rt, will you ban it?
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.
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.
Not ban. No.
However, I would tax it at exactly the same rate as the corn and farm subsidies lower its cost, to make its actual price reflect reality.
deleted by creator
To be honest it and most unhealthy foods should be taxed to make healthy foods really cheap.
The downside of HFCS isn’t the syrup itself, but the fact that it is so cheap and is easily able to be added to make things taste “better” for basically no cost.
I would end the corn subsidies in America. They make bank anyway
The public perception got murdered with the name… Should have called it something like Sucrose type Corn Syrup.
When people hear High Fructose Corn Syrup, they usually stop listening at the word “High” if you’re luck, maybe Fructose, but never the full term. The term isn’t comparing it to other sources of Fructose, but just simply to regular Corn syrup, which is almost 100% glucose. HFCS just turns some of the glucose to fructose to make something equivalent to sucrose.
Sugar is unhealthy, but it doesn’t really matter where it comes from.
Let’s just tax it. Last time I’ve looked (a while ago) HFCS was at about $400/t. Just add a tax of $800/t that solely goes to programs fighting obesity.
No, because, it does not fix the root problem.
Also, banning things isn’t the way to fix things.
I would also be a hypocrite for changing to legalize pot, while also chanting to ban corn-based sugars.
They enacted a ban on plastic grocery bags here two years ago to eliminate all the extras being blown across fields. Didn’t help, I still see them blowing down the streets, and lots of people re-using their bags because they’re so much more convenient (plus a lot of people would rather just pay the small tax to use the plastic bags). Who knows, maybe in twenty years all of the bags will be gone, but it’s been a huge hassle for everyone both as consumers and for the stores to re-work their checkout lines because it takes so much more time to use these bags.
We also have a nearby town where they started taxing people for sugary drinks like sodas. Last I heard, it hasn’t changed the amount of purchases by any noticeable amount. People just do their shopping in another town and local stores miss out on the profits.
I imagine for the high fructose, the same thing will happen. People will just pay the tax and not care. This really comes down to being just another tax on the poor which doesn’t have any affect on people who make more money. These bans are slowly taking away every option that poor people can afford, when if anyone really cared about changing people’s habits they would make healthier choices the same price or cheaper than the unhealthy ones. Since I make a decent wage, my wife and I tried eating healthy for a couple months. It nearly broke us because good foods cost so much more. I’m not talking about buying all organic, rather just trying to change the type of foods we ate. My wife did a ton of research to find things that we both thought sounded tasty, and they really were good, but we had no money left over to do anything fun so we spent the whole time sitting at home watching TV.
tl;dr – Real change comes from making healthy choices cheaper, NOT by making unhealthy choices more expensive.
Our city banned plastic bags, and it’s completely changed the city. Sure, there’s still plastic trash, but there’s virtually no plastic bags stuck in trees or blowing in the street. Noticed this over the past 8-10 years.
Yeah same, except it was later overturned where I live and they came right back. Luckily, at lesser numbers, because more of us were used to bringing our own by then.
Exactly my opinion, banning won’t solve the problem, and there can be valid uses for it. Best solution would be requiring a holistic approach to things, as in requiring proving that any substance used with harmful effects is the best choice in that particular use and that the use case is a valid use case in the first place for the society
No, why would I? I’d end the US corn subsidies for basic economics reasons, and it would become less of a thing as a result, but it’s not a bad technology itself.
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
As someone with fructose intolerance, yeah I would as it gives me diarrhea.
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.
No, people should discipline themselves to eat responsibly. If you don’t want to eat HFCS don’t buy shit that contains it.
Thank you… What’s wrong with people? Jesus Christ.
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?
It can stay but I’d like to restrict the packaging size of highly processed food and food that’s otherwise extremely unhealthy.
For example breakfast cereal. Wtf? How does that even exist? Why was I allowed to eat a fucking bowl of that in the morning as a child?Because being poor takes all your time. It’s way quicker to let everyone get a bowl of cereal versus making food for an hour to find that nobody ate half their plate anyway.
You’d actually create laws to limit people selling food because it’s too sugary for your taste? Jesus, I hope you’re not American… That sounds insane to me.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugary_drinks_portion_cap_rule
I was inspired by american lawmaking.
And it’s not only america that is discussing restrictions on unhealthy food.
https://notesfrompoland.com/2023/08/24/poland-bans-sale-of-energy-drinks-to-under-18s/
Btw, around 100k Americans die of diabetes. While smoking (which is restricted in various ways) kills 500k Americans this is the combined number of smoke related deaths diabetes is one of many food related health conditions.
I’m too lazy to format my links right now but as you see there are references that similar measures are taken in the US and internationally.
Btw, I never claimed you have to stop shoving whatever disgusting crap you consider edible into your food hole. You’re free to do whatever you want. I just suggested that you’d have to buy multiple portions instead of one so you might have the opportunity to reflect your gluttonous abuse of your own body as I do think producers are marketing their products in an unethical way.
Pretty sure it’s already banned here but if it isn’t then I absolutely would.
What dystopia do you live in where they’ve decided to ban corn sugar? What the heck? Are you guys okay?
Ah, sorry, not banned. It has a production quota so you can only make so much. That applies to the whole of Europe. I have never had HFCS so the quota is probably pretty low.
I mean, not ban, but certainly restrict.
I’m amazed to see some people agree with banning it here… Like… Under what grounds? Because some people overeat? Jesus… What the hell?
Well, it’s not about overeating for one thing. The stuff is everywhere in American food. Assuming you’re in the States, you’ve probably consumed a lot more corn syrup than you think within the past year, and the stuff isn’t good for you. Here’s an article from the Cleveland Clinic about why it’s probably not the best thing to eat:
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/avoid-the-hidden-dangers-of-high-fructose-corn-syrup-video/
Now, as I initially said, I don’t know about banning it, but I kinda feel like warning labels are justified, and maybe some other restrictions.
Also… I live in Iowa, and frankly the corn subsidies that have helped cause the corn sweetener explosion are destroying the environment here. It’s a lot to get into, but corn production at this scale causes changes to weather patterns. It’s a lot.
So, I’d like to see corn subsidies ended, or at least reduced a lot. This would make corn sweetener more expensive and therefore a less attractive ingredient.
Nope
