What's the difference between High Fructose corn syrup and regular Corn Syrup?

* Corn syrup solids contain dextrose sugar. Dextrose sugar is 3/4 as sweet as sucrose (cane or beet) sugar.

* Another name for corn syrup solids is corn syrup powder. This is interesting, I thought it was a liquid, but it’s not!

* Corn syrup solids are manufactured from corn syrup liquid through a process that removes 97% of the water from the liquid.

* High fructose corn syrup is made from corn syrup through an enzymatic action that converts the dextrose sugar (in the corn syrup) into fructose sugar. HFCS is sweeter than corn syrup, which is why you find it in so many foods both processed and fast food, and especially sodas (the corn syrup isn’t sweet enough to be used in sodas).

* There are further processes that are run depending on the percentage of fructose desired in the high fructose corn syrup.

To sum up, corn syrup solids are in a powder form, HFCS is a liquid. Corn syrup solids are not as sweet as HFCS, however it’s all sugar in the end. Corn syrup solids are dextrose sugar, and high fructose corn syrup is fructose sugar. It’s all sugar, though! ;)

Corn Syrup Solids

Essentially...

Corn syrup. Made from cornstarch. Mostly glucose. Can have maltose found linked to glucose to form lactose, or milk sugar

High fructose corn syrup. Derived from cornstarch, usually a combination of 55 percent fructose and 45 percent sucrose. Treated with an enzyme that converts glucose to fructose, which results in a sweeter product. Used in soft drinks, baked goods, jelly, syrups, fruits and desserts.

But most importantly they are both bad for you. Look for natural sugars like cane sugar, honey, molasses and maple syrup. Corn syrup in recipes can be replaced with cane syrup like Lyle's Golden Syrup.

HFCS should be avoided as much as possible. Once you start looking for it you won't believe everything it's in like bread, soup and cereal. It'll seem difficult to stay away from it at first but soon you will find some really great places to shop. Like a local bakery for bread because there aren't any at the grocery store that don't have HFCS. The farmers market and health food store are also great sources, and Safeway just came out with a whole organic line that's been great.

I've also learned to make most convience foods from scratch. The media, of which I am part of, has convinced America that you can't cook faster from scratch than you can buy opening one of their boxes. Well, I can make cheese soup from Tillamook Sharp Cheddar, organic milk and butter in the time it takes for my Barilla elbow macaroni to boil! (You can also pick up the box kind from Annie's Homegrown or Safeway O).

High Fructose Corn Syrup has more sugar in it. Fructose is the natural sugars from fruit.

Products with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) would be clearly labeled with a warning that too much of the sweetener “may lead to obesity,” under a resolution to be discussed at the upcoming American Medical Association's annual policy meeting.

In addition to adding an obesity warning on the label, the proposal calls on the AMA to urge the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to require the food industry to use non-fructose sweeteners and limit the use of high fructose syrups in their products.

The fact that the proposal is even on the table must be maddening to the Corn Refiners Association, an industry group that has repeatedly claimed there is no scientific evidence to suggest that HFCS is the sole cause of the world's obesity epidemic.

But if the nation's most influential doctor's group took a stand, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would be forced to pay attention to the health impacts of the sweetener.

HFCS is added to practically everything these days, including foods that don’t need it. In addition to making everything intensely sweet, it’s why packaged cookies can stay chewy and breads turn “browner” when they’re baked.

It represents more than 40 percent of caloric sweeteners added to food and beverages in the U.S. and its use has increased over 1,000 percent since 1970, far exceeding the changes in intake of any other food or food group.

What worries some health experts is that the increased use in the U.S. mirrors the rapid increase in obesity and type 2 diabetes.

The Corn Refiners Association says HFCS is nearly identical in composition to table sugar (sucrose), which is composed of 50 percent glucose and 50 percent fructose.

On its High Fructose Corn Syrup Facts Web site , it says HFCS is composed of either 42 or 55 percent fructose, with the remaining sugars being primarily glucose and some higher sugars.

One study in the journal Nutrition reviewed the effects of HFCS and sucrose on circulating levels of glucose, leptin, insulin and ghrelin in lean women. All four tested substances have been hypothesized to play a role in metabolism and obesity.

The study found "no differences in the metabolic effects" of HFCS and sucrose in this short-term study, and called for further similar studies of obese individuals and males.”

But the AMA resolution argues that the body processes the syrup differently than other sugars due to the fructose content leading to greater fat storage, according to its author, Reza Ghohestani, a member of the International Medical Graduate Section of the AMA, which represents physicians who graduated from medical schools outside the U.S. or Canada.

"In addition, unlike glucose, fructose does not stimulate insulin secretion or enhance leptin production--both key (sensors) in the regulation of food intake and body weight," Ghohestani wrote. That means, he explained, you keep eating because you don't feel full.

Another problem, according to the resolution is that "high fructose syrup is as energy-dense as high-fat foods, and high fructose syrup contribute to increased energy intake and weight gain."

"It's fair to say it acts like fat," said Ghohestani, a member of the Jefferson Institute of Molecular Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University and the editor of the European Journal of Dermatology. Though outside his direct area of expertise, he became interested in high fructose corn syrup after having children. "It can be as bad as fat."

I'm just guessing here, but perhaps it has higher fructose. I don't think either is healthier, but certainly one could be more unhealthy than the other.