Corn

Corn is taking over the world. Seriously. It's in everything. I don't have a problem with this, I like corn in many forms: popcorn, cornbread, corn chips, corn flakes...but I don't really like the original version. Corn is probably the only vegetable I don't like. I am, however, intrigued by corn. I first started to think about corn back when they started using it as an alternative fuel for cars (ethanol). Last summer at my sister-in-law's wedding, all of the dinnerware (plates, utensils, etc.) were made out of corn. If you read the label of any processed, packaged food, it is bound to contain corn in some form. But why?

I am reading a book right now that has helped to cure my corn curiosity. It is called "Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan. Pollan is a Berkley professor, and I don't normally endorse anything written by anyone with ties to Berkley, mostly because it attracts radical people that do crazy things like tie themselves to trees and and lock themselves in cages to "prove a point" or "protest" and I think they just prove that they are crazy. This book, however, was surprisingly good. Very clever. I did have to skip over some parts, but the chapters on corn were fascinating. Everyone should read them. Here's what I learned:

If the adage "you are what you eat" is true, then we are all corn. Corn is the cheapest commodity in agriculture, and as a result we have a corn fed food chain. We feed it to our cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, lambs, and even farmed fish. Subsequently, our eggs, milk, cheese, and yogurt are made from corn. The following ingredients found in processed food are all derived from corn: high-fructose corn syrup, modified corn starch, maltodextrin, ascorbic acid, lecithin, dextrose, lactic acid, maltose, caramel color, xantthan gum, etc. Corn can be found toothpaste, cosmetics, matches, batteries, pesticides, magazines, and much more. HFCS was invented in 1980 and has replaced sugar in just about everything, most notably in soft drinks. If you eat at McDonald's, just about everything you will get comes from corn. There are 38 ingredients in a McNugget, 13 of which are derived from corn. After being measured in a laboratory, this is the breakdown of the amount of corn in menu items: soda (100 percent), milkshake (78 percent), salad dressing (65 percent), chicken nuggets (56 percent), cheeseburger (52 percent), french fries (23 percent...because they are fried in corn oil).

Ok, I'll stop now because I'm pretty sure I'm the only person on the planet that is interested in this subject and most of my readers have probably already stopped reading. If you want to know more, check the book out at the library. If you are as captivated by this subject as I am, give me a call, we'll talk corn.