Theliterateper

That could be part of it, but the fact that pure glucose diets result in lower weights suggests additional mechanisms at work. I just don't know what these are.

Truthfully, I do not know what causes the adrenal gland abnormalities, nor the extra weight gain at lower concentrations.

So are glycolaldehyde (from where it comes) and glycolate (the other glycolaldehyde derivative created by Cannizzaro reactions), which are also toxic as they undergo the same metabolism as ethylene glycol. Now, two down, three to go.

That and the branched-chain sugars (which would presumably be included in that statement as well), plus polyols and aldonate salts. Now, the rest of the symptoms/anomalies...

It's hard to provide a concrete composition, given that it depends on temperature and pH. Other factors, especially the presence of other inorganic compounds, can also strongly affect composition. This paper shows analysis of one formose mixture: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002%2Fanie.202316621

Formose is a solution made by heating formaldehyde with calcium hydroxide. It's a complex mixture of sugars with various configurations and chain branching, plus minor amounts of alcohols, acids, and other miscellaneous compounds. It's deadly to animals at 20%+ of the diet, with 25%+ killing all of them, and causes them to lose weight and have moderate to severe diarrhea. Other anomalies observed include shrunken livers and spleens and swollen kidneys and adrenal glands. At 10% and lower it actually causes higher weight gain than pure glucose solution, yet they still have mild diarrhea. Purified formose solution enables longer survival than crude formose. Now, let's speculate on formose's toxicity's mechanism(s), as well as to why it causes higher weight gain at lower amounts. I just realized this is the wrong place. Please move this thread to Speculations.