Dear editor, The Oct. 2 Guest Commentary, “Mighty thin arguments against soda tax,” may confuse consumers about high-fructose corn syrup.

High-fructose corn syrup, sugar and several fruit juices are all nutritionally the same.

High-fructose corn syrup is simply a kind of corn sugar. It has the same number of calories as sugar and is handled the same by the body.

The American Medical Association in June 2008 helped put to rest misunderstandings about this sweetener and obesity, stating that “high-fructose syrup does not appear to contribute to obesity more than other caloric sweeteners.”

According to the American Dietetic Association, “high-fructose corn syrup is nutritionally equivalent to sucrose. Once absorbed into the bloodstream, the two sweeteners are indistinguishable.”

In an interview with FoodNavigator-USA.com, Barry Popkin, Ph.D., stated, “We were wrong in our speculations on high-fructose corn syrup about their link to weight.”

Popkin, a professor in the Department of Nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, along with George Bray, M.D., Boyd Professor at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center of Louisiana State University, suggested in a 2004 commentary in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that high-fructose corn syrup was uniquely responsible for obesity.

Consumers can see the latest research and learn more about high-fructose corn syrup at www.sweetsurprise.com.

Audrae Erickson, president, Corn Refiners Association / Washington, D.C.