Michael Prager makes an important point about HFCS in responding to a recent “maize-pimping website Corn Commentary” blog post (emphasis mine):
The globesity pandemic did take off in the ‘70s, about the same time that HFCS was synthesized in an industrially scaleable way. This is why many people thought that the substance was more harmful than other processed sugars.
But the danger laid not in its chemistry but in its economy. Manufacturers had previously known that sweetness sells but had been economically prevented from sprinkling it over … everything. HFCS was cheaper to make, making that possible, which is why today it’s in soda, bread, hot dogs and other protein, salad dressing, condiments, and many other products in which it’s neither needed nor expected.
One more reason to cut back on processed foods when/where possible!
Weight Maven is written by Beth Mazur. Beth believes that obesity is more symptom than cause and that the real problem is our Western diet -- especially sugar, refined grains, and industrial oils. Beth writes about nutrition, ancestral health, & food policy. And cats! 
I haven’t investigated this notion, but it would be interesting to know precisely how much HFCS, and sugar in other forms, replaced fat in foods after low-fat products (of every variety) increasingly flooded the market. I was one of the true believers in “heart healthy” low fat eating, never realizing that I was substituting so many sugar calories in place of fat calories-never realizing the damage that single “smart” substitution was doing to all of my cells, etc, and even to my brain function. Sad and tragic…the b.s. that consumers like me bought into with so much trust for medical “science.”
HandF: excellent point!