Corn

Because your well being is of the utmost importance to me as it should be to you, I am always giving unsolicited advice to others about their health. I am an herbalist. My approach to health is holistic. I usually find that most of our health concerns originate in our diet. So let’s talk about corn.

On the surface one would consider this to be a good food source. But one must realize that the pretty yellow stuff we buy from the supermarket is not the product the indigenous Americans consumed when the first Europeans arrived here. Indian corn more closely resembles that dark brown, purple corn we hang on our doors as autumn decorations: That is corn. That food product is dark in color because the protein content is so high. Indian corn is structurally closer to beans and peas. But Indian corn is also difficult to grow.

So to accommodate our vast population increase, foodologist (I just made up that word) cultivated the pretty yellow and white hybrid corn you and I consume today. The lovely color results from the high starch content of this hybrid product. You see, the yellow corn we ingest is a carbohydrate and structurally more closely resembles white potatoes and rice. Now we all know that starches break down in the blood and become sugar. And we all know that raising our blood sugar level to excess leads to diabetes.

Now this wouldn’t be a problem if we didn’t ingest yellow corn in such massive quantities. For example, the animal flesh you purchase from your local supermarket has been feed huge quantities of corn grain. All the soda and juice beverages, along with the tomato sauce and ketchup you purchase are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup.

Most people don’t realize the vast quantities of corn they consume. So add all that corn to the rice, bread, pasta and refined white sugar the average American ingests and you will understand why diabetes is so rampant in our society today. It is this message that I wanted to share with my readers.

It is easy to reduce your yellow corn intake:

- Never consume any product with high fructose corn syrup

- Only purchase animal flesh not feed corn grain (meat should also be free of hormones and antibiotics but that’s another conversation). This information must be clearly stated on the product label. The words, “all natural, no preservatives”, are meaningless. Don’t be fooled.

Zinjun Croon