Response to The Omnivore's Dilemma

To be honest, when I first started reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, I could not stand it. After reading only one chapter, I had read so much information about corn that I never even wanted to look at corn again. I thought why should I care about what methods are used to grow corn, who grows corn, or what it costs to produce corn? But after reading the chapter on fast food it came to me, almost everything on the menu at McDonald's is made with corn, even salad dressings and milkshakes.

I was not new to the concept that high-fructose corn syrup may be to blame for the obesity epidemic in America because I have seen it advertised in health magazines and commercials, but Michael Pollan explained it in terms that were easy to understand. He broke down everything on the McDonald's menu that contained the sweetener and it was in an overwhelming majority of the food. Soda is almost made purely of high-fructose corn syrup alone...I'm glad I stopped drinking it a few years ago! As Pollan explains, its no wonder HFCS has such a bad reputation, it's an added sweetener that is used on top of other sweeteners (such as cane sugar and maple syrup) in foods. Reading this makes me want to only buy foods now that are free of HFCS.