cut out sugary food over 3 weeks ago and my daily headaches disappeared

[jsmariani]

Stay on the periphery of the supermarket, where the veggies, fruits, dairy, bread and dairy reside. Then get very choosy about which products to buy. Of course frozen veggies and other reasonably healthy items reside in the aisles, but not too many.

[PineappleWappleMinecraftVids]

I always avoid high fructose corn syrup. I know it's unhealthy.

[-Reece]

Thanks Reactions, this is really good information :)

[SteamHeadProductions]

Pepsico and Coke are laughing at people fighting over sugar vs high fructose corn syrup. It's win-win for them! Those people should be spending their energies protesting sweets.

[deniselee]

Sucrose require the enzyme sucrase on intestine lining to hydrolyse (breakin the oxygen bridge) to glucose and fructose, drinking a soda with corn syrup immediately loads up the body with glucose and fructose, how's that the same??     

[gplusgplus]

You can make alcohol from grapes and from petroleum. Which one would you drink? Its the same with HFCS vs natural sugar from cane or beet.

[label]

Look at the obesity epidemic timeline. It started the same time HFCS came on the scene. 1980

[rodneyperry]

they forgot to tell you that HFCS is higher on the Glycemic Index than regular sugar. There seems to be a correlation between the higher use of HFCS and the obesity/diabetes epidemic. When more and more food/beverage items contained more HFCS, the higher incidents of obesity/diabetes seems to have occurred. Just an observation.

[tsu]

One question i've had is if it's possible to jam more sugar into a given volume with high fructose corn syrup than with sugar. I mean, given how much sugar is in a soda, it's hard to imagine how they get that much into the bottle. The WHO recommends a max of 25 grams of sugar a day. A 12 oz can of soda has around 48. So the recommended number of sodas per day is zero. They used to sell really small cans, like 6 oz. I've not seen them for sale in years.

[mrcolz]

When I heard HFCS is bad for u, it became the saddest moment when u flipped your favorite cereal or candy and it had it in it..

[kandimegahan]

Good stuff. Cited sources would be helpful.

[QiJSimy]

So does it mean that glucose alone is not bad?

[jmyjam]

I cut out high fructose corn syrup and three months later my sugar was down went from 157 to 100

[QueenSorrow]

What about the fact that the government gives the modified corn to farmers to grow.

[inkajoo]

You most certainly can buy HFCS in a bottle at the grocery.