Many people in America abuse themselves daily by not thinking about what they are eating on a daily basis. This blog post isn't about how I want to save the world from itself, it's only purpose is to possibly spark some thought on conversation as to the different ways we think about what we eat.
What did you have for your last meal? According to some recent studies it was probably corn. Corn on the cob? No most likely a corn by product or meat from an animal that was fed corn almost exclusively. A study done by Hope Jahren examined fast food meals and found a majority were linked to corn. http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1859018,00.html
So what's the matter with corn? Corn is natural right? Yes it is but the government subsidizes so many farmers that we are growing more than we can even use right now. We as a nation are spending huge amounts that will keep farmers planting corn no matter what. Why would they plant anything else? Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t want farmers to go hungry. But I don’t feel that we should continue to fund programs that don’t make the same sense they did 20 or 30 years ago.
In an article on the website Wired makes the connection between these subsidies and obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/11/fast-food-anoth/ With the corn industry at the government’s “feed trough” (pun intended) what can we do to daily limit our risks involved with the practice. Fast food is cheap and accessible. Heck it’s cheaper to feed a family on fast food than it is to feed them a home cooked meal.
According to sustainable food guru, Michael Pollan author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma , “We have a national eating disorder”. Pollan has written some interesting observations on the connections between corn and our diets. Not just corn fed animals, but products containing high fructose corn syrup. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/opinion/04pollan.html
So what do we do? Well we can eat more plants, eat less fast food, and we can start really thinking about where our food comes from. By questioning our food’s origins we can truly begin to understand what and where the food we are eating comes from. I enjoy a greasy burger just as much as the next guy, but that burger may just taste a little better coming from a local grass fed cow that roams a field from birth to harvest, than a burger that was from a cow that was force fed corn to facilitate growth at an accelerated rate in a high density feed lot standing in his own waste. Doesn’t sound too appetizing does it? My intent wasn’t to scare you into converting into a bean sprout eating, vegan. We all make choices in how we choose to live. Armed with this new information I will try and choose a healthier option for my meals, and my family’s meals.
