No matter how much you try to avoid it, sugar is always going to find its way into your diet.  The only thing you can do is try to take in the “healthiest” sugars possible. This means you want to stay away from the processed stuff.

A popular question about sugar is, “Is high fructose corn syrup better or worse for you than regular sugar?”

The answer is as follows:

First, High Fructose Corn Syrup is a poor suga/sweetner choice. Here is a little history on HFCS and some facts.

• High fructose corn syrup, made from cornstarch, was invented in the 1960’s by Japanese scientists and has since unlocked a way for food manufacturers to sweeten their products for a fraction of what they would pay for traditional sweeteners such as sucrose.
• High fructose corn syrup is composed of either 42 percent or 55 percent fructose, with the remaining sugars being primarily glucose and higher sugars.
• In addition to providing sweetness at a level equivalent to sugar, high fructose corn syrup makes foods such as bread and breakfast cereal “brown” better when baked, gives chewy breakfast bars their soft texture and also protects freshness.
• High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is processed from hydrolyzed corn starch (so it’s not completely natural) and contains a high level of fructose (which is naturally occurring in fruits and honey) and a simple sugar carbohydrate, just like sucrose. It is about 75% sweeter than sucrose, less expensive than sugar, and mixes well in many foods.
• In 1980 the average person ate 39 pounds of fructose and 84 pounds of sucrose. In 1994 the average person ate 66 pounds of sucrose and 83 pounds of fructose, providing 19 percent of total caloric energy. Today approximately 25 percent of our average caloric intake comes from sugars, with the larger fraction as fructose.

Sugary foods aren’t so bad after a hard session at the gym, but look for HFCS-free products such as bars sweetened with cane juice or honey.
There really is no place for HFCS in anyone’s diet, especially for the fitness-minded.

photo credit: Uwe Hermann