Silhouettes and waist circumferences representing normal, overweight, and obese
Ever since the Great Depression, American farmers have been the beneficiaries of a medley of subsidies and support programs meant to stabilize crop prices, keep farmers farming, and provide U.S. families with an affordable, reliable supply of food. But these programs may have had an unintended side effect. Rather than keep Americans healthy, critics say, these policies have contributed to today’s obesity pandemic and other nutrition problems as well.
Writing in the Annual Review of Nutrition, James Tillotson, a professor of food policy and international business, argues that U.S public policy '...encourages obesity at the expense of sound nutritional practices'. What U.S. farmers are most efficient at producing, he says, are just a few highly subsidized crops—wheat, soybeans, and especially corn.
Support for these few crops, critics say, has compelled farmers to ignore other crops such as fruits, vegetables, and other grains. The market is flooded with products made from the highly subsidized crops, including sweeteners in the form of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), fats in the form of hydrogenated fats made from soybeans.
This flood, in turn, drives down the prices of fattening fare such as prepackaged snacks, ready-to-eat meals, fast food, corn-fed beef and pork, and soft drinks.
Someone (politicians) need to wake up!
source http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1247588/
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