There are too many processed foods on the market which contributes to the growing epidemic of obesity. And why do we eat too much? Is it because our food supply is “rigged” to make us addicted to the foods we eat? Do you ever ask yourself why junk food is so much cheaper than healthier options? This is not a new phenomenon. This is a political mess that has been going on since the 1970s. Severe weather destroyed grain farmers’ fields in the Midwest which drove up grain prices. This drove up meat prices, because cattle feed is mostly corn. This is when the government farm subsidy program changed to support the farmer who grew corn. No matter what the supply of corn may be, the farmer still gets paid to grow corn. It makes sense that the farmer would then grow corn because he is guaranteed an income from the subsidy.
Because of this subsidy, corn farming became industrialized. No longer was the small farms growing the corn. Now the production of corn has multiplied dramatically. Instead of 20-30 bushels of corn per acre, now the industrialized farms are supplying 200 bushels an acre of genetically-modified corn. Because the corn is now “pesticide-resistant” the farmer can grow more and sell it for less and less. The abundance of corn drove the price down and manufacturers came up with products that could be made cheaply using this cheap form of corn. Now the market it awash in corn-based foods that are not only cheap but unhealthy. We have corn-based processed cereals, chips and crackers, drinks sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup and thousands more.
The cheap price of corn made the development of these products so cheap that not only did they introduce more, they made the sizes larger! (That’s why we now have super-sized everything!) So now we have grocery stores lined with unhealthy but cheap products that claim to be food. But real food provides real nutrition. These foods provide little if any nutrition at all. When we eat this food our insulin levels spike, causes blood sugar imbalances and can lead to Type 2 diabetes.
The issue doesn’t stop with us eating excessive amounts of corn. This is the same corn that we feed to cows and we drink their milk and eat their meat. But cows weren’t meant to eat corn. They were meant to eat grass and graze in open fields. Because they are not eating the proper nutrition for them, they get sick. To prevent the animals from getting sick they are given doses of antibiotics. So not only are we eating the GMO corn they eat, we are consuming the antibiotics they take. Corn fattens up the cows (so what do you think it does to us?). There are grain-fed chicken and even farmed-raised fish are fed corn! Eating these corn products can cause inflammation. If we cook with corn oil, for example, the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids is out of balance. High amounts of omega-6 produces inflammation. Plus, cooking with vegetable oil at high temperatures converts them to trans fat!
What do we need to do? We need to be part of the #RealFoodRevolution. We need to let our legislators know that corn subsidies are no longer viable. We need to subsidize the organic farmer. Let’s get the market in balance. Let’s make organic, healthy foods available at prices that everyone can afford. To combat this problem which is on a worldwide scale, we can start by eating locally, eat seasonally and support your local farmer. Vote with your pocketbook! Stop paying for food that makes us fat and unhealthy. Break this addictive cycle of foods that are meant to keep us unhealthy, keep us in the failed medical system and lowers our threshold for quality.
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