Yes and no. Everything you say is correct but then it comes to your body and how accessible to the body the fructose is to your digestive system.cathyf wrote:One surefire sign that you are talking to someone who is MSA (making stuff up) is if they tell you that you should eat sugar rather than high-fructose corn syrup because fructose is bad for you.
(Some chemistry: sugar (sucrose) is one glucose molecule and one fructose molecule which link together by losing two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom -- which bind together to form a water molecule. When an animal consumes sucrose, the enzyme sucrase comes in with water and breaks apart all of the glucose-fructose bonds as part of digestion, and then the animal has glucose and fructose in their gut for further digestion. Sucrose is exactly 50% fructose. Corn syrup -- the stuff that you buy in the baking aisle -- is 100% glucose, so it doesn't taste sweet. When they say that HFCS is "high" in fructose, that is only in comparison to regular corn syrup which doesn't have ANY fructose in it at all. HFCS is the result of a complicated chemical process where some percentage of the glucose in the corn syrup is chemically converted to fructose, but it is NOT chemically bound to the glucose -- it doesn't combine to make sucrose -- but the two are merely mixed up in the syrup. HFCS comes with the fructose at 2 levels -- 55% fructose (HFCS55) is used in soft drinks, while the 42% fructose (HFCS42) is used most everywhere else. So sugar has MORE fructose in it than HFCS42! Now HFCS may indeed be bad for you, but if it is the fructose that's the problem then sugar would be just as bad, and eating fruit would be worse. Anyone who thinks that the apple is the unhealthy part of a caramel apple is an idiot. They are obviously focusing on the one word that they didn't understand and just making up a story around it.)
And the apple - well it does have a lot of stuff in it besides fructose and anyone who thinks the caramel stuff is healthier needs their head examined.
Personally I use some sugar but I don't drink softdrinks and avoid processed foods as much as possible. The problem with HFCS is that is it put into much processed foods and hidden in the ingredients lists. My potato salad, spaghetti sauce, or my chicken strips do not need added sugar in any shape or form but you will find HFCS in the lists of ingredients.