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[electronic beeping, buzzing]
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[indistinct chatter]
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[narrator] It's June 2014,
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and online news site BuzzFeed
is holding the ultimate taste test.
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Mexican Coke versus American Coke.
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Yum, yum, yum!
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[narrator] Why?
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Mexican Coke exported to the US
is made with the classic recipe
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using cane sugar to sweeten it.
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Mmm!
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That's definitely super bubbly.
It's, like... It's freaking me out.
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Cleanse the palate.
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[narrator] But for the last four decades,
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American Coke has contained
a controversial ingredient.
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High fructose corn syrup.
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More of an aftertaste to the canned one.
I kinda prefer the Mexican one.
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[narrator] In the final showdown,
Mexican Coke is the big winner.
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- Yeah, that's definitely better.
- Mexican soda, the winner.
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[narrator] But high fructose corn syrup
is no loser,
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especially when you look at the numbers.
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The average American
ingests over 21 pounds
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of high fructose corn syrup every year.
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It's found in nearly every aisle
in the supermarket,
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and in foods you might not expect.
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In 2020,
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the US produced
7.6 million tons of the stuff,
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enough to coat the whole of Manhattan.
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And since 1975,
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Americans have consumed
168 million tons of the syrup.
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That would cover the whole of Los Angeles.
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And yet, a 2016 study
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found 53% of respondents try to limit
or avoid high fructose corn syrup.
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[crowd clamoring]
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With a market size of around $8.8 billion,
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high fructose corn syrup is more
than an economic juggernaut.
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Its producers are serious power players
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courted by politicians.
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Truly delighted to be here
with the incredible farmers
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who feed our nation
and preserve the American way of life.
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[narrator] But its reputation
is far from sweet.
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It is low-nutrition, high-calorie stuff.
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[narrator] How did
high fructose corn syrup rise up
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to dominate supermarket shelves?
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[man] Get the cookies!
The kids want cookies!
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[narrator] And what is it doing
to our health?
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[fizzing]
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It's 1971, and US President Richard Nixon
has a problem.
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American farmers are struggling.
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Their income has plummeted,
partly due to rising costs of production.
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The people of this nation's farms
have not been receiving
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their fair share
of progress and prosperity.
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[narrator] Nixon needs the farmers' vote
to help him win reelection,
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so he appoints
a new secretary of agriculture
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who's an old hand
in the farming world, Earl Butz.
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I want as good a living
for these family farmers
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as our city cousins can get.
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[narrator] Four months
before the election,
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Butz oversees a huge foreign grain sale,
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worth $750 million,
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to America's Cold War enemy,
the Soviet Union.
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I think most of the wheat growers
in Kansas would favor trade with Russia.
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[narrator] Farm income soon spikes.
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And riding high on the farmers' approval,
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in November 1972,
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Nixon sweeps to reelection,
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winning 49 out of 50 states.
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I've never known a national election
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when I would be able to go
to bed earlier than tonight.
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[laughter]
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[narrator] But in 1973,
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with US grain supply now depleted,
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food prices soar.
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The same year,
the government renews the farm bill
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with the aim of maximizing production
and adding an incentive.
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If grain drops below a set price,
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the government and taxpayers
will make up the difference.
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The largest of these crops and key
to the nation's food supply is corn.
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Butz encourages farmers
to plant fencerow to fencerow,
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producing as much as they possibly can
to help drive food prices down.
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That year,
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they produce over 40 million more tons
of corn than three years earlier.
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Butz's plan has worked... too well, in fact.
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There's soon far too much corn.
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What can be done to solve this grain glut?
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[man] Japan, land of legends,
Land of the Rising Sun.
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[narrator] In the 1960s,
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Japanese scientists figured out a way
to mass-produce a sticky sweetener
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made from corn.
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Butz realizes this method
could use up his problematic surplus,
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and he encourages American producers
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to start making the syrup
on a commercial scale.
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The US high fructose corn syrup industry
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is born.
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So how exactly
is this innovative sweetener made?
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Corn kernels are soaked
and then milled to produce cornstarch.
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Two different enzymes
are added to the cornstarch,
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breaking it down
into smaller glucose molecules.
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A third enzyme then turns this glucose
into another sugar called fructose,
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which is found naturally
in fruit and honey.
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The fructose is mixed with glucose syrup,
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making a sweet, gloopy mixture,
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high fructose corn syrup.
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But the name is confusing.
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Its fructose content is only high
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compared to regular corn syrup.
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It has roughly the same amount
of fructose as ordinary sugar.
