So for the past few weeks, I have been reading the Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan and WOW I have learned a lot about the food systems in America.
One of the main themes of the book is corn...that's right, the yummy golden vegetable, corn. Michael talks about how our diets are mainly corn-based because almost all processed foods and meat products contain corn. When I first read this I was like "Really, corn? How random!" but after reading about it, I saw that he is 100% correct!
See, there are many reasons why corn is so highly used today. For one thing, corn is so easy to grow and it produces a lot with a small amount of seeds. Also, corn lasts along time. Dried corn can last years and years. Therefore, we don't have to worry about it going bad and can store it during times when we cannot farm (such as during the winter and during droughts). Corn can also be transported easily without loosing it's nutritional value. Farmers were able to sell their corn to more buyers located further away. But also, the government encouraged farmers to grow corn by paying them extra money for each stock of corn they grow. Therefore, may farmers started growing corn to make more profit.
However, this incentive backfired. Now all these farmers were only farming corn. This created a surplus of corn in America and a shortage of other fruits and vegetables. All of a sudden, the value of corn decreased dramatically, causing the farmers to be pressured into farming more and sell more in order to make up for their loss in value. Nasty cycle, huh? But that's not all. Since the farmers were only growing corn, their fields were no longer getting nurtured by the diversity of crops that they use to be growing. So now farmers had to spend more money to replenish their fields which made growing corn non-profitable because they were now spending more money actually growing the corn then they were making when they sold it. So why did farmers continued to grow corn? Well, the government saw how the farmers were struggling and increased the extra money they gave farmers for growing corn.
At the same time, industrial farms saw that buying corn was cheaper than buying grains for their feedlots so they began to use corn instead. Now animals were being fed different types of corn that their bodies were not designed to digest. Animals began getting sick from all the corn they were eating so the companies added chemicals to help the animals digest the corn. But even with the addition of these chemicals, along with all the antibiotics add to their food because of their increase risk of diseases due to their tight living arrangements, feeding animals corn we still more profitable than feeding them grains. These industrial farmers are where Mcdonald's and other fastfood restaurants get their meat from. Thus, people consuming these foods are also consuming corn.
One of the main themes of the book is corn...that's right, the yummy golden vegetable, corn. Michael talks about how our diets are mainly corn-based because almost all processed foods and meat products contain corn. When I first read this I was like "Really, corn? How random!" but after reading about it, I saw that he is 100% correct!
See, there are many reasons why corn is so highly used today. For one thing, corn is so easy to grow and it produces a lot with a small amount of seeds. Also, corn lasts along time. Dried corn can last years and years. Therefore, we don't have to worry about it going bad and can store it during times when we cannot farm (such as during the winter and during droughts). Corn can also be transported easily without loosing it's nutritional value. Farmers were able to sell their corn to more buyers located further away. But also, the government encouraged farmers to grow corn by paying them extra money for each stock of corn they grow. Therefore, may farmers started growing corn to make more profit.
However, this incentive backfired. Now all these farmers were only farming corn. This created a surplus of corn in America and a shortage of other fruits and vegetables. All of a sudden, the value of corn decreased dramatically, causing the farmers to be pressured into farming more and sell more in order to make up for their loss in value. Nasty cycle, huh? But that's not all. Since the farmers were only growing corn, their fields were no longer getting nurtured by the diversity of crops that they use to be growing. So now farmers had to spend more money to replenish their fields which made growing corn non-profitable because they were now spending more money actually growing the corn then they were making when they sold it. So why did farmers continued to grow corn? Well, the government saw how the farmers were struggling and increased the extra money they gave farmers for growing corn.
At the same time, industrial farms saw that buying corn was cheaper than buying grains for their feedlots so they began to use corn instead. Now animals were being fed different types of corn that their bodies were not designed to digest. Animals began getting sick from all the corn they were eating so the companies added chemicals to help the animals digest the corn. But even with the addition of these chemicals, along with all the antibiotics add to their food because of their increase risk of diseases due to their tight living arrangements, feeding animals corn we still more profitable than feeding them grains. These industrial farmers are where Mcdonald's and other fastfood restaurants get their meat from. Thus, people consuming these foods are also consuming corn.
Michael talks about how corn also became very popular because of how easy it is to breakdown into other things. Corn can be converted into biofuel, glues and other pastes, can be used in the production of antibiotics like penicillin, and most importantly it can be converted into a sweetener. Corn as a sweetener played a HUGE role in shaping our current diet. If you look at any food labels you'll probably see words in the ingredients such as corn syrup, high-frutose corn syrup, glucose, frutose, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), citric acid, and maltodextrin. These are just a few names for the different breakdowns of corn.I went to the store the other day to see whether corn was really in most of the processed foods. As I went down the isles, I was so surprise to see these names on almost every single item I looked at.
The reason why corn sweeteners became so common is because companies saw that corn sweeteners were cheaper than sugar cane. Companies would make more profit by switching to corn. Coca-Cola and Pepsi are examples of companies that changed because of the increase in profit. If you look at any pops by these companies (as well as many others), you'll see that they all contain high-frutose corn syrup. Sodas like "Jone's Soda" and others that you find in organic food stores are all made with sugarcane instead of corn. But you can see how corn slowly made our way into everything that we eat.
But why is consuming mostly corn bad? It's a vegetable, right? Well, unlike many mammals, human's need a diversity in food to stay healthy. If all we are eating is different varieties of corn, our bodies are not going to be happy. And if all we are eating is the sugars of corn, we are not getting all the good nutrients and vitamins you get from eating the vegetable corn.
After reading this, I finally understood why processed foods are unhealthy. I never understood before but Michael went through all the details of it. If you would like to learn more about corn and processed foods, I suggest you read this book. I absolutely loved it! Feel free to ask me any questions as well! I'd be happy to answer them for you. I'll post more about what I learned from this book in future blogs. I just learned too much to put into one blog as you can probably tell with this one blog. haha. But for now, I challenge you to read your food labels and try not to eat as much corn breakdowns. But have all the vegetable corn as you like. You're body will love you.
:)
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