"If it were cast in a Hollywood movie today, high-fructose corn syrup might well be starring as a suspect set free for lack of evidence," writes Jack Cox in this morning's Denver Post. Indeed, the evidence points to high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS for short) playing no unique role in promoting obesity. Even noted nutrition nanny Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest tells the Post: "The issue isn't sugar, it's calories."

Jacobson's quote dovetails nicely with what food scaremonger Walter Willett told The New York Times earlier this month:

"There's no substantial evidence to support the idea that high-fructose corn syrup is somehow responsible for obesity ... If there was no high-fructose corn syrup, I don't think we would see a change in anything important."

The Post continues to exonerate HFCS by laying down some of the sweet science:

One of the latest reports to shed light on the HFCS debate is a University of Washington study in which 19 men and 18 women in their 20s were given midmorning drinks of cola sweetened with HFCS, cola with sugar, diet cola and 1 percent milk.

The researchers found "no significant differences in satiety profiles" among the beverages, meaning the subjects' feelings of hunger, fullness, thirst or desire to eat lunch were about the same for all.

Salivating yet? It gets better:

Another recent study, involving 30 lean women who drank beverages sweetened with either HFCS or plain sugar, found no differences in the way the two forms of energy were metabolized.