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High Fructose Corn Syrup vs Sugar - Calories, Taste and Composition
Calories
High Fructose Corn Syrup | Table Sugar |
| High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) contains 4 calories per gram. (dry solids basis) | Sugar has the same calories as most carbohydrates: 4 calories per gram. |
Taste
High Fructose Corn Syrup | Table Sugar |
| There are two types of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS): HFCS-55 and HFCS-42. HFCS-55 is as sweet as table sugar, while HFCS-42 is somewhat less sweet. When HFCS-55 was developed, it was specifically formulated to provide sweetness equivalent to table sugar so that consumers would not perceive a difference in product sweetness and taste. | Sugar sets the benchmark for the taste of sweetness. The image below demonstrates the relative sweetness of sugar compared to honey, high fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrates, fructose and glucose. |
The table below demonstrates the relative sweetness of high fructose corn syrup compared to sugar, honey, fruit juice concentrates, fructose and glucose.
Relative Sweetness of Selected Nutritive Sweeteners
Fructose
|  | Sugar 1.00 | | Glucose
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Composition
High Fructose Corn Syrup | Table Sugar |
| HFCS-55 is composed of 55% fructose, 42% glucose and 3% higher sugars. HFCS-42 is composed of 42% fructose, 53% glucose and 5% higher sugars. In comparison, HFCS-42 is lower in fructose than table sugar with 50% fructose and honey with 49% fructose. (See TABLE 1. Carbohydrate composition of common nutritive sweeteners in "Straight talk about high-fructose corn syrup: what it is and what it ain't" by John S. White, Ph.D.) | Sugar is sucrose, a disaccharide of 50% fructose and 50% glucose linked by a chemical bond. (C12H22O11) |