More Than Corn in Our Hair

Recently Brian and I watched a movie called King Corn. Its a documentary that I accidentally came across in IICD's movie library while I was trying to find Food Inc. The movie follows two young men who decide to grow an acre of corn to see first hand the process of corn farming and where the corn goes after  visiting a scientist who, after sampling a strand of each of their hair, finds that they are basically made up of corn. The movie discusses farm subsidies and the incredible amount of corn that is produced in this country. This large amount of corn is then used in, well everything. It goes to feed cattle which is bad for them and ultimately bad for us when we consume the meat. Beef that comes from cattle that is fed corn is around 9 grams of saturated fat where beef from cattle fed grass is 1.3 grams of saturated fat and ground beef or hamburger meat contains 65% of calories as fat.
A huge part of the corn produced gets processed into High Fructose Corn Syrup. This is made my breaking down the corn into practically nothing, adding a lot of dangerous chemicals, and coming out with a product that can be produced at really low cost, thanks to the subsidies that pay for this large amount of corn to be produced. It has no nutritional value, and is put in to so many foods. At one point the two men in the documentary go into a gas station and have a hard time finding a product that doesn't contain HFCS.
Most of the corn grown in this country cannot be consumed as it is, it has to be processed in order to be edible and it lacks many nutrients because it has been genetically modified to be grown in a certain way for a certain purpose.
I really recommend watching this movie yourselves, it is really enlightening and really well made.

Here at IICD, I have had so many conversations and so much education about food and nutrition and both Brian and I have been eating relatively healthy food, at least when we don't go out (fast food is bad!).
After watching this movie, and realizing how much corn is in everything we eat: meat, candy, crackers, soda, etc., I started to feel a little disturbed; I would like there to be more than corn in my hair!
So, I have decided to try to tackle this dilemma one step at a time, starting with the most evil form of corn: High Fructose Corn Syrup.
Starting today, Brian and I are going to try to go 28 days without eating anything containing HFCS. After watching this movie, we were both really disturbed by how much corn we consume without actually eating corn. We agreed that if we did the test on ourselves, we would really love for there to be more than corn in our hair. 
Because HFCS is in so many things and does nothing for you nutritionally, but does spike your blood sugar, eliminating this from our diets is a healthy decision. It is also a good way to consume less corn. It will be a challenging mission however, because HFCS is so many things, things we wouldn't even expect it to be in. This will force us to read the labels of foods carefully before we consume them and I hoping it will further enlighten us both about what we are putting into our bodies.
These days, its so easy to just pick something up and put into our mouths, not even questioning what is in it or what effect it has on us. We would love to invite anyone else who is interested in becoming more aware of what we are consuming and to try to eliminate some of this nutrient-free corn from our diets, to join us in this endeavor.I think it is so important to at least be conscious of what we are putting in our mouths!


Now, let's be clear- we are not eliminating sugar all together- we are only eliminating one type: High Fructose
Corn Syrup. If you do want to join in, lets share ideas with one another on how to satisfy our love for sweets with things made from real sugar or other sweeteners like honey, yogurt, or fruit.
I personally have been really hooked on dark chocolate- I love it because it actually has some health benefits to it, and I can eat one little square and be completely satisfied! I just bought a Pear and Almonds chocolate bar that is to die for! and no HFCS!

We will keep you posted on how it is going, and please let us know if you want to join in!