High Fructose Corn Syrup Has Toxic Effect On Mice In Study

A mouse study has found that the fructose-glucose mix typical of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in processed foods is more toxic than the fructose-glucose mix in common table sugar used in baking. The main reason is that fructose and glucose in HFCS exist as separate molecules (monosaccharides), but combine into disaccharides in table sugar. The U.S. study compared two groups of mice fed a healthy diet with 25 percent calories from processed sugars: fructose-glucose monosaccharides like those in HFCS, or sucrose. Female mice on the fructose-glucose diet had death rates 1.87 times higher than females on the sucrose diet. They also produced 26.4 percent fewer offspring.