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'''High fructose corn syrup''' is an artificial [[sweetener]] which is made from [[corn]]. It is comprised of 42 or 55 percent [[fructose]] and the rest is made up of [[glucose]] and other [[sugar]]s.<ref>[http://www.hfcsfacts.com/What-is-High-Fructose-Corn-Syrup.html ''What is HFCS?''], HFCSfacts.com</ref> It is used in many foods and has a sweetness equivalent to sugar, but is cheaper and easier to transport.  

'''High fructose corn syrup''' (HFCS) is an [[sweetener]] that is made from [[corn]] syrups by enigmatically converting some of corn syrup's glucose into a sweeter tasting carbohydrate called fructose. The resulting syrup is comprised of 42 or 55 percent [[fructose]], the remained being mostly [[glucose]] and some other [[sugar]]s.<ref>[http://www.hfcsfacts.com/What-is-High-Fructose-Corn-Syrup.html ''What is HFCS?''], HFCSfacts.com</ref> High fructose corn syrup is used in many foods and has a sweetness roughly comparable to sucrose (common table sugar), but is cheaper and easier to transport than sucrose. High fructose corn syrup is not an "artificial sweetener" like saccharin (i.e. Sweet&Low<small>TM</small>), meaning that it does possess a significant caloric value and is metabolized by the human body similar to common table sugar.

 

Because high fructose corn syrup is slightly less sweet tasting than table sugar, slightly more high fructose corn syrup must be used in food preparation to attain the same level of sweetness that sucrose would otherwise yield. Thus, foods prepared using high fructose corn syrup rather than sucrose tend to have more dietary callories and are consised "less healy" based on this fact alone (see [[obesity]]). However, liberal advocate groups have spun this mild concern over the dietary value of high fructose corn syrup into a campaign that paints high fructose corn syrup more as a toxin than as a food, which is wholely unsubstantiated biochemically and medically. The toxicity level (i.e. the LD₅₀) of high fructose corn syrup is equivalent to that of common table sugar. Media hype over the negative health implications of high fructose corn syrup has driven manufacturers to petition the FDA to allow the renaming of high fructose corn syrup as "corn sugar". The tagline used by manufacturers in recent "corn sugar" ads aiming to highlight the safety and wholesomeness of high fructose corn syrup is that "sugar is sugar", implying the lack of any differnce between high fructose corn syrup and table sugar. While this implication is factually inaccurate (see above), the central point is valid - that high fructose corn syrup is safe and eating high fructose corn syrup is as healthy as consuming a similar amount of table sugar. In these ads, manufactures do point out that both high fructose corn syrup and table sugar should both be consumed in moderation.

==References==

==References==

[[Category:Chemical Compounds]]

[[Category:Chemical Compounds]]