A few years ago I stopped eating partially hydrogenated vegetable oil and high fructose corn syrup. I learned more than I expected from it. The change affected more than my eating habits.

I didn’t know how healthy they were, nor did I care, since I eat plenty of unhealthy food. The issue was not that partially hydrogenated vegetable oil is bad for you. Lots of things are. Nor was it learning that food manufacturers tested it and knew it was worse for you than regular oil.

The clincher was that the manufacturers continued to say it was better for you after knowing it was worse. Once I realize their shareholders are more important to them than the people eating their product, I realized I couldn’t do business with them. Not eating those things is a social issue more than a health issue. If they do that to me, what else are they willing to do?

I expected not eating those ingredients would cut out one or two things. It turned out to cut out a lot more. Well, it seemed so for a while — a whole aisle or two at the supermarket. Later I came to see all the products in those aisle as different manifestations of the same thing. Now I’m back to feeling like I only cut out one thing — the PepperidgeFarmKeeblerCocaColaPepsiFritoLayPartiallyHydrogenatedHighFructoseMonoAndDiglycerideEtcEtc
thing.

I felt like this wasn’t food they made for you. It’s more like food they make at you. It occurred to me that only in the past few decades could the concept of food being bad for you even exist. Outside of today’s world, that must have been for someone to comprehend: food being bad for you.

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