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Still, if turning corn into a sweetener
is going to help the grain glut,
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there needs to be a demand for the stuff.
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And at first, there's not much interest
from food companies
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to make the switch from sugar,
a tried-and-tested sweetener
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used for over 5,000 years.
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But by 1974,
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global sugar demand
starts to exceed supply,
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partly due to the failure
of Europe's sugar beet crop.
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[man] Brokers have seen
the cost of raw sugar
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nearly doubling in eight weeks.
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The industry says prices are high
because of a worldwide shortage.
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[narrator] It has real impact
at the checkout counter.
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[woman] Two dollars and 20 cents.
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Ridiculous.
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[narrator] Food companies
start to turn their attention
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to high fructose corn syrup.
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There's a nearly unlimited supply,
and it's produced in the US,
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while 50% of sugar is imported
and subject to quotas and tariffs.
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By the end of 1974,
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Dr. Pepper, Fanta, and Sprite
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start using high fructose corn syrup
in their sodas.
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Still, the biggest brands are holding out.
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And unfortunately for corn farmers,
their market advantage doesn't last long.
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Sugar crops recover,
and the price of sugar plummets.
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Corn refiners can't make
high fructose corn syrup cheaply enough
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to compete.
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To make matters worse, in January 1980,
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President Jimmy Carter
decides to penalize the Soviet Union
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for their invasion of Afghanistan
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with a grain embargo.
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[crowd chanting]
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The 17 million tons of grain
ordered by the Soviet Union
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in excess of that amount
which we are committed to sell
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will not be delivered.
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[narrator] The international market
for all that corn shrivels.
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[man] Everyone wanted to sell
and no one to buy,
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as grain prices fell by the maximum margin
allowed in a single day.
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[narrator] With corn prices in free fall,
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high fructose corn syrup
suddenly gets a whole lot cheaper,
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and that finally gets the attention
of big beverage brands.
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In 1980,
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Coca-Cola announces it will substitute
high fructose corn syrup
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for 50% of the sugar used in Coke.
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Within two months,
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Pepsi introduces it
into their fountain soda too.
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Meanwhile,
President Carter's grain embargo
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remains highly unpopular among farmers,
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and his opponent
in the 1980 election, Ronald Reagan,
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uses their outrage to his advantage.
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When the president
"just" employed the grain embargo,
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it was grandstanding
for the American people at your expense.
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[narrator] On election night,
Reagan wins by a landslide,
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becoming the 40th President
of the United States.
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There's never been a more humbling moment
in my life.
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[narrator] Great news
for Reagan and corn farmers.
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Within four months of taking office,
the new president ends the grain embargo.
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Could be
that the corn market'll come up now,
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and we'll make some money this year.
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[narrator] The price of sugar
in the US heads north
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after Reagan introduces
restrictive quotas on sugar imports.
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Once again, high fructose corn syrup
is the cheaper sweetener.
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Now, more and more of the big beverage
and food manufacturing companies
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scramble to switch.
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And people start to consume more syrup.
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In 1981,
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the average American eats four teaspoons
of high fructose corn syrup per day.
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That's 13.4 pounds every year.
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High fructose corn syrup starts popping up
all over the supermarket.
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First on our shopping spree...
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Yay!
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[narrator] From baked goods...
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Cookies! What about cookies?
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[narrator]...to cereal and even in wine.
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But most consumers are in the dark
about what this new sweetener actually is.
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In terms of sweetness and calories,
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high fructose corn syrup
and regular table sugar are the same.
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So what's the difference between them?
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Chemically, not much.
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Sugar is made of one molecule of glucose
bound to one molecule of fructose.
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High fructose corn syrup
is made from these same molecules,
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but they aren't bound together.
They're free to float around.
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And this gives high fructose corn syrup
an edge
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when it comes to some processed food.
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It retains moisture better than sugar,
extending its shelf life
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as well as improving
the appearance and texture of food.
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In 1984,
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Coca-Cola, one of the world's
largest buyers of sugar,
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announces it will switch
most of its US products
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to using high fructose corn syrup.
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And Pepsi does too.
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It's predicted that the move will add
about a million tons to domestic demand.
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And high fructose corn syrup
isn't just taking over beverages.
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By 1985, it's replaced sugar
in lots of processed foods,
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and its market share is more than a third
of all caloric sweeteners.
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Cheaper products
now flood supermarket shelves
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and the fast-food market.
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It's great for
corn-processing companies' bottom lines
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but not for consumers' bottoms.
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There's a rise in all kinds
of processed food
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loaded with caloric sweeteners,
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and by the mid-1980s, it's clear.
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Americans are getting fatter.
