One lethal substance, four simple words: high fructose corn syrup. You see it on the ingredients of almost every food you purchase, be it savory or sweet. It’s hard to avoid at your average grocery store unless you stick to the organic aisle. The dangers of consuming this appear endless. It’s been linked to type-2 diabetes and America’s obesity epidemic.
OK, Americans are used to hearing this kind of stuff about sugar, etc. It’s easy to turn a blind eye. But it gets worse. The manufacturers of corn syrup put in lethal toxins. Like this stuff which kills living cells in order to sterilize water treatment systems. It’s called glutaraldehyde. Studies show that this toxin can burn a hole in your stomach. Something else you’ll be coming into contact with? Mercury. Do I even need to explain how bad that is?
It’s pretty scary that this is in almost all our food, let alone legal at all. But whatever. We should be focusing on supporting the corn industry, right, folks?
We don’t need corn syrup, and outside of the U.S, its consumption is very limited. Maybe because other countries aren’t so sheltered from the truth. Searching for honest information on corn syrup in American media can be pretty difficult with the corn industry’s influence. When I googled “Is corn syrup bad for you?” I came up with a frightening number of websites defending it. The most disturbing was www.sweetsuprise.com, which affiliates itself with the Corn Refiners Association. It claims that all the research on the dangers of corn syrup is phony on its page, “Myths v. Facts.”
But when I googled the same question (in French) with the settings on Google switched to French results, I came up with tons of images like the above as well as many disturbing articles.
These lab rats were fed high fructose corn syrup. Monsanto performed the same experiment except they cleverly stopped after about a year. “Look, it’s fine!” they could claim. French researchers continued the experiment, and in just two years, huge tumors began to grow, weighing up to a quarter of their weight. This diet also shortened the life spans of the males by twenty months, and the females by three months. That’s pretty bad for an animal with average life span of two to three years.
Well, Monsanto sure didn’t want the results of that little experiment to seep into American media, and as far as I can tell, it really hasn’t.
For comparison, the average American is estimated to consume about 132 calories of high fructose corn syrup daily. Yikes! In half a lifetime, we could end up like this.
Wowww, I've actually never heard about high fructose corn syrup before. I can be somewhat of a health freak so this was actually interesting. I also find it very surprising how you had to search in French to get the results of the experiment. Next time I eat something, I'll make sure to read the label.
ReplyDeleteWowww, I didn't know how harmful high fructose corn syrup is. I can be a health freak sometimes so I found this pretty interesting(except for the pictures of the rats!). I also find it weird that you had to search in French to get the results of this experiment. Next time I eat something, I'll make sure to read the label.
ReplyDeleteThis was a really interesting post, and it was a clever experiment to search in both French and English. I read an article a while ago about how the corn industry basically rules the world (or at least the food world), but I had no idea that they could control the media this much. That's pretty scary if you think about it!
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
Those pictures are kind of terrifying. That's not natural and shouldn't be happening. I think that it's really horrible that so much important information is being kept from us, and it's very interesting that switching to French gives such drastically different results. It makes me wonder if there's more that is being kept from us?
ReplyDeleteIZZY. I DON'T LIKE MICE. I overcame my lifelong rodent-phobia to read your compelling argument here...
ReplyDeleteThat is really quite frightening. Even though we watched videos about the dangers and ubiquity of high fructose corn syrup back in subbie science, it really didn't stick in my mind like the meat industry videos. This is a totally different, yet just as critical issue. I'll definitely be sure to watch my intake in the future.
On a side note, I think it's really cool how you found out about this experiment through searching in French!
O.o the made the post.
ReplyDeleteThis post is so eye-opening. I had no idea of these horrible effects of consuming high fructose corn syrup, and now I'll have to do a bit more research and remember this for myself.
ReplyDeleteIt was really clever of you to look at the respective results of French and American research on high fructose corn syrup. The disparity between what is published in either country is appalling. It's crazy how much is hidden from us as consumers. What a great post, though! Way to bring up a subject that is often not regarded as a big issue in the United States and show the ways it could impact our lives. Keep up the great investigative writing :)