The article is very interesting and gives further evidence (if any was needed) that fast food is unhealthy.

I had one problem with the article though. It said "Fastfood corporations, although they constitute more than half the restaurants in the U.S. and sell more than 1 hundred billion dollars of food each year, oppose regulation of ingredient reporting."

I checked Wendys and McDonalds and both web sites offered the full ingredients list of every product.

In my experience, it is the full service restaurants that hide the nutritional analysis and ingredients contents, much more so than fast food restaurants.

The authors found that ingredient reporting by fast food chains is not 100% accurate (the fat used for frying is not consistent) and are calling for better accountability in labeling.

What about the baked potato? If that has corn in it, I'm very scared...

Yeah, it's not that they need to list their ingredients... it's that the ingredient list itself needs to be regulated better.

For example, "natural flavor" is a very suspicious ingredient, if you google it.

Also, it cracks me up to see stuff like a bottle of fruit juice that says "100% fruit juice" and then you read the ingredients list and it says "with added flavors" ...

No wonder I've always gotten stomachaches from fast food... I recently found out I'm allergic to corn!

Interesting? What's so interesting about cows and chickens eating corn? This must be the biggest non-story of the century. And everyone knows potatoes eat corn!
:-)

They are missing a few steps in the chain by stopping at corn. What the world really subsists on is recycled dirt, water, and sunlight. But it doesn't stop there. The dirt and water are the byproducts of ancient solar fusion that created the heavy atomic species in the first place. The sunlight is the result of consumption of solar hydrogen that is loosing a portion of it's mass to become helium. In a very real way you could argur that we are eating our sun. It's mass is a non-renewable resource too, omg!

[REPEAT POST] The increase of use of High Fructose Corn Syrup (AKA HFCS, Glucose-Fructose Syrup, Crystalline Fructose) as a cheap replacement for sugar is directly correlated to the diabetes and obesity epidemics in this county. Just to be clear, there's nothing wrong with corn or corn syrup -- its the processing, refinement and concentration into HFCS that's the problem. The *only* reason that corn and HFCS is used in so many foods and in such large quantities is that its cheaper to do so than sugar, and the only reason its cheaper is because government subsidies using tax dollars make it cheaper. Boycott HFCS! [ADDENDUM 1] If you want to end the diabetes and obesity epidemics in this country, the easiest way would be to end all government subsidies of corn -- this will remove the incentive to use corn as livestock feed and HFCS as a cheap sugar substitute, thus encouraging biodiversity in our food, and greatly improving the quality of food that we eat. With better food comes better health, and a better quality of life.

@Art

Ingredient reporting is voluntary, and as you point out Wendy's and McDonald's both volunteer. They can, however, still be against any sort of regulation for ingredient reporting even though they currently volunteer their ingredients.

It actually begs the question--why oppose regulation if it doesn't effect you in the least?

If you want more information on this read "The Omnivore's Dilema" by Michael Pollan... a facinating read about food and contains an incredible section on corn and corn production.

It's not just the fact that its entirely made of corn... its the fact that cows wont even voluntarily eat this corn. And we eat this corn everyday involuntarily. Strap on the feed bag!

Yes there are health problems related to corn are a result of the processing of it into fructose syrup, etc. So don't eat so much processed food.

The bigger problem, as this article points out, is that we have become reliant on a monoculture. Corn is in everything. Not just fast food.

It's cheap today but if there's ever a problem with corn in the future we'll be hooped.

Yep! King Corn was a really good movie, and got me to think twice before I buy a lot of stuff at the grocery store. 'er, not that I still buy it... you know what I mean. :)

The problem with animals being fed corn, and corn in juice, soda, ice cream, bread...., is that we are being forced (just like the cows) to sit on a mono-diet. Our system is not designed to eat just one thing, hence colon and other cancers..., and the endless battle with weight and so on so forth.

As an influential blog in the scientific community, I am writing you to clarify the confusion about high fructose corn syrup in your "American fast food is almost entirely made of corn" post today. An inclusion of high fructose corn syrup in their study would certainly increase the amount of corn that can be traced to fast food restaurants. As a scientific researcher, I do not believe high fructose corn syrup contributes to obesity, diabetes, or heart disease any more than other sweeteners. Obesity results from an imbalance of calories consumed and calories burned and a sedentary lifestyle. No single food or ingredient is the sole cause of obesity. The leading causes of diabetes are obesity, advancing age and heredity. Table sugar, honey and HFCS trigger the same insulin response in the body. They contain nearly equal amounts of fructose and glucose. Government data confirm that per capita consumption of high fructose corn syrup in the U.S. has actually been declining in recent years, while problems of obesity and diabete Hope Jahren and Rebecca Kraft's diligent research in tracing the composition of corn in fast food meals.
Suzanne Martin, PhD, RD

corn has a high calorie content, that is why it is so prevalent in the french fries. the cooking oil from corn contributes to the french fries being a corn product. as with the HFCS, i agree it should be talked about with other processed sugars, but this is pumped into so many American processed food products that it really should be the evil neutrient in America. last year i gradually removed myself off of processed foods. i lost about 30% of my body weight relatively quickly and i feel great. takes longer to prepare and clean up, but it has been well worth the effort.

Suzanne Martin, PhD, RD writes...
The leading causes of diabetes are obesity, advancing age and heredity....

A month ago on Diabetes Day in Kenya 300 children were found to have diabetes in one day's voluntary screening at Kenyatta National Hospital. This caused a national outcry. These are young relatively thin children from the close environs of the hospital, probably many from the nearby slum of Kibera. None were obese, advanced in age, though a few could have had heredity diabetes.

The leading causes of diabetes seem not so leading in this grouping.

However, the underlying common denominator of these children is their diet which is naturally the national staple food of Kenya. Sima. Ugali. In other words, maize meal.

No rocket science here.

If maize is indeed a cause, then Africa had better start hoarding stocks of insulin.

If ever there was a need for research it is in this field.

Su