RFK Tilts At Unhealthy Sweetener, While Trump Munches Big Macs
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., trump’s pick to guide the nation’s health, wants to force the world’s largest agribusiness companies to stop making a sweetener that is a key ingredient in everything from Twinkies to Coca Cola but has been linked with serious health issues.
Trump has chosen Kennedy to lead the massive department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees agencies that do much to control America’s diet, including the Food and Drug Administration along with Medicare and Medicaid
Kennedy wants to “Make America Healthy Again” and “fix our broken food system” and one important step, he says, is to ban the ubiquitous sugar substitute, high-fructose corn syrup, which is included in virtually anything that is sweet.
Kennedy points to studies that show that high-fructose corn syrup is poisoning America, causing childhood obesity and triggering chronic illnesses. High-fructose corn syrup “is just a formula for making you obese and diabetic,” Kennedy has said in promotional videos
Multi-national agribusinesses will not stop using high-fructose corn syrup because the ingredient is key to products that make the companies and corn farmers billions of dollars. Huge federal crop subsidies of soy, corn and wheat artificially lower the farmers’ costs, making byproducts like corn syrup cheaper for manufacturers.
High fructose corn syrup is made from corn by thousands of workers in the nation’s mid-west corn belt and smack in MAGA country. Another factor boosting the corn industry is that American corn is a major export crop while much of America’s cane sugar is imported from countries like Brazil, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
Kennedy, a conspiracist and anti-vaxxer, is a modern-day Don Quixote, high on intelligence but even higher on delusions. And while swatting at windmills may look good, the chivalrous Quixote made no real progress. Kennedy’s on the path to tilt the windmills but he will fail because, like Don Quixote, Kennedy cannot distinguish fantasy from reality and does not realize the political realities of his plan.
Trump did not name Kennedy to lead HHS because he wants him to rip apart the hallowed corn industry. Kennedy’s appointment was solely a marriage of convenience to draw Kennedy out of the race and lure voters away from Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump has promised Kennedy control of the nation’s public health agencies and that Kennedy will “go wild” on the nation’s health. What is more likely is that while Kennedy is seeing windmills, trump will undermine environmental safety and loosen regulations on pesticides, herbicides and endangered species protection, allowing farmers to grow even more corn and make even more high-fructose corn syrup.
The Corn Refiners Association, the major lobby for corn interests, does not want high-fructose corn syrup banned. The market for high-fructose corn syrup is bolstered by the syrup’s high solubility, the ability to remain in solution, and not to get crystallized, like sucrose, under certain conditions. Last month, the Corn Refiners Association (CRA) congratulated trump on his election.
“The Corn Refiners Association congratulates President-elect Donald Trump on his election victory. CRA is committed to being a good neighbor in the food and agriculture policy community, and we stand ready to work alongside President Trump and his team to advance the innovation, market development, and rural prosperity our industry offers. We are excited to work together to secure a strong future for America and American agriculture,” said a statement from association president and CEO, John Bode.
The Corn Refiners Association is the national trade association representing the corn refining industry of the United States. Corn refiners manufacture sweeteners, starch, advanced bioproducts, corn oil and feed products from corn components such as starch, oil, protein and fiber.
In 2008, the CRA fought back against concerns over the safety of high-fructose corn syrup. The CRA started a public relations campaign called “Changing the Conversation about High Fructose Corn Syrup.” Its commercials said high-fructose corn syrup was “natural” and is “made from corn … and is okay to eat in moderation.”
Claims that high-fructose corn syrup is “natural” were rejected by Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Jacobson said high-fructose corn syrup “is chemically or enzymatically degraded to glucose … High-fructose corn syrup just doesn’t exist in nature.”
In September 2010, the CRA sought to blur the meaning of high-fructose corn syrup and applied for permission to use the name “corn sugar” on food labels for products sold in the United States. Nutrition experts told the New York Times that a more appropriate name would be “enzymatically altered corn glucose.” In May 2012, the Food and Drug Administration rejected the name change request.
The regional high-fructose corn syrup market is led by the Minnesota-based, Cargill Inc., the world’s largest agriculture company and America’s largest privately held company.
Mordor Intelligence reports that the high-fructose corn syrup market size is estimated at $9.31 billion in 2024, and is expected to reach $10.09 billion by 2029. Cargill also is spending $50 million to build a corn syrup refinery in Fort Dodge, Iowa, to meet the growing demand for the ingredient.
The five Cargill family members have a combined net work of $51.6 billion. The Bloomberg report said that Cargill Inc. made $4.9 billion in profits in 2021, its highest profit ever.
