For years, the health community has been railing against high fructose corn syrup and how you shouldn’t eat anything with it in it. Recently, the Corn Refiner’s Association decided to air a series of television commercials plugging high fructose corn syrup as (and I quote) “is natural”, “has the same calories as sugar or honey”, “is nutritionally the same as sugar”, and “is fine in moderation”. (If you haven’t seen the ads, head to YouTube and search “high fructose corn syrup commercials”.) Clearly, it appears that the public at large doesn’t actually know what high fructose corn syrup is or what the hullabaloo is all about. Is it bad? Worse than sugar? Better than sugar?

So let’s set the record straight.