Sickeningly Sweet

Two of this year's food marketing campaigns have captured my attention for their sheer audacity. 

The first, a "documentary" style ad portraying the introduction of Burger King's Whopper to people around the world unfamiliar with fast food.  The second, a series of industry ads to promote high fructose corn syrup.

The premise of the Whopper Virgins piece is a team (including an "independent researcher") traveling the world to find people who have never tried a hamburger (aka; the virgins) for a Whopper vs Big Mac taste test.  The Hmong, Inuit, and Romanian taste testers seemed to prefer the Whopper enough to warrant helicopter-ing in an authentic Burger King flame broiler for a town wide Whopper party in each taster's community.   The ad shows people trying and liking the burgers so much they offer gifts and extend invitations for many happy returns. What it doesn't show us is the long term affect of eating poor quality, factory farmed beef on a refined flour bun on a regular basis.  

History shows us that the colonization of peoples' traditional diet with the western diet of highly processed, refined foods leads to chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers.  Time and time again, the transition of people from their tried and true traditional diets of naturally lean meats, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables to our fast food culture has been detrimental to their health.  No story seems more drastic to me than that of the Pima Indians of the Southwest United States- a people with almost no recorded Type 2 Diabetes at the turn of the 20th century now have the highest rates of Type 2 Diabetes in the world.  As their traditional farming and gathering practices diminished due to governmental policies and their reliance upon commodities of white flour, sugar, and lard increased, their rates of chronic diseases skyrocketed. 

Over two thirds of American adults and one third of American children are overweight or obese. The CIA World Fact Book estimates that in 2008, the U.S. ranks 46th for life expectancy world wide.  Our diet related chronic diseases continue to rise to epidemic proportions.  These are all issues that warrant consideration as we continue exporting our food ways to the rest of the world.

In a slightly different vein, the promotional ads for High Fructose Corn Syrup  brought to us by the Corn Refiner's Association are designed to counter the negative press HFCS has been getting over the past several years by deflecting and confusing the audience.

 

In one unsettling piece, a concerned mother confronts the hostess mom serving HFCS sweetened juice drink to children at a party.  The concerned mom lacks any data to explain her concern and the host mom smugly explains that HFCS is made from corn, doesn't have artificial ingredients, and, just like any other sugar; is fine in moderation.   

The problem with this is that of course, high fructose corn syrup is not enjoyed in moderation-Americans consumed over 60 pounds of it per person in 2004.  As the preferred cheap sweetener of food manufacturers, HFCS has made it's way into most of our convenience foods and sweetened beverages.  There is a huge amount of  controversy over HFCS in both political and scientific realms.  Some say we can blame our skyrocketing obesity rates on HFCS's easy accessibility while others stick to the refrain that a calorie is a calorie whether its cane sugar, honey, or syrup...  

While it can be debatable that HFCS accounts for our nation's excess pounds, what is definitely true is that our governmental policies promote the manufacturing and use of HFCS.  Both our corn subsidies which provide the bankroll for monocrops of corn and our tariffs on imported cane sugar keep HFCS cheap and easy.  Not only is this a problem from a nutritional perspective (we should be subsidizing fruits and vegetables if we want people to eat better) this creates a huge environmental impact.  Energy intensive, pesticide laden, genetically modified corn planted fence row to fence row is eroding our topsoil, polluting our water, and spewing carbon into the atmosphere.  While scientists continue to debate whether HFCS promotes excess calorie consumption, insulin resistance, and harmful carbonyls compounds in our bodies we must broaden the conversation to include the harmful impact the over consumption of this sweetener has on our planet.

In response to the Corn Refiner's ads, several parodies have been posted, including one that seems to compare HFCS to the Nazi scoundrels from an Indiana Jones movie.