I've written about the healthy side effects that seem to be associated with real Maple Syrup. Now, it is important to notice the distinction between real natural Maple Syrup made by boiling Maple Sugar sap (forty gallons of sap to one of syrup) and man-made syrup using maple flavoring. Most of that syrup that's commercially made (versus mom boiling sugar, water, and maple flavoring at home) is made with high fructose corn syrup. A Princeton University study in which researchers fed rats high fructose corn syrup vs rats fed table sugar showed that the rats ingesting corn syrup gained much more weight than those on table sugar, even when the overall calories consumed were identical.

In the study, the researchers allowed three groups of male rats to ingest as much rat chow as they wanted. One group also had access to a solution of 10% table sugar in water for 12 hours a day, a second group had access to a 7% high-fructose corn syrup for 12 hours a day. The third group could drink as much of the high fructose syrup, in addition to the chow, as the rats wanted. A fourth group only received rat chow. Professor Bart Hoebel, one of the researchers notes:

"When rats are drinking high-fructose corn syrup at levels well below those in soda pop, they're becoming obese—every single one, across the board. Even when rats are fed a high-fat diet, you don't see this; they don't all gain extra weight."

In the second half of the study, scientists studied the effects of a diet exclusively of rat chose, and a diet rich in high-fructose corn syrup. The rats ingesting the corn syrup demonstrated the effects associated with a medical condition referred to as metabolic syndrome. The rats experienced abnormal weight gain, high levels of circulating triglycerides, and increased fat deposits, especially layers of visceral fat around the belly; especially male rats. The rats on the diet containing high fructose corn syrup gained 48% more weight than the rats ingesting a normal diet. The study was published online March 18 by the journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior.

There's some additional coverage of the research in this Los Angeles Times piece by a reporter who is much less convinced than I am that high fructose corn syrup is even more debilitating than table sugar. Think about all we already know about the problems associated with a diet heavy in high-fructose corn syrup (which is in everything from soda, to fruit juice, to peanut butter to cereal, dog food, baby food, canned beans, ketchup . . .). Check your labels, please. This stuff is about as close as anything I can think of to a perfectly legal slow poison. It's metabolized very different than sugar, and, among other things, it appears to release an enzyme that triggers the liver to start storing fat at abnormal rates.