Me so corny
The article “How green is your box?” (9/30) may mislead consumers about high fructose corn syrup. Consumers are being misled into thinking that there are nutritional differences between high-fructose corn syrup and sugar, when in fact they are nutritionally the same. Whether from cane, beets or corn, a sugar is a sugar. They all contain four calories per gram. Switching out a kind of corn sugar for table sugar is not for health and it is not for science.
According to the American Dietetic Association, “high fructose corn syrup … is nutritionally equivalent to sucrose. Once absorbed into the blood stream, the two sweeteners are indistinguishable.”
The American Medical Association stated that, “Because the composition of high fructose corn syrup and sucrose are so similar, particularly on absorption by the body, it appears unlikely that high fructose corn syrup contributes more to obesity or other conditions than sucrose.”
High-fructose corn syrup is simply a kind of corn sugar. It has the same number of calories as sugar and is handled the same by the body.
Audrae Erickson
President, Corn Refiners Association
