Following the Industrial Food Chain: Are You Bowing to the King of Corn?
Except for salt and a handful of synthetic chemical food additives, almost every item in the supermarket is a link in a food chain that begins with a plant, animal, or sea creature. In the produce aisle, and even in the meat and fish department, it is easy to trace the genesis of the food presented for purchase.
Not so with processed foods. The industrial food chain that now feeds most of us most of the time, whether in a supermarket or a restaurant, leads inevitably to the American corn belt.
It all comes down to food chain facts – the actual elements that comprise the industrial food chain that supplies our fast-paced world. Corn is grown on 80 million acres of American land and has replaced wheat as one of the main government subsidies for American farmers. The reason we grow so much corn? Due to the multiple ways in which it can be processed in our food.
For example, the corn now feeds the steer which eventually becomes your steak. Therefore, eggs, milk, cheese, and yogurt are now associated with corn. He also feeds the pig, the turkey, the lamb. As unbelievable as it may seem, fish, naturally carnivorous, are being reengineered to tolerate corn in fish farms.
Processed foods provide more manifestations of corn. Consider a chicken nugget: the chicken was corn-fed; modified corn starch holds the pip together; cornmeal is in the dough; and fried in corn oil.
The drink most often served at fast food restaurants is soda, filled with HFCS (high fructose corn syrup), a highly processed corn sweetener.
Consider the following list of food additives, and you’ll see that corn is everywhere: in modified or unmodified starch; in glucose syrup, maltodextrin, crystalline fructose and ascorbic acid; in lecithin, dextrose, lactic acid and lysine; in MSG maltose and polyols, caramel color and xanthan gum.
Therefore, corn is found in soups, snacks, condiments, frozen yogurt, coffee clarifiers, salad dressings, even in vitamins! And you’ll also find corn non-food items, from toothpaste and cosmetics, to trash bags and disposable diapers.
It is important to note that corn is not a vegetable. It is a grain, or a carbohydrate and, as such, corn is very high in sugar. For starters, the Standard American Diet (SAD) is too high in carbohydrates/sugar, and corn is a major contributor to the growing epidemic of obesity and diabetes.
It’s hard to escape ‘The Corn King’. If you eat fast or processed food, rest assured that you are consuming corn in one of its many forms.
And it’s no coincidence that when Native American Indians were introduced to corn, switching from a hunter’s diet to a corn-based diet, their bones, teeth, and joints began to deteriorate.
The negative aspects of the dominance of corn in the Standard American Diet amount to a litany. It’s also important to understand that corn is second only to soybeans as the most genetically modified (GM) crop in the US.
GM foods, foods derived from genetically modified organisms (GMOs), were introduced in 1995, and unfortunately, human studies have yet to be done to show what happens when these types of foods are eaten over time.
You can’t go wrong when you eat food that actually looks like food. Avoid both processed foods and fast foods. Eat minimally. If you eat meat, look for grass-fed animals and always avoid farmed fish. Make it a habit to read food labels carefully. With a little diligence you can avoid being a minion of the Corn King.
For more information (both fascinating and terrifying) about the food chains that sustain us, and a clear picture of the way Americans eat, from source to plate to wrapper to Big Gulp, Michael Pollan’s The omnivore’s dilemma it’s a great read