As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/
Options
A week without corn.
taeric
Registered User, ClubPA regular
Registered User, ClubPA regular
I realize there is a fair bit of vitriol on this forum already for corn. Actually, I think it is fairer to say the subsidies behind the corn industry, as I doubt anyone here really hates the actual corn. Further, I don't think anyone that actually gives it too much thought has much disagreement with this distaste. Simply realizing how much uses corn syrup is one of the more alarming aspects of our society in general.
With all of that in mind, I was interested when I saw this blog announce a week avoiding all corn. The results left me thinking just how much of the substance is in my weekly diet? Are there any other ingredients that have such a large spread?
Further, is this distrust of the corn lobby wasted effort? Would we simply substitute something else that is not healthy in the place of the corn ingredients? (I feel that statement itself is rather misleading, as I don't think there is that much particularly unhealthy about the ingredients.) Would just as interesting a blog be possible if someone were to try a week with a set amount of sweetener in general?
With all of that in mind, I was interested when I saw this blog announce a week avoiding all corn. The results left me thinking just how much of the substance is in my weekly diet? Are there any other ingredients that have such a large spread?
Further, is this distrust of the corn lobby wasted effort? Would we simply substitute something else that is not healthy in the place of the corn ingredients? (I feel that statement itself is rather misleading, as I don't think there is that much particularly unhealthy about the ingredients.) Would just as interesting a blog be possible if someone were to try a week with a set amount of sweetener in general?
taeric on
0
Posts
of course to really get rid of sugar you also can't drink alcohol, which is harder. but I've also done that for extended amount of times.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
Nobody is talking about corn on the cob.
Go drink a soda made with corn syrup. After you're done, drink a soda made with pure cane sugar. Then come back and apologize.
I had the Pepsi Natural. It was good, but pretty much the same exact taste.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
The cattle you get the meat from might have eaten corn though. Look for grass-fed meat.
You mean Pepsi Throwback? I didn't think they were allowed to call it "natural" because it was argued that technically corn syrup is "natural".
And I had cane sugar coke in the Caribbean, and it made the best Rum and Coke. I can't even drink the regular stuff any more.
But in general I've banned soda from my diet, with the exception of the occasional diet soda (maybe once a week at a party).
Also, I had thought the idea was that corn isn't completely bad for you, but when everything you eat has corn in it, that is bad for you. So lessening the amount of corn in general is probably a good idea.
Plus the headaches and bad aftertaste.
edit: the HFCS/real sugar in soda debate - I don't drink enough to be a connoisseur, but Orangina in France has sugar and in the US it has HFCS, and it's definitely tastier in France.
Also I don't get what people have against chemical sweetners. Like, you do realize that "natural" sweetners are just a bunch of chemical compounds? In fact frequently just sucrose.
I prefer the ones which don't go charging into my pancreas and give me diabetes and fatness. Or coat my teeth with sugar residue.
Ya that aspartame shit is nasty.
Like the lady said in that blog, it'd be pretty hard for me to eliminate corn from the food chain that ends in me as I like beef, milk, pork, chicken, and eggs. I also don't particularly care that the things I eat, eat corn.
I'd like to see what happened if we eliminated the corn subsidy and repealed the sugar tariff. Perhaps then I could find hamburger and hot dog buns that didn't have HFCS. Dinner rolls don't quite cut it.
I don't really know if it is bad for you per se, but I avoid HFCS just like I avoid most processed food: because it strikes me as an extremely engineered product for a foodstuff, and something about that seems wrong for me to subsist on. I got much more interested in what I eat after I had a kid and had to think a lot about what to feed him, and thus what to feed myself.
As Mitch Hedberg pointed out, I'm not sure why people call it corn on the cob. That's the way it comes out of the ground, that's corn. Shouldn't everything else be called corn off the cob?
Just about all diet soda is sweetened with aspartame. And just an fyi, from that study I linked:
So the equivalent of having a human drink 20 cans of soda or so. So they weren't giving them that huge of amounts like x1000 the dosage or anything.
And that study isn't an outlier either. There have also been studies showing that it increases chances for brain tumors and other brain related illnesses.
I'd rather have a can of soda with HFC over that nasty stuff. As far as I'm aware, sucralose (splenda) hasn't yet been linked to anything harmful in clinical studies so maybe that stuff is safer. But really who knows, they ram this stuff through the FDA before it's really tested.
I do get a little sucralose as my drink of preference is 1 part splenda sweetened juice diluted in 6 parts water. Thinking about just switching that back to diluted "natural" juice though.
20 cans of soda is still a ridiculous amount. I drink diet soda all day long and still only consume about 48-60 oz per day, or four/five cans.
Anything in ridiculous quantities is probably a carcinogen.
My regular diet doesn't consist of any corn syrup at all. So I would say it is easy. I don't drink any soda what so ever and haven't for years. Honestly I just don't eat much of anything that is heavily processed.
Then again I am assuming that we are not counting 'eating corn' as 'eating farm animals that have been fed corn'.
I wouldn't say it's easy. It's very doable, but if you think it doesn't take any work and you don't prepare every single piece of food you eat yourself then you're probably not as corn-free as you think. If you stop by a pizza joint for a slice? You're probably eating HFCS, in the tomato sauce and maybe the dough. If your orange juice has added vitamin C in the form of ascorbic acid (pretty much any OJ you'll buy in a store or restaurant unless it's fresh-squeezed), you're drinking corn. It's everywhere, even in foods that don't appear to be overly-processed.
[edit] Are you talking about corn in general or just corn syrup? Cutting out HFCS is relatively easy, but corn in general (or even just regular corn syrup of the non-HF variety) takes a lot more effort (see the article in the OP).
I am still curious if there are any comparable ingredients. Is this the same across the globe? (That is, how much is influenced by the local industries?)
I don't think I could drink 20 sodas in a day if I was trying. I'd probably become nauseated after the first five or so, since that basically amounts to a couple per waking hour.
Rice is also a pretty big grain world-consumption-wise, though I'm not sure how much is used for feed (other then brewer's rice for pet food).
I'd expect grains and grain derivitives to play a big part in food-making, since they're you know, edible and renewable.
Edit: That last part maybe sounded like a crack, it wasn't meant to. Just that if you need something to serve as a binder or filler in food, you're likely to use whatever grain-derived stuff that's cheapest that might fit the bill. In the U.S. that's corn. Developing something synthetic that would do the same would probably be quite costly.
I guess that is my mental block on this. I don't equate corn to being the same as rice and wheat. They are definitely comparable, though. A related question, I think, is what exactly is the staple of food in the US? I think of staples, and I think rice/beans/etc. Instead, it seems most folks over here should count big mac and such.
You hit a point where you go from feeling unhealthy to feeling . . . toxic.
I love soda, and I've explored that threshold thoroughly.
Is this something you switched to? If so, do you feel like you are getting healthier? (Any numbers to throw in to support?)
Still this sounds like an interesting experiment, though it should be easy enough for someone who's got a broad appetite and knows how to cook.
So, you're usually awake for two hours per day? =P
What experiment? You mean drinking 20 a day to see if it gives you cancer? o_O
But I'm lucky enough to have an income that lets me purchase the food I want to purchase.
I ride a bicycle to work!
I WIN CORN INDUSTRY!!! HAHAHA...
at least until this weekend when I drive 280 miles