Is there a high fructose corn syrup conspiracy?

Question

My food scientist friend from Europe tells me that high fructose corn syrup is not added to most European foods and I've heard that it's not ALLOWED in Canadian foods! Are my friends yanking my chain? Is the USDA allowing the food industry to pack in more calories into our food with a concentrated sugar or what? Are US foods more sugary because Americans like to get fat or is there some conspiracy to make us all fat so that we buy more food to feed our artificially increased appetites?

Conspire:
1 a : to join in a secret agreement to do a wrongful act or an act which becomes unlawful as a result of the secret agreement b : SCHEME
2 : to act in harmony toward a common end

I try to imagine what the public forcing the food industry to do something looks like... hmm... At gunpoint? You don't look at your ingredient labels, do you "Republicansarecruel?" And don't even get me started on those toxic artificial sweeteners, let alone that I hate the flavor.

Please excuse my previous sarcasm, Republicansarecruel, it's just that I can't help but noticing that here and in the real world, Americans are mostly uninformed of their nutrition and blunder through life having that information denied to them. What bothers me is not so much your plan in attacking those thoughtlessly minding their profit margins, but that you enable their moral failings by saying it's ok. It's not ok. According to this group - yourself included - they know very well what they are doing (and probably have trade meetings and conventions on how to do it better) . Honestly, they don't need your help justifying their behavior. The people that need help are those that are suffering the effects of industry's actions - negligent or otherwise. I believe, however, that we HAVE estabilished - negligent or otherwise - that this sort of behavior is not in the best interest of public health costs... Including insurance costs large companies pay... Choose sides carefully...

Answer 1

its cheaper than sugar...
and get this... high fructose corn syrup supresses your natural ability to feel full... that means if you eat anything with high fructose corn syrup in it, you'll overeat because you won't be able to help it! and with so much in virtually all processed foods, is it any wonder why obesity is an epidemic!

Answer 2

I'm not sure, but do an experiment... Try not eating it for a few weeks. First of all this will be VERY difficult at first, you'll end up using a lot of Organic foods when you want anything prepared (for me it mainly ketchup!) Now after a month, eat something with LOTS of it. Chase a couple cheap hotdogs with lots of ketchup with a soda and follow with a desert of Twinkies!

If your like me first you'll notice everything is very sweet, and it tastes weird, almost chemically... Next you may start feeling a slight rush (like if you drank a ton of coffee). Finally you may end up with an upset stomach and other digestion problems (just make sure you can be home for a while.)

Now the next day, you'll probably foods you havn't wanted for a couple weeks.

It is not a conicidence that the raise of obsesity closely tracks the increase in HFCS.

Just wait in 20 years HFCS may turn out to be the next tobacco... Lawyers are already salavating...

Answer 3

It's not about a conspiracy, it's about MONEY.

In the US, corn production is subsidized by the government, and Sugar Cane production is not.

Companies can therefore by corn syrup for substantially less than sugar cane, so in the US, they use it in everything.

Farm subsidies are supposed to be for the "American Farmer", now less than 3% or the population. The big beneficiaries of farm subsidies would be agri-business, Archers Daniel Midland (ADM).

Also, farm subsidies make us pay twice, once when our tax dollars are given to these companies, and again at the grocery store in the form of higher prices.

There is also a much darker side to this. Farm work is very labor intensive. Who has lots of cheap labor? Third world developing nations. Unfortunately, farm subsidies make it impossible for third world nations to compete on the open market, because the prices are artificially inflated.

What can you do? Vote. Write a letter to your congressman. Learn more about the issue and its global effects.

Answer 4

"Is the USDA allowing the food industry to pack in more calories into our food with a concentrated sugar or what?" Yes. But it's not their fault. Americans buy it. No one forces them to.

I also think your friend is fooling with you. Aren't Pepsi and other soft drinks allowed in Canada? That right there would blow his theory.


Edit: "You don't look at your ingredient labels, do you "Republicansarecruel?" Oh, psychic one. I do. On each and every product I buy. And I rarely buy anything with that garbage in it. See, it's called choice and being informed. I choose to be informed and so I choose not to buy those things. If everyone decided not to buy these items, then the companies would have no reason to make them. Supply & Demand. No demand, no reason to have the supply.

Answer 5

Yes I believe it it is called Agri business. Like in Con Agra. Yes I saw a report last week about how all the sodas in the US use highfructose corn syrup instead of sugar. The cornsyrup stays in your blood instead of burning up as energy like sugar. It costs more but I buy the Cokes from Mexico because they use sugar.

Answer 6

The "sugar lobby" is probably the most powerful lobby in the US, aside from Big Tobacco, and Big Insurance. Your question has led me to answer my own question as to why, when I type "diabetic ice cream" into Google, it sends me to the UK. And yes, there MUST be a "Big Sugar" conspiracy. That's the only explanation I can come up with.

Answer 7

High fructose corn syrup is just cheaper than using sugar, so big food companies use it. It is the same reason that they continue to use hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils, which have been proven to be carcinogenic (they cause cancer), and may be linked to auto-immune disorders (where the body attacks itself).

Answer 8

The Government wants us all to die, so anything that we can become fat or lazy on it will produce more and more of, after all death is a high business ( doctors love it).... But if you're a loner like me, you do it for dirt cheap! >=)

Answer 9

"High Fructose Corn Syrup"...is just the FDA's label for George Bush Jr's semen... so the conspiracy is to make you eat presidential spunk...

Answer 10

Just cheaper...

Same reason they don't use copper in pennies anymore...

Oh wait, that's a conspiracy to make us abolish the penny and replace it with pieaces of wire (copper wire)