Soda is like Cigarettes, or Why I avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup

I'll admit that I've never been much of a soda drinker. I grew up on apple juice, and while there was a time we bought Diet Caffeine Free Cherry 7up, it's not something I ever consumed much of. So I don't understand why people "need" a Dr Pepper, or a Pepsi, or a Diet Coke. I had a teacher in high school who carried around her own cooler full of Pepsi, just to get her through the day. But I will admit that there was a time I smoked. I have ADHD and am terribly shy, so smoking both calmed me down, and made it easy for me to talk to people I didn't know (other smokers). But when I met my husband, and we both really considered the long tern health effects of what we were doing, we quit.

But back to the soda (or pop or coke depending on where you're from). My husband and I have, for most of the last year, been avoiding high fructose corn syrup. This began after watching the movie "King Corn" and seeing the complicated and dangerous process of making high fructose corn syrup, and was supported by the studies that came out recently about the mercury levels in corn syrup. Since neither my husband or I drink soda, or even eat much processed food, avoiding high fructose corn syrup isn't a terribly complicated task. We already read labels, and apart from the few times we couldn't find a vegan/corn syrup free bbq sauce, or the time I discovered it in my almonds, it hasn't changed our habits much.

A few weeks ago my husband and I took a trip to the coast. We camped on the beach, and I enjoyed a few rum and Blue Sky cola's. Driving home we had terrible car trouble that really slowed us down. Our jeep is sans air conditioning, and so it was a long, hot journey. About an hour outside of San Antonio, we were both dying of thirst, and the only thing we had was a few leftover Blue Sky cola's. So we split one. And I noticed something I never had before. I could only have about half a can before the sweetness was too much for me, and I just wanted a glass of water. Not something I ever remember experiencing with a conventional, corn syrup filled cola. And I got to thinking about what I've read about corn syrup, how your body absorbs it differently than sugar. Now, if you're, say, a soda company in a capitalist system who wants to sell lots and lots of your product, making something that people can only drink half of before they want water isn't really the best idea. Think about the last time you drank soda with corn syrup in it. I could drink and drink and drink it and never felt it was 'too sweet' and I sure never wanted to stop. That's dangerous to your health, and also reminds me of another addictive substance another large group of companies put into a common product: nicotine.

So this brings me around to something that happened the other day at my job. I work with kids at a recreation center. In our kitchen we have a drink machine, but my former boss would only put sports drinks and juice in it. My new boss, who is one of those people who has a rough day and just needs a Dr Pepper, filled it with soda. And I find this to be a terribly negligent act. We might as well have a cigarette machine in the building. I read an article the other day that said 40% of our health care costs as a nation are related to obesity, and that as a nation we average 60% of our caloric intake from soda. Hell, if you even just crawled out from under a rock after the last 20 years, you know obesity is currently a huge problem in this country. Not unlike smoking was a huge problem, and led to many long term health problems. High Fructose Corn Syrup has only been in our foods since the mid 90s, so we really have no idea what the long term health effects are. And from the way my co-workers who are addicted to soda act, it reminds me of when I used to step out to have a smoke. Corn syrup just makes you want more and more corn syrup, because you don't know when to stop, unlike real sugar. So why are we making this available to our kids? Why do people buy this stuff? Isn't your health worth more than drinking a can full of chemicals and a little instant gratification?