9 benefits of Morning Workouts

ZEA MAYS IN EXCESS Part 1

Reading part one of Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma was really interesting and informative for me. What I got from reading this is the problem of humans intervening with the natural food chain and creating everything in excess. To begin with, I was shocked at the huge amounts of corn produced and how much of this food finds its way into almost every portion of processed food. Coming from a country where corn is the staple diet made the reading even more interesting and informative. I couldn’t help but compare the American food industry to the Zambian one. Zambia’s staple dish is Nshima, which is prepared with corn meal, that means Zambian eat the corn directly and this meal is eaten on a daily basis. Until now, I had never thought of the possibility of having too much corn in one’s diet. But then I realized that the difference is that once you eat corn directly you will obviously be aware when you are eating too much of it. However, American consumers eat corn indirectly without knowing how much corn is really in their foods, which could be dangerous because then people take in more than they need. Personally, I don’t really read food labels for contents and I can only imagine most consumers of especially fast foods wouldn’t really know that their food is about 80% corn, and that they are taking in way to many calories than they are aware of. Before reading part one of this book, I would have never guessed how much American food relies on corn, I have always been envious of the variety of foods, little did I know that most of the foods still have corn in them. The worrying thing is that the amounts of corn in these foods are almost disguised and I wonder how many consumers know this. I think the main problem lies in the economy and politics that drive the food industry in America.

It is human’s intervention by trying to control the food chain and the need to make more, bigger and fast growing food. The introduction of GMFs, fast growing corn and what really surprised me corn fed cows with antibiotics! They figured if they could increase yields and shorten the period before harvesting, then both the farmer and consumer would benefit. Increased food production may have been good for the country in times of food shortages by ensuring that people had adequate food on their plates. However, it seems like the food industry got carried away with their new discoveries and figured out that they could take these technologies to their advantage and make huge profits, which is sad because then, it left the consumer to be exploited without even knowing it. The food industry has changed from catering to the consumer’s needs to their own needs. The farmers and manufactures are only interested in making profits by forcing consumers eat more.