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Hey Jana,
I've been doing some more reading and really need to correct myself for your benefit and anyone else out there who read my post.....feel like SUCH an Idiot!.... Yes: Fructose is 'more natural' given that it's what nature provides for you in fruit and honey and is therefore what our bodies are built to digest. Yes, it is sweeter than Sucrose or common table sugar which is a half/half combination of glucose and fructose and so supposedly you would think that for the same sweetness you could use less and therefore have less calories for the same sweetness.
Here's the drum:
1. Fructose is only sweeter in it's 5-ring form and when you add heat to it (as you do in cooking) it is transformed to it's 6 ring form which is only as sweet as table sugar.
2. Your body uses glucose for energy. All other sugars must be converted
3. EXCESS Fructose (in comparison with your body's daily needs - which by the way is not very much) is more readily converted to fat in the bloodstream than other sugars and it has been hypothesized that the excess sugar/fructose intake in our diets is a large factor in the increase in artherosclerosis / CARDIO VASCULAR DISEASE.
4. BEWARE High Fructose Corn Syrup - it's replacing sucrose as an ingredient in food manufacturing and it is what it says it is: HIGH FRUCTOSE.
Now as for the health issues with sugar substitutes and eating lots of them, I don't know yet - perhaps the only solution is to just get over our 'sweet teeth' and eat what nature intended.
Anyhoo - if you want more info on this: the research paper I read can be found at Biomed - Carbohydrate metabolism
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