High Fructose Corn Holing
Way back in the year 2000, before railing against high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) was cool, I was reading about the history of the cloying viscous liquid in Eric Schlosser seminal book Fast Food Nation. More than debating how humans metabolize HFCS and whether it’s that much worse for us than real sugar, Schlosser used the story to show how inefficient (insofar as energy and resource intensiveness) and f’d up big agribusiness is. Thanks to a raft of monstrously large subsidies passed in the 60s (I think) corn became incredibly cheap; this also made HFCS cheap, really cheap. So cheap that it was an obvious replacement for regular sugar in a lot of our packaged foods. That kind of unnatural food selection is bad—this was the big point.
FFWD> 45 years and HFCS is in nearly half of the shit on grocery store shelves.
Lately, HFCS has found itself in the crosshairs of the we-take-no-responsibility for our actions and our bodies movement in America. It’s beginning to look like more people think HFCS is bad because it makes us fat, not because it’s highly processed. This is a problem. HFCS is not making us fat, calories are. Soft drinks and cookies sweetened with real sugar will make you just as fat as those with HFCS. There is not a single study that suggests otherwise.
The fact that people think it’s HFCS making us fat, and not consuming too much, is perfectly emblematic of how our culture is going off the rails.
For example, Google High Fructose Corn Syrup and you’ll find that many of the top results are coupled with key words relating to the controversial soda tax they’re trying to pass in New York State. Some people are suggesting that we won’t need a soda tax if they switch back to real sugar in our sweet drinks. This is utter nonsense to anyone with half a brain.
Even if it is lobbyists who are propagating this myth, more and more people are buying into the logic. I say let’s get rid of the corn subsidies; the Band-Aid has got to be ripped off sooner or later. But let’s not be mistaken, removing the HFCS from our food will likely have zero impact on our obesity epidemic.
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