These days, when it comes to food, we can get it. However, whenever and wherever we want it. A double cheeseburger with extra cheese, no pickles and large fries? Done. If you’re craving avocados in the middle of January, chances are your local grocery store has them in stock year-round.
In the American supermarket, seasons do not exist. There are no bones in our meat, no seeds in our grapes. We can buy any fruit or vegetable no matter what time of the year it is.
Although it may sound like our food system has super powers, Americans should feel more terrified than reassured.
In the 2008 documentary “Food, Inc.,” filmmaker Robert Kenner addressed the problem of a corporate-controlled food system.
“The industry doesn’t want you to know the truth about what you’re, eating because if you knew, you might not want to eat it,” the narrator says.
Whether it is at a restaurant or at home, many people have a habit of checking for calories, fat content and grams of sugar when eating, but the most important information for consumers to digest actually lies in the ingredients.
There is an “illusion of diversity” in the food industry that causes people to think they are getting a wide variety of seemingly healthful items when shopping at a grocery store. The reality, however, is that the majority of what we are buying that we consider “healthy” actually consists of most of the same harmful ingredients.
One target ingredient is corn, particularly high fructose corn syrup. Thirty percent of U.S. land is used for planting corn alone because it is so easy and inexpensive to produce. To get a better understanding of all of the things that it is used for, here are just some of the most popular corn products: ketchup, Twinkies, peanut butter, batteries, and the best for last, diapers.
Corn is not only a main ingredient in most of our food, it is used to feed animals as well. Cows, who are natural grass eaters, are forced to eat corn in order to get fat quickly.  The food industry has proven itself to be all about producing the most amount of food possible with a small expanse of land at an affordable price.
Fast food, more than any other type of food, is practically swimming in high fructose corn syrup and other unhealthy ingredients. With 25 percent of Americans eating fast food every day, it is no wonder that 60 percent of the population is either overweight or obese.
McDonald’s alone feeds more than the entire population of Spain on a daily basis – that’s 46 million people getting full off of French fries, double cheeseburgers and chicken nuggets.
The most important thing for college students to remember is that there are options. There are so many different foods that are quick and easy to make. We may be busy most of the time, but the idea that fast food is a quick fix to hunger is a myth. The amount of sugar and sodium in fast food products actually leaves your body feeling unsatisfied and therefore more deprived than it was before.
If obesity continues to go unabated, it will become the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. Obviously, it is hard to give up a type of food that is everywhere we go and dirt cheap. But if giving up harmful foods is all it takes to save your life, why wouldn’t you do it?