The Gary Null Show 7.31.24

High Fructose Corn Syrup’s Profits over Health:  Richard Gale & Gary Null PhD Progressive Radio Network, July 24, 2024 There is an unseen culprit hiding in the shadows. It is a toxic poison contained in many of the foods and beverages that we commonly eat. A toxin that has been implicated in causing cancer, diabetes, heart disease, lowered cognitive function, addiction, depression, and obesity. The magicians and alchemists of the corporate food industry have cleverly disguised this ingredient and sing its praises.  If you are waiting for mainstream media to undertake an in-depth investigative report on this topic you will be waiting a long time. Back in 2015 Tufts University’s department of nutritional sciences conducted a study published by the American Heart Association that documented the annual rates of global deaths directly due to over-consumption of beverages with high sugar content. The results estimated that 184,000 adults die annually from sugary drinks.  Dr. Gitanjali at Tufts analyzed data documenting sugar-related deaths across 51 countries between 1980 and 2010.  Deaths were compiled according to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and various cancers. Based upon the data, the study concluded that sugar contributed to 45,000 annual deaths from cardiovascular disease, 13,000 deaths from diabetic complications, and 6,450 deaths related to cancer.  Credit Suisse’s Research Institute published a scathing report that brought sugar’s health risks into sharper focus.  The study revealed that upward to 40% of American healthcare expenditures could be directly tied to overconsumption of sugar in the average American diet.  Today, the US’ national addiction to sugar contributes to $1 trillion in healthcare costs annually, which includes coronary heart disease, diabetes and metabolic syndrome. There are numerous studies published in reliable peer-reviewed medical journals associating sugar with each of these life threatening diseases. As far back as 1971, I began writing about the hazards of sugar. In 2002, my documentary Seven Steps to Perfect Health was premiered on PBS stations. During a special appearance on one station’s fund drive, I poured sugar out of a bag. The amount I poured equaled the number of teaspoons that an average American teenager consumes daily. My general counsel, David Slater, verified the quantity by proper measurement according to scientific food and diet data.  After the initial airing of this special, I was informed by the station’s program director that they could not rebroadcast the performance, even though it was the most successful program during the fund drive. I was informed that the station had received harsh criticism from the sugar industry. The program director explained that the information I presented about sugar’s dangers, even though I provided full scientific verification of the facts, ran up against the president of the station board Sharon Rockefeller. I was told she had received a phone call from a sugar-lobbying group representing soft drink makers and sugar manufacturers.  Therefore the station made the decision to pull my program. I was never asked to return to the station. Not surprisingly, a subsequent investigation revealed Sharon Rockefeller sat on Pepsi’s board at the time, one of America’s largest manufacturers of sweetened soft drinks.    That was my first personal encounter with the political forces supporting sugar. I wrote letters to the sugar industry, the station board and Sharon Rockefeller contesting their suppression of my program and their claim that sugar was unrelated to the declining health of Americans. They were presented with dozens of peer-reviewed studies. However in recent decades, the sweetener industry has undergone a dramatic transformation with the introduction and widespread adoption of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) throughout our food system. This shift from traditional cane sugar, which dominated my criticism earlier, to fructose