What is in our foods?

In a word corn. 

Here is what is in Macdonalds.

Soda – 100% corn

Milk Shake – 56% corn

Cheeseburger – 52% corn

French fries – 23% corn

Its pretty much the same for any other fast food outlet. In fact it doesn’t end there. It is in most foods in the supermarket! The government has a surplus of food that they need to get rid of and so they cram it into all the foods you can imagine. It seems controversial for the US government to be saying on the one hand eat a diverse diet with veges and fruits and yet at the same time they are subsidising corn so that its so cheap and ends up in all of the food. I don’t think that corn in and of itself is bad. Not at ALL. But breaking it down into its constituent parts and then reassembling this into burgers, shakes, sodas and whatever else you can possibly imagine probably isn’t the greatest or most intuitive thing in the world to do.

I wonder how our intuitive eating copes with such disguised food. If the food has been made to look, taste and smell like real food I wonder if we become deceived because we think we are eating what we are craving but we are not. For example, we feel like a burger, we want bread and meat and real cheese not corn!!! But you eat a burger from McDonalds and most of it is corn and other addititives to make it seem like a burger. I wonder if this is why after fast food sometimes you keep wanting more because your body has not been satisfied- it has been deceived. I wonder how this affects intuitive eating and messes up our own ability to know what we feel like since these days we don’t actually really know what we are eating?

This continues on from what the government forces us to eat.

As everyone knows the range of foods available in the supermarket are amazingly diverse. Its virtually a smorgasboard of treats. But I was suprised to learn that a high proportion of these foods are predominantly made with corn. The reasons for this is the result of the huge surplus of corn that is created by the american government. As a consequence it is very cheap to buy corn. It costs more to grow a corn bushel than it does to buy one. This may sound counter intuitive and it is. The american government spends $5billion on subsidies to corn growers annually (more on this in part II). As a consequence of this huge surplus and its extremely low price corn is heavily demanded and almost relied upon by the food industry. Bread, crackers, drinks, burgers, sauces, canned food and all the meat you buy (yes the cows are fed the corn that you eat) consists of this stuff. 

Scientists can look at how much of us are actually made from corn. In case you dont know our bodies consist mainly of carbon. Corn is also made of carbon and the carbon of corn is unique and different enough that its molecular signature can be tracked through the food webs. So even if we have eaten a sheep that has eaten corn the carbon that originally came from the corn will still show up in us. The carbon does not change. So this research has shown that americans consist of about 40% corn. So is the food we eat really that diverse. Or are we just eating corn like cattle. Intuitive eating is all about eating what you feel like and what your body needs. But it will be hard to tell when your eating that cheeseburger that in fact a lot of it is corn. It is interesting that the US government tries to tell people to eat a diverse and healthy diet and then on the other hand reduces that diversity by making food all corn based.

So in case you recognise this line of logic yes this is from the Omnivores Dilemma. If you have not read it then read it because it will change your perspective on food. As I read through this book I will post my comments about it. Im just glad I am living in New Zealand now where all the foods are not corn based and all our cows eat grass and trust me there is a noticeable taste difference!!!!!