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Stephen Dubner over at Freakonomics makes an interesting correlation between price of oil and obesity. Nope, it doesn’t rely on the assumption that more people will begin to ride bicycles instead of driving to work.
- Notwithstanding the recent drop, high oil prices have driven a demand for ethanol made from corn.
- Accordingly, the price of corn is rising fast, with July contracts at $4/bushel, about 60 percent higher than last summer.
- Because corn was so cheap for so long, high-fructose corn syrup has become a common substitute for cane sugar. Experts have argued that corn syrup is a great contributor to national obesity.
Of course, he might be missing out on other causal factors but definitely use of corn syrup accounts for some of it. Interesting!
Technorati Tags: obesity, oil, price, corn syrup, ethanol
by Patrix | on Friday, January 12th, 2007 at 1:07 pm | 
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January 12th, 2007 at 2:19 pm reply
well, speaking of high fructose corn syrup. my cousin used to think its ok to have 15 candy instead of 15 grapes because grapes are loaded with sugar anyway..and at that time, he was seriously obese..no surprise there..
January 12th, 2007 at 2:23 pm reply
Sqrl, LOL! Did you tell them grapes were loaded with water too and candy had concentrated sugar?
January 12th, 2007 at 3:16 pm reply
yes, I did. Poor thing looked at me like ‘now why didn’t I realise that before’ ..:) he’s about 15lbs slimmer now.. so good for him :)
January 12th, 2007 at 4:14 pm reply
Sqrl, good for him…subah ka bhoola etc etc.