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For the first time,
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experts from across the country
are calling obesity a killer disease.
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[narrator] As of 1985,
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around 20% of people
are classified as obese.
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For now, most people
are pointing the finger at fat
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rather than sugar,
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which works out pretty well
for the corn syrup industry.
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Food producers know that cutting the fat
makes processed food a lot less tasty.
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So to put out low-fat products
that are still flavorful,
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food companies start adding
more and more sweeteners,
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like high fructose corn syrup,
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which means these low-fat foods
often have just as many calories
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as the high-fat versions.
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But the public is hungry
for that low-fat label.
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They assume it means
they can eat as much as they like
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and often end up eating more than ever.
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For food producers,
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the low-fat diet means fat profits.
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But for the rest of us?
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Well, we just get fatter.
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By 1987,
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the amount of high fructose corn syrup
Americans eat has more than doubled
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to 8.3 teaspoons per day.
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Twenty-eight pounds per year.
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We ask our mom and dad
if we can go to the fast-food restaurant,
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and we like it
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'cause there's good food there.
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[narrator] Thanks in part
to high fructose corn syrup,
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food and drink is now cheap and plentiful,
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but it's only a taste of what's to come.
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1988 sees Taco Bell
launch free refills on soft drinks.
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Other fast-food restaurants
are quick to do the same.
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By 1989,
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around 26% of US adults are obese.
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Throughout the '90s,
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high fructose corn syrup
goes from strength to strength.
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Supersizing is now all the rage,
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and soda sizes balloon.
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In 1999, domestic production
of the syrup peaks at 9.5 million tons.
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That same year,
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consumption catapults to historic levels.
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People in the US now eat 11.1 teaspoons
of the sweetener daily,
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a massive 37.5 pounds per year.
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Meanwhile,
Americans get fatter and fatter.
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In 1999, obesity levels reach 36%.
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As we go into the next millennium,
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undoubtedly, obesity will become
the number one major health problem.
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[narrator] In the early 2000s,
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an academic study on obesity
makes an eye-popping connection.
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Researchers chart data on the consumption
of high fructose corn syrup
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and compare it to obesity rates.
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The two graphs follow
a remarkably similar trajectory.
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People start to wonder,
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is high fructose corn syrup to blame
for America's thickening waistlines?
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It is low-nutrition, high-calorie stuff
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and in part probably why there's
an obesity epidemic in this country.
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[narrator] So does
high fructose corn syrup
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really make us fat?
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Well, like anything to do with diet,
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it's complicated.
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There are plenty of other factors
that cause obesity.
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00:15:17,680 --> 00:15:23,000
But it seems high fructose corn syrup
has made soda drinks cheaper and larger.
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American adults are now guzzling
29% more soft drinks
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than 25 years earlier.
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It's also boosted
the popularity of processed foods,
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which are dense in calories
and easy to binge.
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People who eat them consume
an average of 500 calories more a day
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than those sticking to unprocessed foods.
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Since 1975,
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total consumption
of caloric sweeteners has rocketed 25%,
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with high fructose corn syrup
increasing more than 1000%.
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And because adding any
of these sweeteners, including sugar,
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can promote weight gain,
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the more of it we eat, the fatter we get.
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By 2007,
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high fructose corn syrup
has a bad reputation.
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[screams]
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Which would you honestly say
is more likely to contribute to the death
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00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:19,840
of your average American?
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A terrorist strike
or high fructose corn syrup?
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00:16:25,040 --> 00:16:26,800
[narrator] But high fructose corn syrup
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00:16:26,880 --> 00:16:29,280
remains one of the top sweeteners
in the US,
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delivering huge paydays.
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In 2008, one of the major players
in the market, Archer Daniels Midland,
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reports an operating profit
of $529 million
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from their sweetener division.
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To keep the profits rolling in,
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the Corn Refiners Association
fights back against the bad publicity.
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Our product has been
highly mischaracterized
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in the public domain.
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[narrator] The CRA insists
high fructose corn syrup
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00:16:58,280 --> 00:17:01,200
is no worse for you
than any other caloric sweetener.
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00:17:01,280 --> 00:17:07,320
High fructose corn syrup is a nutritional,
biochemical, and caloric equivalent
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00:17:07,400 --> 00:17:08,440
of table sugar.
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[narrator] And in 2008,
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00:17:10,480 --> 00:17:13,840
the American Medical Association
seems to agree.
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00:17:15,280 --> 00:17:18,600
Still, around 53% of Americans
are concerned
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00:17:18,680 --> 00:17:21,960
that high fructose corn syrup
may pose a health hazard.
