New York, Jan 5 (IANS): All "added sugar" found typically in processed foods are bad but among them the fructose found in corn syrup may harm you more than table sugar, new research has found.

"This is the most robust study showing there is a difference between high-fructose corn syrup and table sugar at human-relevant doses," said senior author of a new study Wayne Potts, professor at University of Utah in the US.

When the researchers fed mice sugar in doses proportional to what many people eat, the fructose-glucose mixture found in high-fructose corn syrup was more toxic than sucrose or table sugar, reducing both the reproduction and lifespan of female rodents, the findings showed.

"Our previous work and plenty of other studies have shown that added sugar in general is bad for your health," said first author James Ruff from University of Utah.

"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," Ruff added.

Both high-fructose corn syrup found in many processed foods and table sugar found in baked goods contain roughly equal amounts of fructose and glucose.

But in corn syrup, they are separate molecules, called monosaccharides. In contrast, sucrose or table sugar is a disaccharide compound formed when fructose and glucose bond chemically.

The new study compared two groups of mice that were fed a healthy diet with 25 percent calories from processed sugars.

Female mice on the fructose-glucose diet had death rates 1.87 times higher than females on the sucrose diet. They also produced 26.4 percent fewer offspring.

The study is forthcoming in The Journal of Nutrition.