42 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup
You probably have seen the numbers that the average American ingests 42 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup per year. Then again, Americans are bad at math, too.
After all, in the same stories, we find out the average American eats 85 pounds of fat and oils and 110 pounds of red meat. All those numbers sound bad and they are thrown out there to make us eat better.
However, if you are one of those cynical people who thinks the food revolution is a bunch of bunk, even if you are good at math, you might not care about these numbers.
The good news is that if you are literally the average American, you are eating about 4.82 oz. of red meat per day. Don't know how much pork you, the average American, are eating, but if the figures are comparable, 9.5 oz. of meat/pork per day is not bad. But as we've learned in the past, average counts vegetarians and vegans, so quite a few people are eating much more meat to make up the difference.
You need fat to survive, and the average American is consuming just under 4 oz. per day. What does that mean? If we are talking olive oil, a healthy fat, 4 oz. of olive oil is about 1,000 calories. Yes, less healthy oils are still 1,000 calories. And chances are a lot of that oil comes from absorption from fried foods. Again, this is the average American. The healthy person nearby is throwing off the scale, literally.
Now for that 42 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup, which breakdowns down to about 11 teaspoons a day. Now we could tell you that the calorie breakdown is about 185 calories, again for the average American. That doesn't seem that bad; after all the fat content runs about 1,000 calories, what's another 200 calories?
This only counts high-fructose corn syrup; doesn't even factor in corn syrup, malt barley, all the other euphemisms for sugar, and of course, sugar.
Since you have plenty of people who eat little to no high-fructose corn syrup, count on a number of Americans eating WAY more than 42 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup.
You do need protein (not necessarily from meat) and fat. Sugar? Technically, no. But we aren't suggesting giving up sweets at all.
And if you are one of those "corn sugar" people who goes along with the status quo on high-fructose corn syrup, think about the patterns of the last 30 years. Yes, changes in exercise, recess, and overall movement have contributed to the obesity epidemic. The major changes in the food supply are the advent of high-fructose corn syrup and the use of high-fructose corn syrup in foods that aren't normally sweet (i.e., hot dog buns).
The HFCS people will argue that this isn't cause and effect, but even if you stink at math, you have to ask yourself if a correlation exists.
If high-fructose corn syrup affects how much more you would eat (as opposed to sugar) — the Princeton University study with rats comes to mind — then those results are literally off the calorie charts.
Comments