Obesity in the United States has become a significant health risk. Federal government subsidies are directly responsible.[i]
Among Americans aged 20 and over, 73.6% are overweight and 42.5% are obese (defined as having a body mass index of over 30). Obesity lessens resistance to infection and is linked to type-2 diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease.
78% of Americans who have been hospitalized or killed by Covid-19 were overweight.
A significant cause of overweight America is the consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in processed foods. The average American consumes about 37 pounds of it in a year, as well as other corn sweeteners.
Sugar is heavily subsidized by the U.S. government. The incentives have created a high-fructose corn-syrup industry that didn’t exist prior to the 1970s. In addition, the government in 1973 began paying farmers to grow corn and other agricultural products.
The 1970s were about the time that obesity began to develop in the United States. Funny coincidence, eh?
From 1995-to-2020, corn subsidies in the U.S. totaled $116.6 billion. A good part of this cost was not included in consumer prices. It was absorbed by the federal government and most likely added to the national debt.
The AIER article by Professor Brownstein footnoted for this section quotes portions of a book by Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Some of those quotes I paraphrase in the next four paragraphs:
- Corn is what feeds the steer that becomes the steak. Corn is a compact source of caloric energy. Cows heavily fed on it grow fat quickly, and their flesh marbles well. Corn-fed meat contains more saturated fat and less omega-3 fatty acids than the meat of animals that have been fed grass. A growing body of research suggests that many of the today’s health problems associated with eating beef are actually problems with corn-fed beef.
- Corn feeds chickens, pigs, turkeys, lambs, catfish, tilapia, and even salmon. (Salmon, a carnivore, is now being reengineered to tolerate corn). Indirectly, eggs come from corn. Milk, cheese, and yogurt once came from dairy cows that had grazed on grass. Now they typically come from Holsteins that spend their working lives indoors eating corn.
- A chicken nugget piles corn on corn. The chicken itself was fed on corn. Modified corn starch glues the nugget together. Corn flour in the batter coats it. And corn oil helps to fry it. The leavenings, lecithin, and triglycerides give it a golden coloring, and citric acid keeps the nuggets fresh. These additives can all be derived from corn.
- Since the 1980s, virtually all the sodas and most of the fruit drinks sold in supermarkets have been sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup. After water, corn sweetener is their principal ingredient.
Because of the subsidies, these corn-derived foods are relatively cheap. Americans most affected by the resulting ill-health are those with low income.
