Eating too much is bad, and foodstuffs like Fructose clearly do not help. Fructose also has a link to cancer, which is separate to weight issues and should be the main focus of debate
However I agree with you that simply identifying Fructose as a smoking gun / evildoer for obesity is wrong.
There seem to be combination of special interest groups focussing on making Fructose an issue:
* Anti American bile - The school of thought that: American Big Business pushes this stuff, ergo it must be evil and manipulative
* Trying to sell diet books enriching the author. This Fructose issue is the fashionable kernel of truth that such books strive for; They hang snake-oil padding around such facts.
However I agree with you that simply identifying Fructose as a smoking gun / evildoer for obesity is wrong.
There seem to be combination of special interest groups focussing on making Fructose an issue:
* Anti American bile - The school of thought that: American Big Business pushes this stuff, ergo it must be evil and manipulative
* Trying to sell diet books enriching the author. This Fructose issue is the fashionable kernel of truth that such books strive for; They hang snake-oil padding around such facts.
Research shows there is a strong genetic influence on obesity: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2570383/