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Corn seems to have found its way into nearly everything we consume! I'd hate to be suffering from a corn allergy, because this is ridiculous! Largely due to the $50 billion the US government has used to stimulate the corn industry over the last decade, we are looking at a surplus of corn in our country. Lucky for us, High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) was invented during the 1970's to use up some of this excess corn. Now, four decades later, HFCS and other corn derivatives are in much of our food. Take a look at your average fast food meal. The meat on the burger is from corn-fed cows; corn is the sweetener in the soda; HFCS preserves the soft bun; the fries are (often) fried in corn-oil! That meal is all corn!
So how is this a problem?
According to recent studies by Princeton & Duke Universities, HFCS is responsible for increased obesity and liver-problems. Furthermore, the increase in diabetes in the US correlates with the increase in intake of HFCS. The corn is killing us! Another study marks obesity as the 2nd highest killer of Americans annually (smoking is number one). Think about the media coverage, too. Only 160,000 have been killed by homicide over the last decade; but, 2,800,000 have died from obesity!
Obviously, the news media is not covering this. And ultimately, it is Americans who pay. If we don't speak out, who will?
The poster version of this graphic is available for download, located on the right. It's labeled '67% corn poster' & is 18x24". Thanks!
Social change will never come until individuals on their own decide to not consume products made with corn. Politicians are the ones who subsidized the growing of corn, and there is too much money at stack for them to change that.
ReplyDeleteObesity is very similar to the issue of smoking. People know it is unhealthy and one day it will kill them, but they keep on doing it.
If public policy hasn't changed the way people think about smoking, then why would it be any different with obesity?
Holy CORN!!
ReplyDeleteI still can't get over the fact that we are made up of so much corn now! That's a little scary.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen those corn commercials? Where someone talks about how you shouldn't eat a popsicle or something, because of the corn syrup, and then their friend talks about how good corn is for you. People are/were being educated about HFCs, but now that propaganda is de-educating others...
Interesting as always! Can't wait for more.
I'm trying to think about this from a journalistic perspective since I'm a reporter for a living. You have to ask yourself, why is this news? What's the story? How do you illustrate it? Even more important - how is it locally relevant?
ReplyDeleteIt would be an interesting feature, perhaps, to follow someone dealing with obesity and track their corn intake over the course of a few weeks (which in the world of journalism, is practically forever). It could be done as a documentary as well, of course - not unlike SuperSize Me.
Question: can you see the physical effects of a specifically high-corn diet on a cadaver? When compared to a low-corn diet? That would be an interesting visual representation...
You changed the way I report: http://www.taylordailypress.net/articles/2010/04/22/features/news03.txt
ReplyDeleteI've read the article from princeton and the article is very convincing. Looks like many health experts believe that fructose is really harmful to our health.
ReplyDelete