Too Much Corn: How Corn is Undermining Your Health

Aerial of Irrigation Sprinkler on Industrial Corn Plantation

You might not be aware of this, but on average, we inadvertently consume over 700 kg (1540 lbs) of corn a year, per person. Sounds crazy doesn’t it. The number blew me away too. I knew corn had permeated it’s way into most processed ‘foods’, but 1500 lbs – that’s over 4 pounds a day! How could this happen? It’s quite simple really; the U.S. government has been subsidizing and promoting the production of corn for the last 3/4 century. When I say production I really mean over-production. The subsidies were so lucrative they encouraged more farmers to grow more corn, leading of course, to lower prices and to some major stockpiles of the stuff.

With these stockpiles of cheap subsidized corn new uses were being thought up to utilize it all, hence, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and corn fed livestock were born! So when you think about how much corn you are consuming you can’t just think about corn-on-the-cob, popcorn and tortilla chips, you have to realize almost everything you eat contains corn or is fed corn. Items ranging from bread, ketchup, mayo, cookies, pop and yogurt (just to name a few) contain corn and beef, chicken and pork (and now even farmed salmon believe it or not) are fed corn (and antibiotics and growth hormones too of course). From Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food, Food Rules and The Omnivore’s Dilemma:

Take a typical fast food meal. Corn is the sweetener in the soda. It’s in the corn-fed beef Big Mac patty, and in the high-fructose syrup in the bun, and in the secret sauce. Slim Jims are full of corn syrup, dextrose, cornstarch, and a great many additives. The “four different fuels” in a Lunchables meal, are all essentially corn-based. The chicken nugget—including feed for the chicken, fillers, binders, coating, and dipping sauce—is all corn. The french fries are made from potatoes, but odds are they’re fried in corn oil, the source of 50 percent of their calories. Even the salads at McDonald’s are full of high-fructose corn syrup and thickeners made from corn.

So what does all this mean? Honestly, a lot. In an effort to keep this post under 50,000 words I am going to focus on what I feel are the most pressing issues. Lets start with corn fed beef. We all know cows have a specialized digestive system (with four stomachs / rumen) designed to digest various grasses, non-the-less most cows are now fed corn because it is cheaper and they get bigger faster. At the turn of the 20th century most cows were 4-5 years old at slaughter, today they are 14-16 months. Getting a cow from 80 lbs at birth to 1,200+ lbs in a little over a year cannot be done with low calorie grasses – with high calorie corn though, no problem. Well to be honest, there are problems.

This non-grass diet is so disruptive to the cows digestive system they need to be continually injected with antibiotics (along with protein supplements, growth hormones and various other drugs) to keep them from dying. Literally. The overuse of antibiotics in our livestock has lead directly to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria a.k.a SUPERBUGS, and that’s not all. An acid-resistant form of E. coli (E. coli 0157:H7) emerged in the 1980’s which is getting into humans through our stomachs, which was not the case before. You see, a cows stomach has a neutral PH, so the E. coli – which has lived in the cows gut forever – used to be killed off by our stomach acids. The introduction of corn to the cows diet has acidified the cows stomach, which in-turn spawned a new form of E. coli which can thrive in high acid environments. From a report by The Epidemiology and Emergency Response Program, US Department of Agriculture:

There would appear to be little argument that the large outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 which have occurred since the early 1980s represent a distinct, new phenomenon. The number of reported cases have increased dramatically, starting from zero in 1981; however, it is also clear that this increase in reported cases is in part an artifact of improved surveillance and reporting.

Now let’s move from corn fed livestock to corn fed humans. Unlike with cows, corn is good for humans and has been a staple of our diet for quite some time. Too much corn however, is causing problems, obesity and diabetes to name a few. The causes of our obesity epidemic are many, including our more sedentary lifestyle and lack of exercise, but nutrition plays a very big role. And again, something can be said about the poor nutritional choices that many are making, as well as the ‘super-sized’ and ‘extra-large’ portion sizes being consumed, but that is not the whole story. As I had mentioned above, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is being substituted for natural sugar in just about everything, which has its consequences. Studies have shown the extensive use HFCS is more harmful to humans than natural (cane) sugar, contributing to weight gain by affecting normal appetite functions by not stimulating Leptin secretions, which is responsible for telling your brain when you are full. If your brain isn’t told you are full you will tend to over-eat. Couple that with the new findings out of Princeton University claiming HFCS in itself causes wait gain when compared to a diet not containing HFCS. So even if you were not to over-eat, but your food is sweetened with HFCS instead of natural sugar, you would put on additional weight. Unfortunately it gets worse.

HFCS also doesn’t stimulate Insulin secretions, which can be linked to the staggering increases in type 2 diabetes, especially in children. Sadly, type this disease has changed from a disease of our grandparents and parents to a disease of our children. Want to hear about another staggering increase, American’s consumption of HFCS increased by more than 1,000 percent between 1970 and 1990, and believe me, the increase from 1990 to 2010 is significant as well.

This is already a long post so I won’t even get into the whole Monsanto genetically modified ‘Roundup Ready’ Corn debate, you can read about that here. And I won’t delve into the fact that industrial corn production is terrible for the environment, or how all the fertilizers from these large corn plantations is the main culprit in the ever expanding ‘dead zone’ in the Gulf of Mexico. As expected, The Corn Refiners Association maintains that HFCS is comparable to table sugar, but the evidence begs to differ. So why are they putting this into our food? It’s cheap and plentiful, that’s why.

So, what can we do?

Well, the simplest thing you can do is watch what you eat by limiting the amount of processed foods you eat, this is good for several reasons, not just to avoid HFCS. Learn to read the ingredients of the food you buy – always – and don’t buy products with high-fructose corn syrup. Now as for the meat you eat and buy, try to find organic. It’s out there and is not only healthier for you but tastes better too. If you eat out a lot you might be out of luck, unfortunately, as you are subject to whatever the restaurant buys. There are some restaurants that practice good buying habits and server organic foods, so keep your eye’s open.

Spread the word, if enough people STOP buying corn based foods the industry will get the point and make changes. Don’t rely on the government to stop this because sadly they have been taken over by the lobbyists long ago. Also, there is a Facebook Group you can join to: Ban HFCS in the U.S.