the all-poverty diet

so you know how the price of corn is shooting way up? turns out that'll have some good results. sugar manufacturers are predicting that high-fructose corn syrup will be priced out in favor of actual fucking sugar, according to this wall street journal article (subscription/trial needed. i didn't do either...sue me. we're better off not giving old man murdoch any cash anyway).

for those of you who are unaware of the difference, sugar is a natural thing that grows out of the ground in canes. it tastes sweet, because anyone who paid attention in high school biology realizes it's our basic fuel. meanwhile, high fructose corn syrup is "any of a group of corn syrups which have undergone enzymatic processing in order to increase their fructose content and are then mixed with pure corn syrup (100% glucose) to reach their final form." (source: wikipedia)

sound very good to you? me neither.

because of high sugar tariffs and american protectionism for corn farmers, pure cane sugar was gradually phased out as a sweetener in favor of this sugary corn sludge (tinfoil hat time: some people suspect the new coke fiasco was actually a bait-and-switch for a new hfcs-based formula). thankfully, i shop at a costco in san diego, meaning i can get the old-school cane sugar stuff in glass bottles. it's made in mexico, but mark my words, mexicoke tastes so much better. for those of you keeping track, that means mexico has higher quality coca-cola than us.

anyone notice that's right around the time we started getting really fucking fat in america? surprise surprise! high-fructose corn syrup is potentially linked to obesity and diabetes, which is great, because they've been putting it in chocolate milk for schoolkids. even the fda won't call it 'natural' anymore.

maybe the threat of hfcs is overblown, and it's really just a fancy high-tech substitute for sugar, but i tend to favor the foods that don't have long chemical names.

but just so we're clear here, even if you get regular ol' sugar-coke in favor of the hfcs nonsense, it's still probably not a good idea to get 64 ounces of the shit to go with your burger.