Sort-of interested in the following, and wasn't much sure where to post it. It seems that the advent of corn in the American's diet seems to be contributing to, among other things, diabetes and obesity. As if that's not enough, it's also draining some money out of the economy, too.

Federal subsidies provide almost twenty billion dollars per year to farmers in the mid-West (that is, Iowa, Nebraska, et al). In order to keep the corn prices from bottoming out, the government purchases farmer's crops, and then lets these crops rot - they are not used, at all. Farmers make their living off of growing crops which are not used, and the government doles out money.
Not too shabby.

Now, corn alone isn't such a bad thing, of course. But it's the syrup that's found in everything. When the crops of corn are grown, they're sprayed with pesticide. This, in turn, winds up in virtually ever single processed (or even unprocessed, hah!) food that we consume.

It seems as if the switch over to a grain based diet perhaps wasn't such a slick move. If I recall, the FDA established it's rather (in)famous food pyramid some forty years ago. Since then, there has been a spike in diabetes and obesity. You can blame larger sizes all you want, but the demonziation of red meat (Granted, it's no penicillan,...) as well as the re-calibration of american eating techniques (particularly with the advent of a primarily corn-base diet) just seems to spell bad news.

Very perceptive. I for one do not follow the food pyramid. For starters, dairy products arent necessary to health. They should not be a food group, but optional.

But look at the atkins diet. it was created originally for diabetics, because eating carbs turns into sugar and thus fat quicker than protein does, or even fats do. The bottom of the food pyramid should not be grains, but a combination of grains and vegentables, next run should be fruit, next rung occupied by meat, and the top, dairy, fats, ect.

Plus, they use the 2000 calorie diet, which is another reason we are fat. a man who stands about5'10 and weighs 150 pounds and does moderate daily activities would be able to handle that diet, but women and smaller people need less calories. We can go as low as 1000n calories depending on height and weight, to maintain body weight.

If you look at half the # you eat, it has corn syrup in it. Even "fruit" juices are sweetened thus. Even meat and soup, just about everything, has corn syrup.

Raw corn is very good for you, but processed corn is another story.

This may be off the wall here, but I have been germinating this theory regarding this drastic rise in obesity.

It may have to do with Biblical times....like those 7 years of plenty that were followed by 7 years of famine. Now I am not saying that the morbidly obese are in the right, but those people who are carrying a few extra pounds and are in relatively good physical shape endurance wise would most likely survive a severe famine....should something that horrid happen here in America.

I mean, look at some of the ideas we talk about here at ATS....like the incoming asteroids or in particular a blow out at Yellowstone caldera. If you had to go two years without harvests and say live underground before you could even think of leaving your shelter. Then who do you think will last the longest?

Will it be the model thin twigs?
The lushly fleshy madona?
Or the morbidly obese?

Faced with either extreme, I'd rather have some extra food stored away packed into my body.

I wouldn't want to be stuck hauling the equivelant of two extra persons inside my body to shelter. But neither would I want to be running for shelter and collapse out of exhaustion.

So this might not be just our eating habits. It might be humanities means of seeing that some of us survive till things get better.

Rad for radical.

Our main problem is our diet. We do not eat enough vegetables and fruit.

Also many of us don't exercise and just sit in an office all day.

Eating vegetables has as much energy as meat at less cost to the environment.

I don't believe corn is the problem. I used to eat corn alot as a kid and was never fat. It has to do with lifestyle changes of Americans of why people are getting fatter. People or maybe I should say Americans are consuming more calories than they used to years ago and then they are doing less physical activity than they did years ago too.

Just think 20 years ago everyone didn't spend hours and hours on computers, tv's, etc. and all of our new electronic devices. They were outside busy working etc. or busy inside working. Fast fattening food was not as readily available either. Even now I can go bicycling and the streets will be mostly deserted of any pedestrians in the average town I live in. We live in the couch potato society.

Good Evening..I hope this replies to the question about corn and obesity. Firstly, go to the rense site, an a few weeks ago there was an essay titled "The Oil We EAT" ( something like portland IMC. org). Tat is one bone chillin essay that settles any questionsyou may have about corn, diet, land and Oil.

I'm new to thiscoool site, and limited by some lo-tech webtv, but maybe one of the MODERATORRRS could find that article and link...

it's not so much corn itself, but it's the corn derivatives (d[corn]/dx for you math geeks) that cause the problems. corn syrups are found in essentially every food that you eat. additionally, recognise that pesticides are used on these corn crops...thus, you're ingesting probably a hefty bit of pesticide each year. it should be noted, at well, that even if you specifically buy vegetables that are organic, everything else you're eating (bread, cerael, etal) have corn products in them...even ground sugar, ironically.

atkins is a really neat diet; it is essentially "hacking" your body and tricking it into ketosis. i tried it for a couple weeks and lost quite a bit of weight - i needed to for an athletic season coming up. it does have some strange bodily side-effects.

as for the dairy food groups, you're correct -- you don't need dairy as a group. however, calcium is an essential part of a human's diet. if you can derive this from other things in your diet, then this is obviously a good thing. however, most people require dairy products to get the necessary nutrients. touching on another weird dietary habit, i attempted veganhood for about a year (a few years ago, hah...) and found it pretty simple as long as you stuck to mostly breads. again, another diet that had some weird side effects.

High fructose corn syrup and processed foods are making us an OBESE nation!!!
We need to eat fewer white foods: wheat, rise and potatoes. Many of us are wheat intolerant to some degree.
We need to eat more vegetables, not just iceberg lettuce.
We need to limit dairy--many of us have a diary sensitivty and may not even know it. It can cause weight gain and bloat.
All carbs are not created equal.