Remember middle school?

I don't remember everything from middle school, but I do remember that I didn't know what high fructose corn syrup was. But today when I was teaching a group of 8th graders about food science and drawing some simple chemical structures a student asked me to draw the structure of high fructose corn syrup. I didn't know what to do.

But he got me thinking, what is the big deal about HFCS (as the cool kids are calling it)?

I have heard the rumors that HFCS is the culprit behind the obesity epidemic in America and that I shouldn't eat any food if HFCS is one of the first 5 ingredients, but I hadn't heard any scientific evidence to back it up. And after looking into, I can't find any.

HCFS became popular in the '70s because it was cheaper and easier to transport than traditional sugar, but as far as I can tell the majority of the sugar in the American diet is still good old sucrose and there is no evidence that HFCS is any worse for you than other sugar sources.

While I'm on the subject of sugar. I learned something interesting about Splenda (sucralose) today. It turns out that it was discovered when one researcher misheard his colleague say to "taste it", he actually said to "test it"- turns out sometimes mis-communication can be productive.

So, whether you choose to indulge with corn syrup, splenda, or just regular sugar the most important thing is probably just to not eat too much.