This is my first post on LiveLeak! It's a report I made for my Junior English class about the following prompt: In his Fox News hour, "Myths, Lies, and Complete Stupidity," John Stossel takes a critical look at food regulations designed to encourage people to make healthier food choices. Should it be government's job to try to keep people healthy? Why or why not? I know the topic isn't as gripping as Syria or other things, but I want to get out into the LiveLeak world with something that I hope is worth your time. Thank you and happy Leaking! The government should not be involved in making the population healthy. If you give them an inch they will take a mile. What will they regulate next if people let them regulate their food and beverages? Many other countries have tried to regulate fat and sugar intake. Denmark even imposed a Fat Tax that would tax a purchase if it had too much fat! The result of the Fat Tax was a complete failure. Many went out of country to purchase their food and people would smuggle the food into Denmark. The Fat Tax was later repealed because of this (Essay Contest Video). Does the United States of America have an obesity problem? Yes we do. 37.5% of adults and 17% of children ages 2 to 19 are obese according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. We also have a huge Diabetes problem. Right now 26 million Americans are affected by Diabetes and by 2020, nearly half of all Americans will have Diabetes (Hawks)! With these numbers it's no wonder why people think the government needs to step in and help us, right? The truth is that The United States is spending more money on health care than any other country! In 2012, The United States was spending $8,000 per person at 17.4% GDP with a life expectancy of 78 years. Compared to Norway, that is almost twice the amount they spend annually. Norway was spending $5,300 per person at 9.6% GPD with a life expectancy of 81 years (Hawks). In 2010, 35.9% of American adults were Obese and 10% of Norwegian adults were obese. So does spending more money and regulating food and drinks mean that obesity rates go down? The numbers do not reflect that belief. Why does the government want to ban big drinks and limit our sugar intake when there are more dangerous ingredients in food? They want to regulate natural ingredients but fail to realize that 80% of all processed food made in the United States are banned in other nations! Most recently was the azodicarbonamide found in the bread of many fast food chains such as Subway and Chick-fil-A. This same chemical is used in yoga mats and the souls of shoes. Not surprisingly this is banned in the European Union and Australia. So why did the FDA approve of this chemical? They know it's bad for you but if you ingest a small amount of it (no more than 0.0045% the weight of flour) it's not as bad for you for some reason (Landau). The European Union has banned Bovine Growth Hormones, Chlorinated Chickens, Borminated Vegetable Oil found in Gatorade (Mukerjee), and plan on banning various food dyes including Yellow #5, Blue #5, Red #40, and others soon (Lepisto). The United States has not banned any of these ingredients. Then there is High Fructose Corn Syrup. HFCS is one of the most used ingredients and is used as a substitute for sugar. Both sugar and HFCS are bad for your health, but is one worse than the other? "A Princeton University research team has demonstrated that all sweeteners are not equal when it comes to weight gain: Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same. In addition to causing significant weight gain in lab animals, long-term consumption of high-fructose corn syrup also led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in circulating blood fats called triglycerides. The researchers say the work sheds light on the factors contributing to obesity trends in the United States (Laskawy)." It's that simple. High Fructose Corn Syrup led to obesity. The reason why I've singled out HFCS is because of how much it is used. From 1980 to the 2000s the US increased its production of HFCS from 2.2 million tons to 9.2 million tons (Roan). Not surprisingly when you search for a line graph showing the US Obesity rates from 1980-2012 there is a huge jump from 1980 to present day (Kenworthy)! In summary, the United States spends the most money for healthcare while having the highest amount of obesity and diabetes. We also use more High Fructose Corn Syrup than anyone else and 80% of our processed foods are banned around the world. We use ingredients that cause weight gain and some even cause tumor growth such as BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) which is found in gum, butter, cereals, and snack foods. (Renouard). Is the problem our sugar intake or our High Fructose Corn Syrup intake? If the government wants to start making us "healthier" then they should ban many articfial ingredients and eliminate the subsidies and tariffs on sugar imports. The government has jacked the price of sugar up so much that it's no wonder why companies are switching to HFCS, and here's the real shocker, the USA is the fifth largest producer of sugar in the world! (Euteneuer). Why should we let a government that placed a tariff and subsidy on sugar control how much sugar we consume? Americans are paying twice the amount for sugar compared to the rest of the world (Perry)! It's hypocritical and we shouldn't let the government get more power. It's a scam and it's all about money. It's not about your health. Works Cited "Adult Overweight and Obesity." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 27 Apr. 2012. Web. 14 Feb. 2014."Essay Contest Video Stossel in the Classroom." Stossel in the Classroom. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.Euteneuer, Blair. "World's Top 10 Sugar-Producing Countries in 2010-2011." Bloomberg.com . Bloomberg, 6 Oct. 2011. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.Hawks, Jane Hokanson. "Obesity and type 2 diabetes: epidemics that now require a population health approach." Urologic Nursing Sept.-Oct. 2013: 216+. Nursing and Allied Health Collection . Web. 11 Feb. 2014.Kenworthy, Lane. "Why the Surge in Obesity?" Consider the Evidence . N.p., 31 May 2012. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.Landau, Elizabeth, and William Hudson. "Subway to Remove 'dough Conditioner' Chemical from Bread." CNN . Cable News Network, 06 Feb. 2014. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.Laskawy, Tom. "Researcher: HFCS Is Much Worse than Table Sugar." Grist . N.p., 23 Mar. 2010. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.Lepisto, Christine. "7 Foods Banned in Europe Still Available in the U.S." TreeHugger . N.p., 2 Apr. 2009. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.Mukerjee, Sy. "Gatorade Will Remove Flame Retardant Chemical From Its Beverages." ThinkProgress RSS . N.p., 29 Jan. 2013. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.Perry, Mark J. " Sugar Tariffs Cost Americans $3.86 Billion in 2011." CARPE DIEM . N.p., 28 Jan. 2012. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.Renouard, Chelynne. "8 Readily Available Foods in the US That Are Banned in Other Countries." DeseretNews.com . Deseret News, 22 June 2013. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.Roan, Shari. "Countries With the Greatest Use of High-Fructose Corn Syrup Also Have More Diabetes." Yahoo! News. Yahoo!, 04 Dec. 2012. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.Stanford, Robert. "Why Sugar Cost Twice as Much in the United States as It Does Everywhere Else." Examiner.com . Examiner, 8 Jan. 2012. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.



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A Big Government with Big People

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