A research team at Princeton University demonstrated that rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup [HFCS] gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same.
This is contrary to many other studies that show that the metabolism of HFCS is the same as that of sucrose, says Dr. Ross. It isn t even concordant with other animal studies.
There seems to be a campaign to show that HFCS is a major cause of obesity and that obesity will somehow cease to be a problem if we just switch to sugar, says Dr. Whelan. Of course, that s completely false. Even Dr. Marion Nestle, who is often a critic of the food industry, is skeptical about this study.
If people want to switch from HFCS to lose weight, they should switch to non-nutritive sweeteners such as Sweet & Low, NutraSweet, Splenda, and other safe alternatives available in diet sodas, says Stier. If your goal is to lose weight, do not switch to sugar, since it has the same number of calories as HFCS.
