MNN - Mother Nature Network

Annoyed by those high fructose corn syrup ads? Laugh it off by watching a spoof of those Corn Refiners’ commercials:

 

(via Ethicurean)

 

If you're confused about what exactly high fructose corn syrup is, Marion Nestle, NYU professor and author of Food Politics, explains it thusly:

Biochemically, it is about the same as table sugar (both have about the same amount of fructose and calories), but it is in everything and Americans eat a lot of it—nearly 60 pounds per capita in 2006, just a bit less than pounds of table sugar. HFCS is not a poison, but eating less of any kind of sugar is a good idea these days and anything that promotes eating more is not.

HFCS adds to the absurd amount of corn in American diets in general. As Michael Pollan points out, "If you are what you eat, and especially if you eat industrial food, as 99 percent of Americans do, what you are is corn" (via SchizoFrenetic):

Take a typical fast food meal. Corn is the sweetener in the soda. It's in the corn-fed beef Big Mac patty, and in the high-fructose syrup in the bun, and in the secret sauce. Slim Jims are full of corn syrup, dextrose, cornstarch, and a great many additives. The “four different fuels” in a Lunchables meal, are all essentially corn-based. The chicken nugget—including feed for the chicken, fillers, binders, coating, and dipping sauce—is all corn. The french fries are made from potatoes, but odds are they're fried in corn oil, the source of 50 percent of their calories. Even the salads at McDonald's are full of high-fructose corn syrup and thickeners made from corn.

That perhaps explains why the mock ad was created by the makers of King Corn, a documentary "about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation." Take the King Corn Quiz to find out if YOU are made of corn. I'm proud to say I'm only 30% corn --