Cargill reported gross revenues of $165 billion in 2022. The company employs more than 160,000 employees in 66 countries, and is responsible for 25 percent of all United States grain exports. The company also supplies about 22 percent of the United States domestic meat market, imports more products from Argentina than any other company, and is the largest poultry producer in Thailand. All the eggs used in American McDonald’s restaurants pass through Cargill’s plants.
Trump is hardly a scion of good health, boasting about his love of Big Macs and Cokes. He was seen in a recent photo taken aboard the Trump Force One airplane, which showed trump, Donald trump Jr., Elon Musk, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Kennedy all munching on the high-fructose corn syrup laden McDonalds burgers.
Kennedy’s nomination as HHS secretary has drawn opposition in a letter to the N.Y. Times signed by 77 Nobel Prize winners in chemistry, economics, medicine and physics. The letter cites Kennedy’s opposition to vaccines, his criticism of the fluoridation of drinking water, his promotion of AIDS conspiracy theories and his criticism of HHS agencies such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
“The leader of DHHS should continue to nurture and improve — not threaten — these important and highly respected institutions and their employees,” the letter says. “In view of his record, placing Mr. Kennedy in charge of DHHS would put the public’s health in jeopardy and undermine America’s global leadership in the health sciences, in both the public and commercial sectors.”
Kennedy has gotten it wrong on his claims that vaccines cause illnesses and that vaccines specifically cause autism, a belief that has been strongly debunked by scientists around the world. He also wants to remove fluoride from water, despite studies that have shown that fluoride is a major factor in stemming tooth decay, especially in children.
Kennedy’s call to lift restrictions on small farmers from selling raw milk flies in face of data which shows that raw or unpasteurized milk can contain harmful pathogens like E. coli, listeria and salmonella. Health experts also say that raw milk is risky for young children, older adults, pregnant women and those with weakened immune systems.
Kennedy may be right in claiming that ultra processed foods, which make up an estimated 73 percent of the U.S. food supply, are driving the obesity epidemic, and should be removed from school lunches.
There also is solid data showing that consuming too many added sugars, like high-fructose corn syrup, contributes to childhood obesity and cardiovascular disease. Research shows that too much high-fructose corn syrup can drive up the risk for cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, obesity and cavities.
Americans consume, on average, about twice the American Heart Association’s recommended limit for added sugars, with the top culprit being sweetened beverages. The American Heart Association recommends no more than six teaspoons of added sugar a day for women and nine for men.
Research shows that it is important to limit all kinds of sugars, whether simple sugar or high-fructose corn syrup. Excessive sugar can cause obesity. Too much fructose can raise the risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Too much fat buildup can lead to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, scarring of the liver and liver damage.
Studies have shown that fructose can raise triglycerides in the blood. Triglycerides contribute to health issues like arteriosclerosis and pancreatitis. Researchers found that a 6-week diet of 17 percent fructose led to a 32 percent increase in triglycerides.
Fructose can stimulate uric acid production which can lead to gout, a painful type of arthritis. Researchers also have looked at type 2 diabetes cases related to high-fructose corn syrup in 42 countries. Nations that consume high-fructose corn syrup tend to have higher levels of diabetes than those that don’t.
Kennedy’s campaign is not necessarily doomed; the nation did ban another sugar substitute, cyclamates, in the 1970s although it is still used in many other countries. Activists have fought the use of high-fructose corn syrup since the 1980s but the powerful farm lobbies have won each time. This is all not to say that Kennedy’s crusade is not a just one, just that it has as much chances of success as trump naming Hillary Clinton as secretary of state.
WebMd reported that high-fructose corn syrup is a liquid sweetener made from corn. When corn starch is broken down into individual molecules, it becomes corn syrup, which is 100 percent glucose, a simple sugar. Enzymes are added to convert some of this glucose into fructose.
High-fructose corn syrup was introduced in the 1970s. It has the same calories as other added sugars. High-fructose corn syrup is cheaper than sugar, with better flavor enhancement and longer shelf life. It’s more stable and consistent, especially in acidic foods and drinks.
As a result, high-fructose corn syrup went from 1 percent of sweeteners in the U.S. in the 1970s to 42 percent by 2004. From 1977 to 1978, the average American consumed about 37 grams of fructose per day. In 2008, it jumped to 54.7 grams, about 10.2 percent of total daily calories. The number was even higher in teenagers, at 72.8 grams per day.
Americans get fructose mostly in sweetened drinks (30 percent), grains (22 percent) and fruit or fruit juice (19 percent). Foods with high-fructose corn syrup include:
- Fast food items
- Breakfast cereals
- Bread and baked goods
- Sweetened dairy products like yogurts
- Candies
- Canned foods like soups and fruit
- Soft drinks
According to WebMD, high-fructose corn syrup and sugar are very similar. The two most common forms of high-fructose corn sugar contain either 42 percent or 55 percent fructose, along with glucose and water. Regular sugar is 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose.