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In reply to the discussion: Processed foods are a much bigger health problem than we thought [View all]DFW
(54,050 posts)We have an open air farmers market in our town three times a week. It has been there in one for or another for the last 800 years or so. My wife buys almost all of our food there. Bread baked fresh in portable ovens, veggies from the farmers that grow them or their wholesalers, all locally grown stuff, or fresh imports from as far away as the Mediterranean (which is a 15 hour drive, not a 3 week boat trip).
We like our "comfort" food as much as anyone, but at least here, we make plenty of our own from scratch. Pastries, marmalade made from raspberries and rhubarb or apricots from France. So we control what goes into it.
High fructose corn syrup is, fortunately, not used here in Europe. I can't believe it's still used in the USA. That HFCS is harmful is not exactly a state secret, after all. And yet I see it as an ingredient all over when I'm back in the States, in everything from Smuckers Jam to apple candy from Washington State (probably the ones from Shenandoah, VA, too) to even canned Bloody Mary Mix spicy tomato juice. Somebody is getting rich off that stuff, and a lot more are getting poisoned by it.