HFCS gets blamed a lot, and though science hasn’t pinpointed the reason why, there are some provocative suggestions. An excess of fructose is an express road to the creation of fat. And compared to sucrose it’s not as satisfying in a beverage and leads to more after-cravings. If you do use sugar, use plain old cane or beet sugar.
Not blaming high-fructose corn syrup, I’m blaming sugar in general.
As a society, we consume an insane amount of sugar. Sugar in soft drinks, sugar in our heavily sweetened coffees, sugar in our foods, Hell they’ve even got these new packets that color and flavor your bottle of water with sugar.
Sugar is not bad, and it has its place; but as a society overall, we consume entirely too much sugar. Our fathers and grandfathers grew up on a “meat and potatoes” diet and seldom had issues with cardiovascular disease, Diabetes, strokes, Crohn’s disease, etc. Sugar can be linked to many more problems than can fat (mono, poly, unsat) or protein.
I speak from experience having shed 135 lb. in 16 months and keeping it off for more than 5 years on a strictly low-carb, no sugar diet.
Do you know how lactose measures up?