The bittersweet truth on your favorite sweets

Life has many pleasures to offer, with sugar being one of the top-ranked, but recently, researchers are questioning whether or not sugary substances are crossing the line between unhealthy and tolerable.

"Many people are under the impression that high fructose corn syrup is substantially worse for the body than regular sugar," said Nick Bilse, a dietician currently employed by Christus Spohn Hospital.

"When you really break the ingredients down, both substances are similar to one another," she said.

Both sugar and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) are broken down in to fructose and glucose sub-parts, the key difference being sugar is made from sugar cane and sugar beets.

"At high levels of consumption, fructose, whether from HFCS or sugar, increases fat in the bloodstream," according to USA Today's Peter Harvel, an endocrinologist at the University of California-Davis.

"It could be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and individuals who have diabetes," he said.

So what exactly is high fructose corn syrup?

HFCS is a highly refined, artificial product that transforms cornstarch into a thick clear liquid.

Some researchers and scientists believe that what makes HFCS so bad is the way the body digests the product.

According to Mary Glenda, author of Mary Glenda's Cookbooks, HFCS goes directly to the liver, releasing enzymes that instruct the body to store fat. Also, the HFCS does not stimulate insulin production, which creates a sense of being full.

Sugar, on the other hand, isn't exactly innocent.

Only evaporated cane juice (beets and fruit) is truly "raw" sugar. Once the cane juice crystals are harvested, they are washed, boiled, centrifuged, filtered, and dried to produce sugar.

"That process removes most of the fiber and nutrients that existed in the original crystals," said Bilse. "The sugar then becomes refined, and is now a food high in calories with little nutritional value."

Another concern with HFCS is that it is a common ingredient in many quick-and-easy snacks and beverages such as Capri-Sun juice, sport drinks, Pepsi and Coke products, V8 juices and Nabisco Oreo cookies.

All in all, any amount of sugar (whether refined or not) should be monitored in everyone's daily nutritional diet and should be consumed in portioned amounts.