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It makes us fat, and it is just about everything a modern American eats. It's not sugar, but industrial food companies use it in lieu of God's natural sweetener wherever they can.

It's high-fructose corn syrup, and I am challenging myself to cut it from my diet as I type this post.

HFCS is nasty shit. Studies show that it contains poisonous mercury, and many attribute it to causing the wave of fat people rolling over this fine nation. Moreover, the stuff is just plain unnatural.

So last Sunday I resolved to stop eating it. I figured, hey, all I need to do is avoid cheap pancake syrup, candy and Coke, right? I didn't think I was going to need to completely change my lifestyle. I was so wrong.

Tuesday evening I was at work and desperately needed food. I took the easy road and decided to go to the McDonalds next door. I thought "I'm cutting out a sweetener, not trans-fats, salt and bovine fecal matter."

Well, I forgot to tell the guy to hold the ketchup... and the bun... and the whole meal for that matter.

Sauces such as ketchup have plenty of HFCS. I knew that. Turns out that its also very common in bread. I never saw that one coming.

Two days in, I had already failed, but I soldiered ahead anyway.

The following morning I sat down to a bowl of cereal. I was halfway through the bowl until I realized what I was eating: Frosted Mini Wheats. I always assumed it was just sugar on the white side, but then I looked at the ingredients list. Twas HFCS.

I shook my fist at the world and solemnly finished my cereal. I had already broken my vow and no use letting the rest go to waste.

Later that day I went to see some friends on Bainbridge Island. Around 8 pm we started drinking margaritas, and things went downhill from there. By midnight I had a Miller High Life can in my hand, proudly mumbling to telling my friends that I was going to cut HFCS from my diet.

One of them smugly pointed out that a lot of cheap beers use HFCS as a sweetener and also as the base substance they ferment from. A quick google search found that the margarita mix was also probably laced with this faux fructose.

Cursed industrial food system! They have taken cheap drinks from me, too!

Since then, I have learned to look at the ingredients of everything I eat, and I have been mostly successful in keeping HFCS out of my diet. Still, it is proving difficult.

I have found it in yogurt, bread, Rice Krispies, any and all frosted cereals, Orange Julius, ice cream and cheap juices.

Cutting HFCS is possible, but difficult. If you intend to try it, be prepared to look at the ingredients list of everything you eat or ask the folks at every restaurant what is in their food.

It might be useful if you checked out these links.

This one is a guide to cutting HFCS out of your diet.

This is a list of food with HFCS in it.