High Fructose Corn Syrup

Anyone else as annoyed as I am at the new adverts saying how great High Fructose Corn Syrup is? One just came on, so i'm now going to rant a little. The ads go on about how HFCS has as many calories as sugar, is made from corn and is all natural. That I cannot dispute, HFCS is obviously made from corn, has 4 calories per gram (same as sugar) and is "natural", depending on how modified you like your natural products. HFCS is glucose extracted from corn starch, and then heavily processed so that it turns into mainly fructose. 

So HFCS is mainly fructose, where as sugar (and honey) are pretty close to 50% of each fructose and glucose. This is an important distinction - as glucose stimulates insulin and leptin production, which in turn stimulate us to feel full - they regulate food intake, absorption and so body weight. Glucose can also be broken down by most cells in the body, whereas fructose can only be broken down in the liver (overload on fructose has been shown to cause cirrhosis). Unbound fructose (like that in HFCS - in sugar it is 'bound' to the glucose) has also been shown to have higher diabetic complications and can assimilate minerals robbing the body of vital nutrients. Higher fructose consumption also leads to significant weight gain and higher incidences of heart disease. 

In short, fructose on it's own is not so great for us - hence HFCS is not that great for us either and really shouldn't be 'touted' as "as good as sugar". That kind of thing really pisses me off.  

So I believe it is almost impossible to avoid HFCS as it's in so many things now (bread, fruit juices, non diet sodas), but it's worth looking at how much your intake is to make sure it isn't in everything your eating - remembering to count foods that have it in as part of your sugar intake. Like most things in the food world, a little won't hurt, but a lot will. Just looking it up, current guidelines suggest 10% of your calories from sugar.