Thrive: Corn Concerns

The greatest gift you can give your family and the world is a healthy you.
– Joyce Meyer

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver [HBO]

Excerpt:  the methods that we’ve used to supercharge its [corn] growth have taken a toll on the environment. Take nitrogen fertilizer. It is needed to intensively farm one crop over and over again. 

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NOTE: Commentary contains adult language
Length:  24:53

Succeed and Soar‘s Thrive! shares insights that can improve life’s quality. This post concerns corn.

These lines are from Samuel Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” This poem presents a thirsty sailor shipwrecked on the ocean. The same could be said of a crop that covers 90 million United States acres. While corn seems to be a food, should it be eaten?

Corn kernels are seeds that can grow new plants. The outer coating protects the genetic information. That pericarp is a waxy cellulose that people cannot digest [it comes out in the poop]. Corn descends from teosinte, a wild grass.

Six “Reasons to Never Eat Corn Again” include,

• Corn contains lectins like tomatoes, peppers and white potatoes, which the body cannot break down, causing inflammation and gut irritation.
• Pesticides, these poisons can accumulate in the blood and disrupt organ functions.

“Surprising Facts About Corn Nutrition, Benefits and Side Effects”  reports, “roughly 80 percent of the foods in the standard American diet contain some sort of GMO,” Genetically Modified Organisms that have been engineered in laboratories. About 88 percent of all United States corn is GMO, a concern because of connections to:

• Changes in the gut environment
• Greater risk for antibiotic resistance
• Increases in aging symptoms and more.

Should eating corn prove too tempting, “Why Corn is Hard to Digest” recommends letting teeth break down the tough cellulose shell. Chew longer. The post also claims yellow, sweet corn provides good amounts of protein, dietary fiber, selenium, zinc, thiamin plus other vitamins and minerals. Corn is high in carotenoid compounds that can prevent age-related macular degeneration.

Of popcorn,  Food Revolution recommends, “avoid the oils and chemicals used in processing most commercially available popcorn. And instead of mounds of melted butter and salt, try popcorn with healthier toppings [like] nutritional yeast, lemon juice, herbal seasoning, hot sauce, curry powder, garlic powder, onion powder, a dash of sea salt, and/or other herbs and spices [like cinnamon].”

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