People often absorb information without thinking about what it means or its validity. People also tend to consume food and drinks without thinking about where they come from or how they were produced. The well-known saying “don’t believe everything you see and hear” is something that more people should consider more often when thinking about food production and consumption in America. The American public is poorly informed on many topics related to the food industry. This can be compared to the message that the book Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen delivers about how the public is misled when it comes to history. A specific food lie is how the Corn Refiners Association wants the public to believe that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is the same as sugar and is perfectly safe for consumption. As some research suggests, this is a flawed assumption when it comes to diet. Patriotic textbooks “leave out anything that might reflect badly on them” (Loewen 5). Loewen argues that “if textbooks allowed for controversy, they could show students which claims rest on solid evidence, and which on firmer ground” (Loewen 39). The textbooks are intended to be correct for the sake of retaining more simplistic information for students. Loewen says it was “easier” (Loewen 41). This ideology is the same for the food industry. They want to be right in order to make a profit while keeping customers calm and satisfied. That's what's easier for them. If consumers saw products with a warning or caution label, they might think twice before purchasing that product and trusting that company. As for HFCS, why would the manufacturers want to reveal that "when higher percentages of fructose are consumed, the liver becomes overworked and produces excessive levels of uric... middle of paper ... a eurocentric view that ignores imperfections and conceals less than tasty truths. These two examples show how much the public is misled about food and history. It takes a spark of curiosity, passion and enlightenment to dig into the depths of truth. This is not an easy thing to do, but something that more Americans could benefit from in their daily lives if they questioned more of what appears to be true. Works Cited Loewen, James W. Lies My Teacher Told Me. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007. Print. Parker, Hillary. "A Nice Problem: Princeton Researchers Find High Fructose Corn Syrup Causes Significantly Greater Weight Gain." News at Princeton University. Princeton University, March 22, 2010. Web. November 16, 2011. Porter, Mary. “High Fructose Corn Syrup: Really the Same as Sugar?” FortHuntPatch. PatchNetwork, November 7, 2011. Web. November 16. 2011.