further evidence of a rightward shift

i've received the Facebook invite to join the "BAN OF HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP IN THE U.S." page or group or whatever. i usually summarily ignore these invites, as do i for "Friend Suggestions." as i heard my friend Naomi say one day, "isn't that the ultimate way to not mind your own business? you're going to suggest who i should be friends with? i already have my own friends..." she went on for a little bit, but you get the idea. i understand it's a "social network," and all, and i appreciate people thinking about me, i guess. but mostly i bet it's just clicking of the boxes next to the names of people you'd like to annoy when faced with one of those Facebook "suggest friends" popups...

...anyway, this is not an idea or group i can really get behind, and not just because i selfishly enjoy my syrupy-sticky carbonated soft drinks, but also because like most good-intentioned ideas, it is ultimately short-sighted and filled with saccharine logic (see what i did there?). i'm fairly certain that banning high-fructose would bring all manner of un-thought-of negative market effects. the fact that the NAME OF THE GROUP IS POSTED IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS also just makes me crazy. it's part of the reason i don't capitalize at all. e-yelling at me is not helping your cause.

my number one objection, however, is that nobody is holding a gun to anybody's head. there are plenty of beverages and foods available on the open market that do not contain HFCS. drink water if you don't want it. it is actually possible to find soft drinks without it. eat whole wheat bread, or an actual apple. to lay the blame for America's obesity epidemic largely on the existence of high fructose is again, false logic. there is correlation, and i will not argue that it may be a contributing factor, but the fault does not, can not, lie in a substance in which the consumer chooses to partake. the fact is that Americans have gotten thirstier, and stupider. not real thirst, but well-marketed thirst. when i was a kid, a 12oz can of "pop" was the serving size. i probably had to split it with my stupid sister (no offence, Meg - just a literary device). that's what you got. today, i can go to the convenience store and grab a 24oz bottle of my favorite fizzy brown sugar-water. and nobody i know takes that bottle & pours a cup, then puts the rest of it in the refrigerator. there are four servings in there! you can wail & bemoan the marketing ploys of the beverage companies, but at the same time, nobody is complaining about getting too much orange juice. take some accountability for your own declining health, America. be parents, and don't give your little kid a bunch of soda.

next is the economical problem. the very people the BAN OF HFCS seeks to help are the ones to be hardest hit. high-fructose is a cheap way to sweeten foods. it is in the staples of the lower-class population - white bread, American cheese, cheap peanut butter, cheap pancake syrup, breakfast cereal. take away the HFCS, and the price of these things grows unaffordable to many of these less-fortunate Americans. what would work better is education. eat balanced meals, with fruit and vegetables. limit the daily intake of HFCS. be aware of what garbage goes into your body. get a little exercise, maybe. i'm pretty sure this was covered in my primary-school Health classes.

many countries who have tried this ban have reverted. Italy & Canada have both given it a go before realizing the negative impacts, both socially and economically. it again amounts to a tax on the poor. God bless those of us who can afford to choose whole, organic foods. to the rest (and much larger, population-wise) of America, it would be an expensive burden to bear for the liberal good intentions of a few.

scream about subsidies to the corn industry, big pharma all you want. if demand goes down, they will look elsewhere for profits. profits = taxes, and taxes = revenue for our grossly broke country. start eating into the profits of the largest corporations in America, and we will see even greater unemployment, even less revenue from income. there are better ways to affect change in the landscape of American society than legislatively removing our fundamental rights to choose our poison.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."


let's not forget the principles on which our nation was built.