Marion Nestle’s post on March 24th disappointed me. I think her doubts of the Princeton study have validity, but it’s hard to tell as they were quickly refuted by one of the study’s authors. This aside, Nestle went on to say that she is skeptical that high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and sucrose lead to different effects on body weight, and says she has to “agree with the Corn Refiners on this one.” This statement was quickly quoted, forwarded, and tweeted by “Big Corn”.
Perhaps we are missing the point. No one is addressing this basic question: Why are we eating HFCS? It’s not because consumers demanded it, it’s not because anyone thinks it’s delicious, and it’s not because anyone thinks it’s a delightfully nutritious substitute for sugar.
The answer, once again, has everything to do with politics and profits, and nothing to do with health, nature, or reason. We consume HFCS as the result of government subsidies and tariffs. The US subsidizes corn production; because of this, US agriculture overproduces corn. Even though the price of corn is lower than what it costs to produce it, government subsidies make this overproduction profitable. In the mean time, to protect US sugar prices, tariffs are placed on imported sugar – artificially increasing the price of sugar. The food industry, interested in finding something profitable to do with excess corn, saw an opportunity. So the smart folks in the food industry worked their voodoo magic on corn. . . to produce a government-subsidized sweetener (HFCS) to replace overpriced sugar.
I think Nestle takes issue with “cane sugar” being marketed as a health food or “natural” food. I see her point. Sugar is little more than a vehicle for delivering Calories; other than energy there is no nutritional benefit to sugar, it does not provide vitamins, minerals or fiber. And it takes away opportunity for consumption of other foods with those nutrients, as we can only consume so many Calories per day.
That said, I think instead of analyzing the effect of HFCS, we should analyze the cause of HFCS – government subsidies, tariffs, corporate greed, and agricultural overproduction. If these causes were removed, would we still be eating HFCS? I think not.
Let’s get rid of subsidies on corn. Maybe we should subsidize something that’s worth encouraging, like organic agriculture?
Anneke
Weird! I just learned about this sugar tariff last night in my economics class for urban planners at PSU! It is really interesting our restrictions and the often unitended consequences. Maybe we could subsidize some “buy local” campaigns and boost our local economies!