rt, will you ban it?
Is the corn industry in USA not heavily subsidized, and then that product needs to be justified so HFCS was one that they figured they could squeeze $$ out of?
It’s horrible for you, why produce it at all when the only reason it exists is to justify the government giving tax payers’ money to that bloated industry?
I’m not sure we use it in anything, so I don’t see much reason to ban it, no.
Nah, but there are also almost no products with it, so I don’t see it as an issue. Or are you talking about some specific country where it is?
edit: Love the US defaultism here. MURICA!!!
Remove the subsidies on agricultural products that get sprayed with glyphosate to increase yield. Corn, wheat, and potatoes in this country are poison because of the chemicals they spray them with…then they go and put that tainted product into sugars like HCFS.
As someone with fructose intolerance, yeah I would as it gives me diarrhea.
Can I ban surculose instead? Both are bad, but the distinct lack of regulation on surculose baffles me.
Sure, I don’t care. Don’t think I ever had it.
As an American, that’s crazy to think about. It’s in almost everything in the US.
It’s just sugar with more fearmongering, though.
It is just sugar, but it’s not fear mongering. The reason it is in everything is because of our agricultural policies and manufactured food always uses sugar and salt to “short-circuit” our taste-buds that evolved for survival.
Just removing subsidies on corn would solve the core problem. There are lots of things corn is used for that shouldn’t be corn that also get fixed by that.
Came here to say this. HFCS is used so much because it’s so cheap for companies to use it. Get rid of the corn subsides, which have long outlived their purpose, and there’s not much incentive for using HFCS anymore and you solve the problem without a ban.
Pet food
This is the answer. High fructose corn syrup is over-used because it’s dirt cheap to produce, and it’s only dirt cheap to produce because corn is subsidized.
As much as I love my bourbon whiskey, I’ll accept the fact that prices will go up if corn stops being subsidized, but that’s what’s desperately needed in this country.
yes
Not sure about an all out ban but its usage should definitely be reduced. 39g of sugar in a 12oz Coke is ridiculous.
I mean, 100% agree, but not by force. If people want to drink sugar, that’s their business… It’s stupid, but sure, go for it.
Even relatively normal stuff like yogurt has a staggering amount of sugar (look at the weight in grams, and how much of that is sugar, also in grams. It’s insane)
I just buy unflavored yogurt now, which is sugarless. And make smoothies with it. Can freeze berries and spinach for drinks :)
No, because just banning things rarely achieves the desired results.
And whether it’s cane sugar or high fructose corn syrup, too much sugar in general is the problem, much more so than the subtle differences between the two.
From a practical perspective, cane sugar just tastes better.
That is true
Instead, tax it enough. And maybe do that with sugar/fat/etc in general, so that inherently sweeter and fattier foods can’t be sold as cheap. It works in some countries already.
Maybe. A possibility for sure. I’m just not really into policies of trying to save people from themselves.
For me? I do what I can by just avoiding it as much as I can.
No man is an island and policies that aim to better the nation’s health are rarely for the benefit of the individual and rather are a way to benefit the masses by increasing productivity in the labor market, reducing healthcare costs, and generally making the nation more competitive on the international stage
Right and I get that, and I’m not saying that’s a bad idea, but again I just get a really bad taste in my mouth for policies that aim to save people from themselves. It just feels like the government being a parent instead of a service of the people. Secondly, it doesn’t really fix the root of the problem, which doesn’t always have to be the goal in policies obviously, but reluctantly making people make decisions with higher prices. Where should the government stop then in using higher taxes to get us to do what it wants?
Again, I’m torn on this because it may be the correct thing to do to cut down sugar consumption, but I hate the precedent it creates.
Why? It’s just sugar packaged differently and a harmless substance.
No. It’s not quite harmful enough. If I banned that, I’d have to ban a lot of things if I wanted to keep a fairly consistent position.
Cigarettes would be the first I would consider.
But I probably wouldn’t outright ban any of it.
I’m fairly certain cigarette usage is at historic lows. However, we could go after DUIs a lot more aggressively by bolstering public transit and then applying a much more German-style approach to DUIs.
maybe not a complete ban but definitely more restrictions on all sugars in general. obesity issue in the U.S. is not just due to HFCS, there are many reasons for it such as the car centric design, lack of availability of healthy food for the poor, abundance of cheap fast food etc.
