The United States is the number one per capita consumer of corn in the world. As expounded in books such as The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, high-fructose corn syrup and other derivatives work their way into nearly every kind of processed food. Add to that corn grown for ethanol production, and you're looking at one corn-obsessed culture.
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
If a country could be defined by a food, for the United States it would definitely be corn. Contrary to common belief, corn is a grain, not a vegetable, and this grain has infiltrated its way into countless foods that Americans subsist on.
If you believe that corn is going to improve your health, you need to do some more reading and reconsider your position. Over 75% of people would be better off avoiding corn because it contains high amounts of sugar.
When early Native Americans changed their diet to one based mostly on corn, researchers noted that they had increased rates of:
Anemia
Dental cavities
Osteoarthritis
Bone infections and other bone problems
And that was from eating relatively unprocessed, organic, non-GMO corn. Nowadays corn is not only heavily processed into ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup and corn oil, but it’s rarely organic, and most importantly nearly always GMO.
And one of the breaking news items on high-fructose corn syrup is that it is frequently contaminated with mercury.
Fast Food is Largely Made From Corn!
A recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences looked into the feed sources of animals used for meat at fast food chains including McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s. After chemically analyzing the food, they found that corn was the nearly exclusive food source for the beef and chicken served at these fast food restaurants.
In case you aren’t aware, cattle are not designed to eat corn, and doing so disrupts their digestive systems. Therefore they’re fed antibiotics to keep them from getting sick. The corn crops are also genetically modified, and sprayed heavily with pesticides that get transferred to you when you eat the meat.
Corn is not only in meat, it’s in one-third of the products at an average supermarket, along with fuel and countless consumer products like paint, cosmetics and plastics.
Why So Much Corn?
In the U.S. corn is a heavily subsidized crop, so US farmers have every reason to plant more of it. In 2007, over 90 million acres of corn were planted in the United States, which was the most ever grown since 1944, when production was up to ease wartime food shortages.
Since there’s so much corn around, and it’s a very cheap food additive, it gets added to most processed foods, Since corn is a grain, it breaks down to sugar very rapidly and increases your insulin output, and increased insulin levels are linked to everything from obesity and diabetes to the premature aging.
As Michael Pollan said in this interview in The Christian Science Monitor:
“We're subsidizing obesity.
We're subsidizing the food-safety problems associated with feedlot beef. It's an absolutely irrational system. The people who worry about public health don't have any control over agricultural subsidies.
The USDA is not thinking about public health. The USDA is thinking about getting rid of corn. And, helping [businesses] to be able to make their products more cheaply – whether it's beef or high-fructose corn syrup.”
High-Fructose Corn Syrup is One of the Worst Offenders
Since the 1970s, the consumption of HFCS in the United States has skyrocketed, and it is the sweetener of choice used in most soda and countless other processed foods. In 2007, Americans consumed an average of 56 pounds of HFCS each, according to CBS!
There are over 35 years of hard empirical evidence that refined man-made fructose like HFCS metabolizes to triglycerides and adipose tissue, not blood glucose. The downside of this is that fructose does not stimulate your insulin secretion, nor enhance leptin production. (Leptin is a hormone thought to be involved in appetite regulation.)
Because insulin and leptin act as key signals in regulating how much food you eat, as well as your body weight, this suggests that dietary fructose may contribute to increased food intake and weight gain. Further:
• HFCS is metabolized to fat in your body far more rapidly than any other sugar, and, because most fructose is consumed in liquid form (soda), its negative metabolic effects are significantly magnified.
• Recent research, reported at the 2007 national meeting of the American Chemical Society, found new evidence that soft drinks sweetened with HFCS may contribute to the development of diabetes because it contains high levels of reactive compounds that have been shown to trigger cell and tissue damage that cause diabetes.
• HFCS is almost always made from genetically modified corn, which is fraught with its own well documented side effects and health concerns, such as increasing your risk of developing a food allergy to corn.
Good News: You Don’t Have to Eat All This Corn!
