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I barely agree with RFK Jr. on anything but this is a good move in my opinion. Unfortunately most of our food is so adultered and hyperpalatable and engineered for bulk consumption that we as a country cannot escape the chronic conditions that arise from its consumption. There is NO nutritional need for artificial food colorings, why is it there other than to convince you to eat the food.
I mean yes but I view this stuff as deeply unserious in the US politics.
If RFK actually cared he would ban high fructose corn syrup from food. Or implement a sugar/calorie ban. Or focus on incentivizing exercise in everyday life. Or limiting/taxing fast food. Or force portion regulations to be stricter, even banning certain portions of things like soda.
There are one million billion things the US government could do to improve health and they’re doing essentially nothing by going after something that (probably) impacts us very little in comparison with the entire rest of the industry.
Call it what it is: pandering. They know that this has broad general support so they get brownie points while doing very little to actually help us.
I wouldn't target hfcs specifically for an ingredient ban, I'd target sugar fortifying food in general outside of reasonable expectations for the food product. (You can't make brioche without sugar, so no one would be surprised to learn sugar was added, but they might be if they learned their ranch dressing was sugar fortified).
Hfcs is the sugar of choice for increasing palatability of food by making it sweet because it's been subsidized so much. If you block it companies will just move to a different source of sugar. It's not hfcs that the issue, it's using sugar as a flavor enhancer.
Absolutely agree on banning high fructose corn syrup. The stuff is awful. I recall a documentary from years back covering the discover and sale of HFCS , it was kind of a tongue in cheek, 60's , Wes Anderson-ish movie. Couldn't find that one but did find this article & have a slew of new Health movies to watch. https://www.vogue.in/content/10-health-documentaries-on-netflix-that-will-make-you-rethink-what-you-eat
Honest question... just about everything I've read regarding why HFCS is bad is really just about the dangers of consuming sugar in general. Is there something that shows it's worse than sugar?
I totally agree that we eat way too much sugar in America, and I'm all for reducing. I just wonder if any efforts to this end should be focused on ALL sources of sugar, not just HFCS.
I just wonder if something is considered "natural" what kind of regulation will be there. "Natural" does not equal safe
Arsenic and cyanide are all natural. ;)
While you're right that there's no nutritional value to food coloring, not everything needs to be nutritionally optimal. "Looks appealing" is desirable in its own right.
We should justify food ingredients based on functional necessity and harmlessness, not on a strict criteria of nutritional necessity.
I worry about the unintended consequences to eating hyper palatable , processed foods. Yes, it looks great & taste great but oof, now I gotta go take a 2-hour nap, and jeesh, now that I'm 70 I've got dementia, which is sometimes called 'type 3 diabetes ' in medical circles.
Oh, I'm not arguing in favor of processed foods. We know that at the very least the processing usually entails adding a lot more sodium than people need, and that many of the more stable oils that get added tend to be much more slanted towards the unhealthy variety.
It's more that we shouldn't be demanding that our food be strictly natural and nutritive. We should be demanding that it's safe, that every ingredient have a justifiable reason for being there, and that the most conservative ingredients were used.
Without a coloring or flavoring, a perfectly healthy breakfast cereal consisting of ground oats, a processed food, is grey and exceptionally bland. Adding a small portion of beet juice concentrate and a dehydrated strawberry puree turns it into something pleasent to see and eat, even though there's no nutritional reason for them to be in the food.
At the end of the day, a significant portion of our lives will be spent around the act of eating. It should be pleasurable, and that can be done without being unhealthy, but not without allowing nutritionally unnecessary ingredients.