American foods have a higher sugar content than the same brands found in other countries. This information has been public for some time, but it’s become more apparent to Americans over the last couple of decades. With the onset of social media and the internet granting instant information to anyone curious about how other countries eat, the truth is shocking.
Sugar has a negative effect on the body. It’s highly addictive, and cravings can be as intense as someone going through opioid withdrawal. It’s also in most American food. That includes bread, breakfast cereal, and even condiments. That’s right — your favorite mustard likely has some sugar infused in it. Not only to make it taste a little sweeter but also so you keep coming back to the same brand. Regulatory boards in the European Union are much harsher on brands than here in the United States, where the bigger a company is, the more likely they are to experience rule-breaking privileges. That means Americans consume much more sugar on a daily basis than almost any other country in the world.

Food activist Vani Hari recently highlighted just how prevalent this issue is by putting American junk food alongside the same products from around the world. She highlighted the nutritional information, which clearly shows just how bad the problem is. Foods like Mountain Dew, Heinz Ketchup, Doritos, and many other products are just stuffed full of sugar when compared to the same products found in other nations. However, sugar isn’t the only thing that these foods contain more of. Substances banned in other countries are often found in American food, while there are simply less harmful substances that can still have negative health effects when taken in excess. Think food preservatives, artificial food coloring, and excessive sodium and cholesterol. It’s no secret that Americans are at high risk of developing heart issues in their lifetimes, and these levels of less-than-quality ingredients in our foods are partially to blame. Hari has harshly criticized American companies for overloading their foods with these “poisonous” materials, which can severely impact a person’s overall physical health when taken in excess.

This discovery simply brings to light how much regulations help consumers in the EU, while regulations continue to be slashed daily in the United States. With every passing year, corporations are gaining more and more power to do what they like with our food, while organic farmers and natural food providers are facing more hardship than ever. Farmers have continually struggled with GMO seeds blowing into their fields and having to deal with the corporation-sided laws, which state any seed that is patented needs to be paid for, even if farmers are growing them without knowledge. As regulations continue to favor corporations that make our food out of factories, the average American consumer suffers more. Hari believes that American food companies put so many negative ingredients in their food for one simple reason: it’s cheaper for them. And if anything has been confirmed by rising profits in the last few decades, it’s that it is much cheaper to feed people fake food than feeding them the real thing.