There is so much incorrect information in your reply that I don’t know where to begin. But this is typical of the responses regarding this debate, and goes to my point how we no longer educate our society in basic science.
A calorie is a measure of the amount of energy and it is always the same. It has always been defined in this manner. Amino acids, carbohydrates and fats are all metabolized using different pathways, and yes, there will be different efficiencies for each. But the untrained person rarely understands the difference between a calorie, and the efficiencies of that calorie.
High fructose corn syrup is fructose and glucose. Fructose and glucose from HFCS is no different chemically than fructose and glucose from any other source. Your body can’t tell where these two chemicals came from nor does it care. To say that there is something wrong with HFCS, but not with sucrose, or honey for that matter, only proves that the person saying such nonsense doesn’t understand very basic chemistry.
Claiming gut flora is responsible for obesity may be a great way to attract grant money, but this kind of nonsense isn’t considered serious by more objective people who have advanced training in chemistry, biology, and human physiology. I spent way too much of time in my life learning these subjects as and undergrad and grad student, and have spent way too much time in a lab putting my training to work in a real world environment to buy into any of the nonsense the purveyors of junk science are wanting to sell.
The answer is really quite simple, but simplicity doesn’t sell books or generate lecture fees and grant money. Sorry, but you’re dealing with someone who understands how these things operate, especially grant money. I’m a sound science guy who doesn’t believe stuff simply because someone sounds like they know what they’re talking about. Taubes isn’t even a scientist. He’s a freaking journalist. Yet the world treats him as an authority. Lustig doesn’t even understand fructose metabolism, yet he’s touted as an expert on that very subject.
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Endocrinology/Obesity/38134
http://www.nature.com/news/gut-microbe-may-fight-obesity-and-diabetes-1.12975
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http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/33/10/2277.full
A little light reading.