Just because the U.S. government is heavily subsidizing this food crop, and food manufacturers are more than willing to make corn a primary ingredient in their products, doesn’t mean you have to take part.
Simply by following a sensible diet designed for your Nutritional Type, you’ll be able to cut the corn in your diet down to virtually zero. And you’ll likely experience a surge in your health as a result.
Via Break The Matrix
And one of the breaking news items on high-fructose corn syrup is that it is frequently contaminated with mercury.
Fast Food is Largely Made From Corn!
A recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences looked into the feed sources of animals used for meat at fast food chains including McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s. After chemically analyzing the food, they found that corn was the nearly exclusive food source for the beef and chicken served at these fast food restaurants.
In case you aren’t aware, cattle are not designed to eat corn, and doing so disrupts their digestive systems. Therefore they’re fed antibiotics to keep them from getting sick. The corn crops are also genetically modified, and sprayed heavily with pesticides that get transferred to you when you eat the meat.
Corn is not only in meat, it’s in one-third of the products at an average supermarket, along with fuel and countless consumer products like paint, cosmetics and plastics.
Why So Much Corn?
In the U.S. corn is a heavily subsidized crop, so US farmers have every reason to plant more of it. In 2007, over 90 million acres of corn were planted in the United States, which was the most ever grown since 1944, when production was up to ease wartime food shortages.
Since there’s so much corn around, and it’s a very cheap food additive, it gets added to most processed foods, Since corn is a grain, it breaks down to sugar very rapidly and increases your insulin output, and increased insulin levels are linked to everything from obesity and diabetes to the premature aging.
As Michael Pollan said in this interview in The Christian Science Monitor:
“We're subsidizing obesity.
We're subsidizing the food-safety problems associated with feedlot beef. It's an absolutely irrational system. The people who worry about public health don't have any control over agricultural subsidies.
The USDA is not thinking about public health. The USDA is thinking about getting rid of corn. And, helping [businesses] to be able to make their products more cheaply – whether it's beef or high-fructose corn syrup.”
High-Fructose Corn Syrup is One of the Worst Offenders
Since the 1970s, the consumption of HFCS in the United States has skyrocketed, and it is the sweetener of choice used in most soda and countless other processed foods. In 2007, Americans consumed an average of 56 pounds of HFCS each, according to CBS!
There are over 35 years of hard empirical evidence that refined man-made fructose like HFCS metabolizes to triglycerides and adipose tissue, not blood glucose. The downside of this is that fructose does not stimulate your insulin secretion, nor enhance leptin production. (Leptin is a hormone thought to be involved in appetite regulation.)
Because insulin and leptin act as key signals in regulating how much food you eat, as well as your body weight, this suggests that dietary fructose may contribute to increased food intake and weight gain. Further:
• HFCS is metabolized to fat in your body far more rapidly than any other sugar, and, because most fructose is consumed in liquid form (soda), its negative metabolic effects are significantly magnified.
• Recent research, reported at the 2007 national meeting of the American Chemical Society, found new evidence that soft drinks sweetened with HFCS may contribute to the development of diabetes because it contains high levels of reactive compounds that have been shown to trigger cell and tissue damage that cause diabetes.
• HFCS is almost always made from genetically modified corn, which is fraught with its own well documented side effects and health concerns, such as increasing your risk of developing a food allergy to corn.
Good News: You Don’t Have to Eat All This Corn!
Just because the U.S. government is heavily subsidizing this food crop, and food manufacturers are more than willing to make corn a primary ingredient in their products, doesn’t mean you have to take part.
Simply by following a sensible diet designed for your Nutritional Type, you’ll be able to cut the corn in your diet down to virtually zero. And you’ll likely experience a surge in your health as a result.
Via Break The Matrix
It's about time this subject was tackled and brought to light. Excellent article, thanks you!
ReplyDeleteWhilst I realize it is extremely difficult and frustrating to try and find anything in the USA that does not contain HFCS, we must all make the effort and take a personal stand by boycotting all products containing High Fructose Corn Syrup.