America's love affair with corn, overfed and undernourished.

[katzenfreund]

Originally Posted by chielgirl

CBC, how interesting, and I can see that.
I'm living in Europe where bread has no shelf life.
Seriously, if I buy bread today, I have to eat it today or maybe tomorrow if I heat it in the oven.

Now that I'm eating better, I find that I naturally have enough fiber and thanks to tofu, enough protein. I find that my cravings for bad food have subsided.

Next learning experience, quinoa.

You are in Germany, aren't you? I always bought "Dinkelbrot", which is spelt bread here (but never quite tastes the same) and whole grain breads (ground from whole grain, just before baking), they actually were good for several days. The thing I miss the most - GOOD bread! Can't wait to get that in May

Eating whole, natural foods is best and the general population has gotten so far away from that. If you look at the ingredients in the food we eat, it is no wonder so many kids already have allergies and are getting sick. Corn syrup is a cheap sweetener, cheaper than sugar.

Here is an article on a study about Corn syrup and mercury

Study Finds High-Fructose Corn Syrup Contains Mercury - washingtonpost.com

and here one about pesticide use
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...030603294.html
PS... amaranth is another tasty grain to try!

[chielgirl]

Dinklebrot sounds good.
Where will you be in May? I'm hoping to go to St. Petersburg for 10 days or so before school gets out.

I think your second link is off, it's a duplicate of the first.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by TnHilltopper

An interesting piece on how the food industry and agriculture has placed to much emphasis on empty calories and the corn fed American. George Will : Corn-Fed Nation - Townhall.com
I haven't had time to look up the statistics but it would be interesting to see how much petroleum is used each year in food production and agriculture. I bet it is quite substantial.

I read that piece too, very interesting stuff.

Originally Posted by Emeraldmaiden

Have you read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma? There's quite a bit of information in there that's relevant to what you are asking. Our dependence on corn is a truly frightening thing, and, I believe, expensive in many ways.

I have just read the book, amazing info. Love the detailed look at PolyFace Farm back in VA. I hope thousands of small farmers go that route.

Originally Posted by chielgirl

...I'm chemically sensitive, I find it difficult but try to eat only bio (living in Europe, it's much easier to eat bio with higher standards than the weakened US standards). The difference in price between bio and not is not significant.

Re, weakened food standards, author Pollan explains the official government definition for a "free range chicken" got watered down to mean "access" to being able to range around freely. In practice, here's how it works: The chickens have a life of 8 weeks from hatching to slaughter. The first 5-6 weeks they are LOCKED up in those big chicken houses (no free ranging) to keep them from contracting a disease (if one gets sick, they have to kill all 20,000 in the coop). Then, for the last 2-3 weeks of their short lives, they unlock what amounts to a "doggie-door" at one end of the coop, and any chicken that wants to leave the coop to go run around outside can do so, but few ever do as it isn't natural for them to leave the food and water of the coop to run around in the dirt outside.

Originally Posted by chielgirl

Try reading Twinkie Deconstructed. It talks about food additives being mined. Salukifan1, I may pick it up. I belong to a low carb veggie mail group, it helps a bit.

Is this a yahoo or google group that is easy to find and join? Link?

Originally Posted by chielgirl

Dinklebrot sounds good.

I knew a guy who had Dinklebrot once; the doctor gave him penicillin for it.

[harborlady]

Originally Posted by TnHilltopper

An interesting piece on how the food industry and agriculture has placed to much emphasis on empty calories and the corn fed American.

George Will : Corn-Fed Nation - Townhall.com



I haven't had time to look up the statistics but it would be interesting to see how much petroleum is used each year in food production and agriculture. I bet it is quite substantial.

The beef industry allowed to sue him for slander? Didn't Oprah get beat on for bringing growth hormones up on her show?

Abuse or neglect? We appear to have a two party system that negates any improvement we try to make as a nation. WIC is meant to make sure children get proper nutrition so they don't wind up handicapped in school, but when milk products available are <potentially> harming human health, how dare we investigate these claims????

The only way dairy products can be affordable to all is by paying monsanto corporation??? I'd love to see family farmers weigh in on this subject BIG TIME, but they likely don't have the time to spend in blogs because they work too hard competing with agribiz.

[harborlady]

Avoiding empty calorie foods--- brown rice has far more nutritional value than white rice.

[Mike from back east]

Speaking of the O.P.'s query as to how much petroleum is used by agri-biz, the info in Pollan's book says that all-told, the agri-biz uses an amount of petroleum that is EQUAL to all that is used by the automobiles in this country.

And that's a LOT.

[Hoarfrost]

Reading this thread brings back memories of when I first found out that the food being shoved into my mouth was crap. You seriously don't know until you've tried organic foods just how awful everything else is.