Keep them in the dark, feed them manure.

A new study in mice sheds light on the insulin resistance that can come from diets loaded with high-fructose corn syrup, a sweetener found in most sodas and many other processed foods. The report in the March issue of Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication, also suggests a way to prevent those ill effects. . .

"There has been a remarkable increase in consumption of high-fructose corn syrup," said Gerald Shulman of Yale University School of Medicine. "Fructose is much more readily metabolized to fat in the liver than glucose is and in the process can lead to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease," he continued. NAFLD in turn leads to hepatic insulin resistance and type II diabetes.

Metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes have both reached epidemic proportions worldwide with the global adoption of the westernized diet along with increased consumption of fructose, stemming from the wide and increasing use of high-fructose corn syrup sweeteners, the researchers noted.

High-fructose corn syrup, which is a mixture of the simple sugars fructose and glucose, came into use in the 1970s and by 2005 the average American was consuming about 60 pounds of it per year. Overall, dietary intake of fructose, which is also a component of table sugar, has increased by an estimated 20 to 40 percent in the last thirty years.

Table sugar is 50/50 fructose and glucose. HFCS is 55/45. It's high fructose, but only for small values of high. It's silly to blame HFCS for obesity or type II diabetes when common table sugar is nearly the same. It deceitful and dangerous since people who buy the scare stories remain convinced that sugar is OK, or at least better, and that they are virtuous consumers if they only avoid HFCS. If you have some dietary problems it might benefit you to avoid sweets, or at least do Push Aways.

Update: More about unobtainium

Interchanging two distinctly different ingredients, such as pure fructose and high fructose corn syrup, creates factually incorrect conclusions and misleads consumers.

Recent studies using pure fructose that purport to show that the body processes high fructose corn syrup differently than other sugars due to fructose content are a classic example of this problem because pure fructose cannot be extrapolated to high fructose corn syrup. The abnormally high levels of pure fructose used in these studies are not found in the human diet.

Fructose consumption at normal human dietary levels and as part of a balanced diet has not been shown to yield such results. Moreover, human fructose intake is nearly always accompanied by the simultaneous and equivalent intake of glucose – a critical and distinguishing factor from pure fructose used in these studies. . .

The American Medical Association in June 2008 helped put to rest a common misunderstanding about high fructose corn syrup and obesity, stating that "high fructose syrup does not appear to contribute to obesity more than other caloric sweeteners." Even former critics of high fructose corn syrup dispelled long-held myths and distanced themselves from earlier speculation about the sweetener's link to obesity in a comprehensive scientific review published in a recent supplement of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2008 Vol. 88).

This release is from the Corn Refiners Association, and so will be discounted. I wonder why equal but opposite releases from activists are not also routinely discounted? I find activists, NGOs, PACs etc, to be as self interested and unreliable as any industry group, but more so.