Quick! Name every food you can think of made with corn. …I’ll wait…..
You probably mentioned corn-on-the-cob, cornmeal, cornbread, corn muffins, corn chowder, corn fritters, corn chex, corn pops, and corn flakes, corn oil, corn starch, corn syrup, and popcorn.
Foods you may not have thought of include soda, pizza, cookies, candy, iced tea, hot chocolate and marshmallows, crackers, tomato sauce, ketchup, mustard, hot dogs (ok, Corn King brand may have given that one away), bread, lunch meat, soup, baking powder, salad dressing, wine, beer, yogurt, and even beef, pork, chicken and eggs.
And more, much more. It goes beyond food, too – aspirin, vitamins, toothpaste and cough syrup all may contain corn.
Corn is ubiquitous. It is difficult to find a food that does not, at least indirectly, contain corn.
Some of the other ingredients listed on packages that indicate the presence of corn include dextrose, hydrolyzed protein, maltose, maltodextrin, modified food starch, and high fructose corn syrup.
Why is this? Was this always so? No, we can thank government corn subsidies for this. Yes, your taxes pay farmers to grow corn. To the tune of 75 billion dollars from 1995 – 2009.
Consequently, corn is cheap. Farmers feed it to their animals. Its by-products find their way into virtually every processed food available.
As my kids (well, one of them more than the other) would ask when they were young, “what’s wrong with that?”.
Well, it’s complicated, but let’s just name a few reasons it’s wrong:
- Allergies and intolerance to corn are on the rise. If you are included in the growing number of people who can’t tolerate corn, good luck in finding something to eat.
- Cows do not digest corn all that well. Consequently, cows on an all corn diet must be fed antibiotics to compensate for the problems caused by corn. This overuse of antibiotics means that illness which was once easily treated with antibiotics have now become resistant.
Corn makes a cow’s digestive tract acidic which is a perfect environment for growth of pathogenic E. coli bacteria, causing illness and possible death to those who consume it. Common sense tells us to get those cows out to pasture and reduce the use of corn to eliminate this potentially lethal bacteria. But, no, the USDA approved processing plants now wash our ground beef with ammonia to solve this problem! - Cheap corn means the products it contains are cheap. The problem is, these are the foods that are among the least healthy. Because they are cheap, they are more likely to be purchased by the poor. Diabetes and obesity are epidemic, even among children.
There may be a link to these diseases and over consumption of high fructose corn syrup, a substance more difficult for our bodies to digest than sugar. Guess how the brilliant powers-that-be want to solve this problem? They want to tax food products that contain high fructose corn syrup! So, we get to be taxed to pay the farmers to grow the stuff and we get to be taxed again to buy it. Does this not make you insane? - Corn subsidies allow the grain to be sold to other countries at prices below what it costs to produce. This pushes local farmers out of business because they cannot compete.
This is not a fad issue. THIS IS AN ISSUE OF JUSTICE. Of Biblical justice. It is a matter of being a good steward. The consequences of corn subsidies have touched every one of our lives and we are blind to it.
This hurts the poor. This hurts our health. This hurts small farmers. I don’t care on which side of the political spectrum you are, which side started this, which side continues this. This is wrong.
The problem is complicated; the solutions are, too. For me, it means doing all I can to not buy these products.
I rarely, if ever, go to McDonald’s or Burger King, among the largest purchasers of food-lot, ammonia washed beef. I buy grass fed beef, and pastured chicken and eggs from local farmers whom I can ask about their practices.
I read ingredients and avoid any item with high fructose corn syrup or the other items I’ve listed above. I try to tell people without being obnoxious.Â
And you know, to change the way I eat is not a burden. For me, it is a great joy to support local people, to watch over my family’s health, and to know I’ve voted with my purchasing dollars against corn subsidies.