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00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:24,600
[explosion rumbles]
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But for most people,
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it's hard to avoid.
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High fructose corn syrup
is now used in thousands of food items.
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It's everywhere.
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And like so many hit American products,
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it's taken off around the world.
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In 2009,
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00:17:50,240 --> 00:17:55,280
the world produces 15.7 million tons
of high fructose corn syrup,
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enough to sweeten 53 cans of soda
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for everyone on the planet.
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00:18:01,400 --> 00:18:04,320
The vast majority, almost 70%,
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comes from the US,
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followed by Japan, and then China.
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The US consumes the most,
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more than 60%,
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followed by Mexico and Japan.
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Other countries hardly use it at all,
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00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:20,480
many preferring their homegrown sugar.
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Despite its tarnished reputation,
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00:18:25,520 --> 00:18:29,920
the high fructose corn syrup industry
continues to make mega-profits,
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00:18:30,520 --> 00:18:35,240
in part because of US government subsidies
to corn producers.
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00:18:35,320 --> 00:18:38,040
Between 1995 and 2020,
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00:18:38,120 --> 00:18:43,520
federal corn subsidies
total $116.6 billion,
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far more than
any other agricultural industry.
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How much do you,
does your family get a year at the moment?
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Somewhere around $20 an acre.
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[narrator] Why?
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Perhaps due to a quirk
of the American electoral system.
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We're gonna make...
America grow again, grow.
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00:19:02,360 --> 00:19:05,760
That begins
with supporting our family farms
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right here in Iowa.
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[narrator] Iowa grows
more corn than any other state,
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00:19:12,320 --> 00:19:16,440
and it also happens to be the first state
to choose presidential candidates
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00:19:16,520 --> 00:19:18,480
from the major political parties.
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00:19:19,080 --> 00:19:23,960
So a whole lot of politicians are eager
to get corn farmers on their side.
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I know Iowa's gonna be key
to what happens to America
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in the next generation.
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[cheering and applause]
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[narrator] The corn industry today
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00:19:31,960 --> 00:19:34,920
may still enjoy
outsized political influence,
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00:19:36,160 --> 00:19:39,080
but high fructose corn syrup
is still struggling to win
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00:19:39,160 --> 00:19:41,000
in the court of public opinion.
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00:19:43,400 --> 00:19:47,800
Big brands like Papa John's Pizza,
Burger King, and McDonald's
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start to back away from it.
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00:19:49,520 --> 00:19:54,040
[man] We are creating
a different food culture at McDonald's.
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Removing high fructose corn syrup
from our buns...
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00:19:57,640 --> 00:19:59,040
[narrator] By 2020,
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00:19:59,120 --> 00:20:02,040
Americans' consumption
of high fructose corn syrup
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00:20:02,120 --> 00:20:04,240
has nearly halved since its peak
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00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:06,800
to 6.2 teaspoons every day.
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00:20:07,320 --> 00:20:09,880
That's 21.1 pounds per year.
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00:20:12,960 --> 00:20:16,520
High fructose corn syrup
remains highly controversial,
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00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:19,360
but there's no doubt
it has transformed the American diet.
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00:20:20,080 --> 00:20:23,960
Switching out sugar has helped give
the public cheaper processed food,
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00:20:24,040 --> 00:20:26,800
free refills, and huge portions.
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Mm. Mmm!
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[narrator] And thanks
to those huge government subsidies
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00:20:32,240 --> 00:20:33,440
and mega-profits,
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00:20:33,520 --> 00:20:38,080
high fructose corn syrup is unlikely
to be going anywhere anytime soon.
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00:20:42,080 --> 00:20:44,760
The thing is, despite all that bad PR,
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00:20:44,840 --> 00:20:48,800
including a deluge of social media videos
warning about the sweetener...
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00:20:49,320 --> 00:20:53,600
X out high fructose corn syrup.
Don't put it in your daily diet please.
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00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:57,320
[narrator]...there's really not much
separating high fructose corn syrup
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from regular sugar.
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As for how they affect the taste of food,
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well, that's in the tongue
of the beholder.
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[man] They are basically equivalent.
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The problem is they're both bad.
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[narrator] The reality is,
when it comes to overeating,
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it's easier to blame an ingredient
than our own habits.
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00:21:18,760 --> 00:21:20,640
It's far better to avoid eating
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00:21:20,720 --> 00:21:24,120
ultra-processed
and high-sugar foods altogether,
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00:21:24,200 --> 00:21:28,440
but of course, that would make life
a lot less sweet.
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[upbeat jazz music plays]