Researchers determined high fructose corn syrup is most likely more harmful to health than table sugar.

A fructose-glucose combination found in high-fructose corn syrup reduced both life span and the ability to reproduce in female rodents, the University of Utah reported. There did not appear to be a difference in influence on survival and reproduction in male mice.

"This is the most robust study showing there is a difference between high-fructose corn syrup and table sugar at human-relevant doses," said biology professor Wayne Potts, senior author of a new study scheduled for publication in the March 2015 issue of The Journal of Nutrition.

Commonly-used corn syrups and table sugar generally contain equal amounts of fructose and glucose, but corn syrup contains separate molecules called monosaccharides. Table sugar is a disaccharide compound that is formed when fructose and glucose bond chemically.

Determining the difference between the dangers of fructose and sucrose is important because the diabetes-obesity-metabolic syndrome epidemic that started in the mid-1970s is believed to have been linked to a general increase in consumption of added sugar the switchover from sucrose to high-fructose corn syrup.

The new study is the latest in a planned series that is using newly-developed toxicology tests to test health in influences such as inbreeding, antidepressant, and diets rich in high-fructose corn syrup.

"Our previous work and plenty of other studies have shown that added sugar in general is bad for your health. So first, reduce added sugar across the board. Then worry about the type of sugar, and decrease consumption of products with high-fructose corn syrup," said James Ruff, the study's first author and a postdoctoral fellow in biology.

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation and was published in a recent edition of the Journal of Nutrition.