Corn is Taking Over the World!

Okay, I know I sound like a crackpot with a statement like that, but corn is everywhere. You could even test a sample of our tissue and find a carbon isotope that's usually found in corn, but not most other plants. That sample actually shows that we Americans eat way more corn than Mexicans, where corn, or maize, is a diet staple. You may ask how that's possible. Sure, we enjoy corn on the cob in summer, popcorn at movies, and even cornflakes for breakfast. What most people don't think about is how corn is snuck into our diet in so many various ways. A lot of consumers have been hearing a lot about high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which is in so many processed foods. High fructose corn syrup is a cheap and easy way to sweeten foods, and we Americans have quite the sweet tooth. Corn is also found in food thickeners, stabilizers, flavorings, and fillers. Corn is used as cooking oil and made into alcohol. Corn is fed to our livestock. Corn is in our medicines. If you are what you eat, we are corn. Hey, the carbon doesn't lie.

All this overly processed corn in our diet is leading to a problem. There are some people who are developing an intolerance, even an allergy to corn. I have had to work with several patients in identifying all the forms corn comes in, and how to cut it out of their diet. The ironic thing is cutting out processed corn means cutting out most processed foods, leading to a generally healthier diet, which is what we should be eating in the first place. One mother even told me that she found her son's autism was more manageable once she cut all processed corn out of his diet.

Corn has even found its way into politics. How else can the Corn Refiners Association petition the FDA to rename HFCS into something with less stigma attached, and likely win. It’s all about money. Corn is the United States top crop commodity, because we use it for so much. Besides the food products listed above, corn is turned into plastic for uses from everything from plastic bags to drinking bottles, from packing material to detergent containers. Corn is used to make cosmetics, ethanol gas, even carpet! What certainly seems like the answer to so many environmental issues, such as the fact that corn plastics are much more biodegradable, is much more complicated than that. Politics always are.

Take Monsanto, one of the largest corporations of plant biotechnology. They claim to be all about sustainable agriculture, but if you look more closely, they’re not. Monsanto has produced genetically modified (GM) corn that can withstand weed killer or produce non-viable seeds so that farmers have to buy their product. In fact, when I say that their corn can withstand weed killer, I mean their top selling Roundup. They have created a nice little circle where if you buy their products, you are stuck buying them, and in the process you are hurting the earth, and possibly yourself. It has been shown that rats experienced organ failure after consuming Monsanto’s GM corn. Even more upsetting, corn is pollinated by the wind, so if Monsanto’s patented crop is grown anywhere near a farmer not growing a Monsanto crop and their corn is pollinated by Monsanto’s corn and that farmer uses the seed for next year’s crop, well, he’s violating copyright law and will be sued by Monsanto. Many small farms have fallen prey to Monsanto.  Once again, it’s all about the Benjamin.

So, to recap, we eat corn, drink corn, put corn on our face, walk on corn, carry our purchases in corn, have our government influenced by corn, and corn is likely killing us. Is it any wonder I think corn is taking over the world?