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Comment by projektfu

4 days ago

"genetically engineers high fructose corn syrup into everything"

This phrase is nonsense, because HFCS is a chemical process applied to normal corn after the harvest. The corn may be a GMO but it certainly doesn't have to be.

Agreed, that was phrased wrong. The fruits across the board have been genetically engineered to be extremely sweet (fructose, not the syrup): https://weather.com/news/news/2018-10-03-fruit-so-sweet-zoo-...

While their nutritional quality has gone down tremendously, for vegetables too: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10969708/

  • Again, the term GMO is not what you're looking for. In the first article, a zookeeper is quoted making much the same mistake.

    Here is a list of approved bioengineered foods in the US:

    https://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/be/bioengineered-...

    All the fruits on the list are engineered for properties other than sweetness.

    The term you're looking for is "bred". Fruits have been bred to be sweeter, and this has been going on a long time. Corn is bred for high protein or high sugar, but the sweet corn is not what's used for HFCS.

    Personally, I think the recent evidence shows that the problem is not so much that fruit is too sweet, but that everything is made to be addictive. Satiety signals are lost or distorted, and we are left with diseases of excess consumption.

    • Well, either way, you agree with me. Government and corporations work together and distract the individual telling them they can fix the downstream situation in their own, private way.