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If you thought high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) was bad, start paying attention to what's being added now to very new and popular drinks like Vitamin water. It's called crystalline fructose. For some reason it kinda sounds better, but it's HFCS on steroids (figuratively, of course). Most drinks that contain this technically have less sugar (because it's sweeter, so they don't use as much). That's one of the selling points these beverage companies try to highlight about their drinks. Products like vitamin water would be a healthy alternative to soda and other beverages sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. However, they use crystalline fructose.

At first I loved vitamin water. Then I did my research. High fructose corn syrup is bad because it contains either a 50/50 or 80/20 mixture of fructose to glucose. Both are 5-carbon sugars, but glucose is broken down by all the cells in the body for energy. Fructose however can only be broken down by the liver. Studies have also shown that the, since the molecular structures are similiar, the cells in the body will metabolize fructose, but at a rate about 1/3 slower. That means the sugar remains in your blood for a longer period of time, increasing the risk of diabetes. Crystalline fructose contains close to 99% fructose. Which means drinking vitamin water (and all the other new products out there sporting crystalline fructose) means you're making your liver work extra hard. Liver's aren't suppose to be working that hard every day, so you'll end up causing a fatty liver or getting cirrhosis of the liver. Here's yet another marketing ploy to try to take advantage of the ignorance of the consumer. (BTW, Gatorade now uses high fructose corn syrup, which defeats the whole concept of its usefulness during athletic events and training).

Other alternatives being explored by the beverage and food industries include sugar alchohols, such as sorbitol and malitol. I've seen these sugar alchohols in chocolate bars, diet and sports drinks, as well as chewing gum. The body doesn't metabolize these chemicals, so they contribute zero calories (or close to it) of energy. However, because the body doesn't metabolize them, you get a very similiar result to eating fat free potato chips fried in Olestra (if you recall, that oil didn't metabolize in the body, so it too contributed zero calories of energy). The end result was, eating too many products containing these sugar substitutes caused bloating and diarrhea.

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