King Corn

A simple enough question I suppose. Though strangely, if people knew the answer, I would be out of a job.There has been much discussion of late around corn- the high fructose corn syrup ad campaign, the farm bill and how the US government pays off farmers to grow inedible corn, the use of corn for power, the rising costs of corn… Last week, my friend Josh (also a nutritionist) and I got together to watch the documentary, King Corn. At the end of the film, I was left with the overwhelming feeling that we had a whole lot of work to do.And it was after watching this film about how ridiculous this push for commodity crops actually is, that I realized how ridiculous my job actually is. Somehow, over the years where nearly every bit of our food supply has been touched by corn or soy and astronomical advertising budgets from the processed ‘food’ industry, it has become a profession, my profession, to try and convince people of what real food actually is and that this real food makes us healthy.The fields upon fields of corn that grow across the midwest is not food. We can not take an ear of corn from those fields, boil it, and eat it. It is horrible. It has been bred for high yield and high yield only. It is inedible. So how can we take something that does not start out as food and turn it into food? We can’t. Well, we can turn it into sweeteners, and oils, and fillers, and fuel- but is that food?Alive food is what sustains our health. There is no middle ground. The food we eat will either build health or build disease and for some crazy reason, we need convincing of this simple fact. The best foods we can eat are the ones that come straight from the earth, or from a tree, or from an animal and right onto our table (yes- that would make milk raw). Day after day, my job is to come up with crafty reasons why an apple is a better snack than a candy bar, why water is better than Gatorade and why taking twenty minutes to prepare a fresh meal is time better spent than twenty minutes i...

Corn Syrup: Not so SweetHigh-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a common ingredient in soda, fruit drinks, cookies, jams, and snack foods, is made by refining cornstarch through an enzymatic process. HFCS became popular as a sweetener in the 1980’s when improvements in its manufacturing made it cheaper than cane or beet sugar. While there are potential health consequences to the over-consumption of any type of sweetener, HFCS carries additional risks because of its high fructose content and the way it is metabolized in the body. Here are some: While the consumption of table sugar triggers the secretion of insulin and leptin, which signal your body that you are full, HFCS does not. Consumption of foods containing HFCS could contribute to increased caloric intake and weight gain.Consumption of HFCS can elevate triglyceride levels, which can increase the risk of heart disease.HFCS can upset the magnesium, copper, chromium, and zinc levels in the body, which could lead to deficiency diseases like bone loss.In 2001, the average person consumed 62.6 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup. In the U.S., the average person consumes more HFCS than sugar.

I was listening to Kevin Smith’s SModcast during the week, and he was talking about a documentary called King Corn. It sounded interesting so I stuck it on the rental list.We sat down to watch it last night, and I’m glad we did. It’s about how the American diet is now completely dominated by corn, and corn-fed meat. It follows two guys who return to their roots, and grow an acre field of corn, and look into where it goes.It turns out the corn that is used for all this animal food and high fructose corn syrup has bugger all nutritional value (and tastes really bad), and as a result of this, the current generation of Americans have a lower life expectancy than their parents for the first time in recorded history.I have no idea if the same can be said for us Europeans. We don’t have the same systems of government corn subsidies that make it a worth growing to the same extent that they do in the States, but I’m sure they are exporting the hell out of this stuff too.Anyway. It was a very interesting documentary. Well worth spending 90mins of your life on.Related PostsEverybody is Wrong about Indy 4ShareThis