From: Salt Lake City, UT
There had to come a day when I would begin to address the concept of food. Begin, I say, because bookshelves have been published on this topic…and there’s no way TAI will lend me THAT much website space! So this rant will only be the beginning.
Gosh golly, where does a gal start? Eureka, I’ve got it!
“You are what you eat.” It’s an age old saying that originated in 1826 when Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote “Dis-moi ce que tu manges, jet e dirai ce que tu es.” (Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are). Later, this became (auf Deutsch) “Der mensch ist, was er ißt,” which translates to our current understanding of the phrase (only he said, the man is what he eats…thank you high school German class!). This idiom made it into English not long after and even became a British TV show! Likely, it was on the Queen’s list to TiVo during teatime.
This saying wasn’t meant to be taken so literally, but implies that we become the types of things we consume, be it violent video games, court talk shows, negative surroundings and people, OR a whopper with fries. By the way, has anyone else seen Burger King’s new signs for the ANGRY WHOPPER? Seriously, what kind of sauce is anger and who wants to consume more of it? Why not the Gandhi Whopper? Or at least name the freakin’ sandwich after a positive angry leader. The Cesar Chavez Burger anyone? …This could be the beginning of a whole new healthy fast food chain: Revolutionary Rations…where you can mini-size your order instead of being coerced into buying enough crap calories to sustain a little league team.
Ok, back on topic: You Are What You Eat.
Think about it: what exactly do you eat? And beyond that, this statement assumes that to know what we are, we actually know what it is we’re eating. Now geez Morgan, this seems a little far-fetched (…I can hear it now…), I know that my burger is made out of a cow and that my fries are potatoes and that my salad came from a farm and my chips from the store and my frozen entrée from the magic frozen food fairies. But is it that simple?
Yes and no are both correct answers to the above proposed question.
In 1994, the Food and Drug Administration implemented our current nutrition labeling system. Suddenly, we could see how many calories and grams of fat and oodles of sodium we were consuming. But also, we were given a window into the world of ingredients; we could finally see WHAT our food was made from. Only it seems the FDA forgot to print these long lists in English.
When I was 7 or 8, I wanted to be a master speller. Spelling was like a puzzle, a new language, a mystery with enough clues that if you paid attention, you could solve it. I could hold my own in the school’s spelling bee and I could even define most of the words that the 6th graders couldn’t spell (ok, now I’m just bragging). But among the multitudinus vocalizeable utterantces that I ackwired in my effemeral inkwerie into the Inglesh language, I never once saw words like ‘xanthum gum,’ ‘maltodextrin,’ ‘monosodium glutamate,’ or ‘lactic acid.’ I mean, isn’t lactic acid that shtuff that builds up in your muscles when you work hard and are feelin’ the burn? What is this doing in our food? Perhaps it’s helping the internal digestive smooth muscles of our stomachs and small intestines to feel the burn. Jane Fonda would be so proud.
So what exactly is this stuff with high falutin long confusing chemistry names? Mostly, it’s corn. All of the above listed ingredients are additives derived from corn. And there are many more. These kernel extracted bits and pieces are used as sweeteners, thickeners, preservatives, and binders. They are in your processed foods (aka almost anything you buy in a box, bag, jug, jar, or can), used as a coating on your fresh fruits and veggies for extra bling, in your shampoo and toothpaste for thickness (which hopefully you’re not eating), and even in some over the counter medications as a binding agent.
For a more full list of multisyllabic corn derived food additives, check out the Live Corn Free website, they’ve got a good list rolling. For those with organic chemistry interest, Wikipedia does a decent job breaking down most of these compounds into their cellular structural differences and showing the necessary steps and processes. Don’t worry all you closet chemists out there, nobody’s taking a head count.
For now, I’m not even going to start on high fructose corn syrup. That’s a whole other bookshelf.
Right now, some of you are shocked, some of you are nodding your heads emphatically, and some of you are thinking you may be exempt from this overconsumption of corn because you eat more meat, dairy, and veggies than processed foods. First of all, let me congratulate you. This is a fairly wise choice and generally healthier than eating foods that have gone through more steps in the food chain than there are in the Empire State Building.
But just so you know, the majority of cows and chickens and turkeys and lambs and even our beloved fishes are now being fed Number 2 corn diets. No. 2 corn is the type of corn grown in the majority of fields in this country. It is used for animal feed, ethanol production, and the creation of xanthum gum etc., but certainly not for human consumption. There are heaps of other evils behind CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) that detract from the nutritional value of meat…but again, that’s another bookshelf.
Now the real question of the day: Is all this corn bad for us?
The simple answer is Yes. The longer answer is on yet another bookshelf.
The human body is amazing and can process a lot of crap, but in the end it needs nutritional substance and variety to thrive. Remember the food pyramid from 2nd grade? Well forget about it, it’s been abolished! About 1½ months ago, the Nutritional Plate was instated by the USDA and Michelle Obama, encouraging more fruits and veggies and creating a more evenly balanced plate. Check it out!
But the take home message is the same: variety. If everything you’re eating is derived from corn in one way or another: soda, chips, meat, crackers, breads, chicken nuggets (don’t even get me started on these), cereal, applesauce, candy, etc… then you’ve lost all the variety of substance that you’re body craves!
The best thing that any human, who has the power of literacy and will power, can do is to eat as many fresh fruits and veggies as possible. (The whole organic thing, you guessed it, another bookshelf) Beyond that, pay attention to what those nutrition labels list. If there are more than a handful of ingredients or many that you couldn’t identify with or without the periodic table, than perhaps it belongs on the shelf and not in your tummy!
And remember, small changes will grow bigger over time. Start by adding something green to each plate you serve up or substitute a piece of fruit instead of fruit snacks (corn) next time you need a nibble.
Plato and many other Greek sages have popularized the phrase “Know Thyself.” If you are what you eat, at least know what it is you really are!
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