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June 18, 2008
Corn Sugar Off The Hook (Again)
In the media tug-of-war between good and evil (foods), high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has unfairly found itself with a bad reputation. For years, nutrition activists have campaigned against the corn-based sweetener, claiming that its beet-derived cousin, table sugar, was supposedly healthier because it was “natural.” But many experts disagree. And now the American Medical Association (AMA) has adopted the all-sugars-are-created-equal position. After examining related research, the medical organization announced yesterday that table sugar and HFCS function identically with regard to weight gain and loss.
This echoes decades of scientific research showing that HFCS affects our bodies in the same way as regular sugar. A 2006 story in The New York Times noted:
Corn sugar’s undeserved reputation (and other culinary urban legends) aren’t based in science. They’re consequences of misleading campaigns fomented by public health activists, focused on political goals rather than medical truths.
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