Â
More Posts You’ll Love
Two Ingredient Strawberry Maple Jam
Thank you for visiting Learning And Yearning. May "the LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace." Num 6:24-26
Donna says
Our food is killing us .I think that Aspertame which is in almost every diet drink and food is going to be a disaster in the years to come . This is a chemical that not much is known about, but since it came on the scene we have seen a profound rise in auto-immune diseases ,alzheimers, autism and many more diseases that were rare 20 years ago. I think that it effects our genetic structure .
learningandyearning says
Oh, I think we could go on all day, couldn’t we?
nkawawaki says
I firmly believe that all major illnesses (ok, probably minor ones too) are caused by diet. We don’t eat food anymore – we it chemically processed, artificially enhanced and modified experiments! Remember scurvy – probably not because we didn’t live at that time, but the “brainiacs” of that era refused to believe it was a nutritional deficiency either. They wasted another couple decades before they embraced the wisdom and voila! No more scurvy. Wonder how many decades we will waste on the big illnesses of this generation before we put 2 and 2 together.
learningandyearning says
I know, Nicole. I really want to take care of the body that God gave me; it’s not always so easy and not always in my control.
George says
These are some good thoughts…here’s one more. Corn subsidies are primarily to promote corn growing for the production of fuel ethanol. Because of these subsidies agribusiness has shifted from more nutrition crops to corn. So it’s even worse; we pay the government our taxes so that they can give our money to people to produce a fuel that is:
1. Bad for our cars
2. Gives us lower gas mileage
3. Requires a lot of fossil fuel to produce
4. Does nothing to improve our environment
5. Drives up the price of food worldwide
What’s wrong with this picture? I could go on and on an on….but I don’t want to be obnoxious on your blog.
learningandyearning says
I’m in charge of who gets to be obnoxious on my blog and you have my blessing!! Thanks for stopping by.
Lauren Leith says
wow, thats so helpful George, thanks for that addition. And thank you for this article Susan. I am new to your blog, but loving your content. I too love God, and the world he made and am so deeply saddened, infuriated, confused and eager to find out solutions about the brokenness of our food system. I would love to know more of your thoughts or recommended resources on bringing change to our current food system. I acknowledge as a consumer there is huge power in your vote at the grocery store or market each week, that alone can cause shifts in the current of things, or so it seems. And I do see shifts taking places culturally, which I have to remember and focus on otherwise it becomes incredibly disheartening. I’m excited to read more of your blog and hopefully hear more thoughts on this subject and more!
Susan Vinskofski says
Welcome, Lauren. I think you hit the nail on the head – it is where we spend our money that will make the difference. For us that means purchasing all meat, eggs, and raw milk from local farms. We grow most of our own vegetables, and forage wild mushrooms, etc. We do all we can to avoid the industrial food system.
Melissa says
Susan – so funny! Great minds think alike 🙂 You made such great points. It is amazing isn’t it? Corn is in EVERYTHING, ugh. In the book I am reading, someone did a test on Americans and said that at this point, based on what we eat….we are pretty much corn chips with legs!
learningandyearning says
One of those things that is at the same time funny and sad! Omnivore’s Dilemma is on my list of books to read.
Kristel from Healthy Frugalista says
Wow. This was eye opening about the taxes and subsidies. Thanks.
Caroline Lunger says
don’t get me started on corn allergies…it has come to “where is there not corn” only a few things don’t. toilet paper, makeup, cat litter, newspaper, cardboard, water (I have reacted to the antifulngal in RO system)…oh man!
The only relief to live in this world was to do NAET allergy elimination for corn and it has helped enough to touch and breath air again, thank goodness!
Love this article, thanks for writing it!
Susan says
Hi Caroline! I’ve been following your NAET treatments on fb. I’m really glad that you are beginning to see healing. It’s incredible what misery subsidies have caused.
Jen says
I avoid corn and corn products most of the time unless it’s in its pure form. And even then, I’ve never been much of a corn eater. It’s the corn in the US that is awful! South Americans have more heirloom varieties and it is much more nutrient dense and tasty. American corn is nasty.
Kathy @ Mind Body and Sole says
Thank you, thank you, thank you! GREAT post! I’m so glad you shared it on Wildcrafting Wednesday! 🙂 I greatly dislike having goverment involved in, what seems like, every aspect of our lives!