Fatty and Poor: Huntington, West Virginia

Huntington, W. Va is the fattest city in America. At least half of adults are obese. Succumbing to family traditions of fried foods saturated with gravy. There are over 200 pizza places in town...just pizza! Hot dogs are something else the city loves, who knows how many hog dog and other fast food joints are in town.

The town is also poor. In the 50s, it had a booming population due to coal mining, but that has long since evaporated. Today, area hospitals are the biggest employers, that and nearby Marshal University. Fortunately, the town has a low unemployment rate, however, it's supplied by the huge number of low paying, low quality restaurants in the area.

It's interesting that area hospitals are the largest employer. With "healthcare" being so prominent in the area, you would think this would be one of the healthiest cities in the US. The fact that it's not reinforces that America's health care is actually sick care. And those working in these hospitals are simply perpetuating sickness inducing ideology and habits inherent to this culture.

Citizen's believe they are too poor to eat healthy foods. However, with the rich supply of restaurants, there must be a market, telling me they have the money to eat outside the home. Something that is always more costly than more nutritious home cooked meals. How many drugs do you think each person takes in this city? How much money do you think that costs each family each month? What if these people traded in their dining out budgets for improved grocery budgets? I'm betting they'll find themselves with more money in the bank at the end of each month.

Good nutrition could have miraculous effects on this population. They'll have more energy, perhaps feeling like participating in a little physical activity. Their brains will function more efficiently, helping them see the error to their ignorant ways and from there the possibilities are endless. It's sad that a situation such as that in Huntington, WV exists in America today, but it's not surprising. This town exemplifies all that is wrong with our society in terms of health, and is exactly what will happen everywhere if people don't begin to take personal responsibility for themselves today.

High Fructose Corn Syrup

As I was trying to enjoy one of the few free afternoons I've had recently, and surely one of the last I'll have in the upcoming months, something outrageous caught my attention on tv.  A commercial portraying a young couple enjoying a romantic picnic together.  The girl offers the boy a popsicle or something similar and the boy answers something to the effect of "but doesn't that contain high fructose corn syrup?" and the girl says something about it's no different than sucrose.  That's probably not EXACTLY how the script went, but the message was simple.  High fructose corn syrup is not bad.  

I've not heard a bigger lie in ages!!  This is not only immoral, but should be illegal!!!  No wonder the American public is grossly obese!!  Blatant falsehoods are being advertised to the public.  The average American doesn't stand a chance.

But, we can overcome this.  We just need to use some detective work and critical thinking skills.

1.)  Go to the website - sweetsurprise.com (how pleasant and harmless) and scroll to the bottom.  Left hand corner - blink and you'll miss it: Corn Refiners Association.  Who do you think will make the most money off the increased consumption of high fructose CORN syrup?

2.) Okay, okay!  While you were at the website, I know you couldn't help yourself.  You quickly perused the links and noticed phrases like "research shows" followed by some positive comment.  Start investigating the listed sources and you'll note some interesting findings - which could be construed as conflicts of interest.  Additionally, in general, more than half of studies show favorable results for those who fund it...when the same study is repeated by a non-affiliated group, less favorable results tend to be produced...

3.)  "But the FDA is listed too!!  They say it's good!!"  An excellent book, Food Politics, written by Marion Nestle will show you how worthless an FDA endorsement is.  Too often, CEOs of big companies/organizations like the Corn Refiners Association get jobs within the FDA or vice versa.  Who are they looking out for?  Themselves or you?  Fat chance.  Additionally, the FDA is government related, and easily influenced by lobbying tactics.  Oh, and the FDA gave its stamp of approval to Vioxx.

4.)  AMA - American Medical Association.  Pshh... Where do obese sick people go for help?  Hospitals.  Medicine.  What if people didn't consume high fructose corn syrup?  Would we continue to gain weight at astounding rates?  Would we develop diabetes and need insulin?  Would we need bariatric surgery?  What would hospitals and the AMA do then?  More importantly, what would the pharmaceutical companies do???

5.) Google "high fructose corn syrup."  Nearly a million hits in 0.16 seconds.  Definitely more than half, probably at least 97% of those hits discuss the negatives.  Including the Mayo Clinic and American Diabetes Association.  

High fructose corn syrup IS bad.  Period.  Nothing containing this nasty ingredient offers much nutritional value, i.e. vitamins and minerals.  It's empty calories.  But I'll save that for another post.  What's really important here is advertising.  We're obviously not protected from companies/organizations telling us blatant lies.  So it's up to us to protect ourselves, and sift through the crap to see who really stands to benefit.