Even though sucrose and HFCS are made up of the same two chemicals? What are the "legitimate" concerns you see? Rather than send me through more than a hundred posts and all sorts of links why not share your concerns here and I'll be glad to respond.
Not exactly the same thing as non-caloric, granted; but not all of the concern over what we are eating and drinking is necessarily a grasp for grant money, or liberal fear-mongering.
Not all research is driven only by grant money. I never said that. However, far too much research today is junk and is driven by the quest for money. Researchers are under a tremendous amount of pressure to obtain grant money.
I've seen Sears call three fatty acids "hormones" including arachidonic acid. The only way you could determine whether or not this idea is based on good research would be to study the available research on these three fatty acids that he calls hormones; and find out what evidence there is for the physiological effects he claims. He's never managed to offer the research supporting his conclusions. In my day, there was no evidence that arachidonic acid had hormonal activity. Maybe that's changed but we'll never know it from Barry.
Well, there's this post of yours.
I agree that price-driven considerations flood us with HFCS by the way, and that major agribusiness is more concerned with cost and shelf-life than the salubrious (see Calvin and Hobbes) quality of our food.
A couple of other points which I have never seen addressed satisfactorally...
1) Sucrose is 50-50 fructose-glocose; HFCS is 55% fructose. Is that 5% significant biochemically (i.e. does it flood a chemical pathway, or switch on other pathways for some reason)?
2) Does the body break up the HFCS into the monomers at a different rate than it does sucrose?
No hand waving, please. Has anyone bothered to look? And is the biochemical response different in the thin, the slightly overweight, the obese?
I've seen Sears call three fatty acids "hormones" including arachidonic acid. The only way you could determine whether or not this idea is based on good research would be to study the available research on these three fatty acids that he calls hormones; and find out what evidence there is for the physiological effects he claims. He's never managed to offer the research supporting his conclusions.
There I think Sears is engaging in "marketing" either to sensationalize, sell books or make his material more accessible to the public. I've lent out my copy of The Zone but IIRC he shows that arachidonic acid is a precursor to a number of inflammatory messengers, and so he takes the liberty of saying it behaves like a hormone.
I thought he was doing well enough on the writing/lecturing/consulting circuit that he didn't need to grub for grants, btw.
Also, have you read the book Mastering Leptin by Richards and Richards? The library had a recall on it before I could absorb all its contents, but it seemed to say the timing of different types of meals influence the release of leptin, and hence, one's hunger (in addition to the insulin, glucagon, etc. etc.)
Cheers!