The article implicates high-fructose corn syrup as the enemy. Which is partially true. But table sugar is also 50% fructose. And fruit, juice, honey and "natural" sweeteners are higher. If we're going to try for low fructose (and all the medical evidence say we definitely should), cutting out HFCS is a good start but not sufficient.
"We are not aware of any evidence ... that there is a difference in safety between foods containing HFCS 42 or HFCS 55 and foods containing similar amounts of other nutritive sweeteners with approximately equal glucose and fructose content, such as sucrose, honey, or other traditional sweeteners."
A better rule of thumb might be "avoid sugar entirely". Like alcohol, the more we learn about it, the more we learn that it's a unambiguous poison at moderate-to-high doses. But fructose being ubiquitous and hidden in food form makes it an even greater danger to public health. In fact, the metabolism of both alcohol and fructose involve similar pathways in the liver. Fructose has been called "Alcohol without the buzz". In 20 years, we'll look at serving a glass of soda or juice to a child like serving them a glass of whiskey.
I could write a lot about how I found it - but everyone is different. Instead I'll mention that in the 90s there was a study New Scientist reported in regard to a simple experiment involving the influence of fructose on fat / weight gain -- one lot of rats were fed a diet striped of fructose, along with iirc a couple of other sets of rats on differing diets. The ones with less fructose didn't put on as much weight as those on higher fructose diets. Around 2010 iirc Harvard was starting to publish research into the role fructose plays. [1] [2] There's also one good paper on how fructose increases villi length but I'm unable to find the reference I had in mind, the only one a search turned up was behind a pay wall. ( Edit: [3] [4] in regard to pay walled [5] Dietary fructose improves intestinal cell survival and nutrient absorption)
The main thing IMO with adopting dextrose (glucose) is availability and price. I'm happy enough to pay $3 aud per Kg for dextrose though I hope it doesn't go up any more. (Imported product, Aussie dollar has slipped)
Minor issues are fiddling with recipes that rely on sucrose and the stiffer structure on heating it forms - sometimes it's never quite the same. However the web more often than not has suggestions to get close enough.
From the FDA: https://www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/high-fruct...
"We are not aware of any evidence ... that there is a difference in safety between foods containing HFCS 42 or HFCS 55 and foods containing similar amounts of other nutritive sweeteners with approximately equal glucose and fructose content, such as sucrose, honey, or other traditional sweeteners."
A better rule of thumb might be "avoid sugar entirely". Like alcohol, the more we learn about it, the more we learn that it's a unambiguous poison at moderate-to-high doses. But fructose being ubiquitous and hidden in food form makes it an even greater danger to public health. In fact, the metabolism of both alcohol and fructose involve similar pathways in the liver. Fructose has been called "Alcohol without the buzz". In 20 years, we'll look at serving a glass of soda or juice to a child like serving them a glass of whiskey.