Written by Sarah Taylor   

The HFCS Conspiracy

The owner of the Cleveland Clinic's recently ousted McDonald's franchise is very grateful for its two-decades-long presence on the Clinic's well-lit main floor, as noted in the August 18, 2015 edition of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. After all, this particular McDonald's had, one would assume, been highly profitable.

While Clinic patients and staff can still take advantage of the numerous other fast food outlets and snack cabinets in the Clinic's large and welcoming reception area, they will now have to walk outside to reach the nearest Arches.

The national media attention given to the story of the removal of McDonalds, by Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove, is an indicator of the leadership role played by the Cleveland Clinic in the rapidly proliferating health care industry. However, this news merely focuses on a microcosm of the story of an immense world-wide conspiracy to weaken, if not permanently damage, the human species. Seriously. And all for the sake of monetary gain.

This saga began in 1957. That was when high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) was first synthesized by the corn industry. This discovery did not take long to mature into an immense plot. HFCS was rapidly incorporated into a vast number of manufactured foods and drinks. The reason for this was, and is, that it is addictive. The process has been described in a number of articles, including one by Dr. Joseph Mercola.

Everyone enjoys the satisfaction of sweetness, traditionally obtained from fruits and cane sugar. The latter consists of sucrose, which is a combination of glucose and fructose in equal quantities. However, HFCS, (or its recently renamed versions, described by Barbara Minton) is corn syrup that has been chemically processed to include a higher proportion of fructose. This additional fructose not only favors fat synthesis in the liver. It also interferes with the body's fullness signals, as - unlike glucose - it doesn't stimulate insulin secretion and leptin production, which normally help the body regulate food intake, by providing a feeling of satiation. In other words, one wants more, not less, as one takes in foods containing HFCS. And, as pointed out by Donna Kestler, foods such as French fries that, fifty years ago, one would not have dreamed to be sweet, have now been mixed or sprayed with HFCS, prior to being served at restaurants and cafés, and have become everyone's favorite nibble.

Customers are not put off by a display of oh-so-healthy carrot sticks on the counter of a fast food outlet, when they stop by on their way home from work, to pick up sweet, fatty snacks for their waiting, hungry kids. Which brings us to the deliberate creation of obesity.

Not long after HFCS appeared on the market, human weight rapidly, and predictably, began to skyrocket. Resulting sufferers have not just attempted new dietary regimes, but have been choosing from an evolving collection of over-the-counter weight-loss drugs. However, the most important accompaniments of obesity – dramatic increases in diabetes and heart problems – have required medical intervention. That has been followed, of course, by a tremendous increase in the amount of pharmaceuticals being prescribed.

There are many doctors out there, for whom interacting with their patients, and curing them, if possible, of their ill-health or disease, is of paramount importance.

However, there are a growing number of physicians who, instead of making a concerted effort to expose the agent that was, and is, poisoning the world's population, have actually become, consciously or unconsciously, collaborators in the deception! It is now apparently normal for a health care service to openly advertise itself as an economic engine. And, as with any business, the goal is presumably to maintain, and increase, its customer base. This can surely only be achieved by treating, rather than by curing, patients. And even treatment seems now to be increasingly passed along to nurse practitioners, while many doctors merely drop by, as supervisors, administrators and drug prescribers. Oh yes, and they thoughtfully advise 'healthy eating and exercising', as they wave 'See you soon'.

How mutually beneficial this triumvirate is: The Corn Industry, the Medical Industry and the Pharmaceutical Industry. The fatter people get, the more they need treatment, and the more they are prescribed with ever more expensive drugs. An example of the corrupt collaboration between two of these entities was provided by Anahad O'Connor, on NPR, when he discussed the recently-ended relationship between the American Academy of Pediatrics and Coca-Cola.

In spite of a few such miniscule setbacks, the huge machinery of obesity creation and treatment continues its advance. There is surely no other example of humans building such an efficient, and overwhelmingly vast, mutually advantageous capitalist enterprise.

Is there any solution? Yes, Outlaw HFCS.