Streak is still alive...no corn since Sunday
Truth be told, this is easier than I thought. Sure, I've basically turned myself into a vegan (which angers me tremendously. Vegans, I respect you, but you're missing a whole world of food), but it's possible, I think, to cut corn products out of one's diet entirely.
Here are a couple of pointers that have worked out for me so far:
- With the exception of most processed foods, everything we eat as Americans is available corn-free. You're just going to have to change your view on how one should eat. The meat's expensive, as are the eggs and the milk. Vegetables are not so expensive (provided you buy seasonal produce). So as Michael Pollan says, "eat food, not too much, mostly plants".
- Continuing on the last one, you need to forget the notion that it's a God given right to eat meat three times a day. It's not healthy for you, it's not healthy for society and it's certainly not healthy for the planet. Learn to eat your veggies.
- Eat lots of legumes. They're surprisingly inexpensive. It's also very hard to find any trace of corn when you're eating black beans or lentils. They're filling, too, and they taste fucking amazing.
- Fruit is candy. It's just better for you so you can eat more of it.
- Don't bother with juice or soda. Drink water when you're thirsty. Coffee and tea are pretty much water. Drink beer and wine.
- Trail mix!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
September 13, Days 4 and 5
Finally...it's possible (mostly)
Yesterday was my first day off since I started NoCorn, and it was also the first day where I actually ate no corn. Here's my strategy - eat local, and know exactly where your food is coming from. Now that shouldn't be so hard to do, especially if, like me, you're blessed to live in an area like Burlington, which is surrounded by farmland. Granted, it's a bit harder if you live in a large urban area, but it's still possible. Most veggies don't involve corn (for the time being at least), and as I proved this weekend, it isn't so hard to find a farmer who raises cows or chicken without the use of corn. Most towns and cities (at least during the warmer months) have a farmer's market - check it out if you haven't yet. I promise you'll be pleasantly surprised.
I even managed to eat out yesterday, for breakfast (I had oatmeal). Strangely, breakfast is actually a fairly difficult meal to go corn-free. One would not expect your typical American breakfast to involve so much corn, but in fact it's almost impossible to avoid. Eggs? Usually involve corn. Milk? Already been over this one...Bacon? Sausage? Both likely come from corn-fed pigs. Your best bet in avoiding corn at breakfast is to eat like a peasant, which, all things considered, is a very good idea. Peasant breakfasts usually involve cheap foods that are very high in energy - think beans, rice, oats and grains. I know that may not appeal to the eggs Benedict side of your morning, but maybe try it once or twice...who knows, you might like it.
I still had to use my car the last two days, so cutting corn out 100% is still a work in progress. But I can honestly say that I have not digested anything in two days that had corn as an ingredient or a feed, and I don't plan on ending that streak any time soon.
Now, just to be clear, I don't for a second think that corn is the only problem facing American society today. It's simply one problem off of a laundry list of problems. I'm a smoker, and I occasionally indulge in the pleasures of alcohol and certain other vices of humanity. I'm not perfect and I do not expect anyone else to be. We all have our weaknesses and we all make choices in life that don't have the best outcomes. But I'm aware the health risks that come from the choices I make in life. I know that my cigarette habit is detrimental to my health. Trust me, I've seen every ad campaign and public service announcement targeting smokers, and am well aware of the taxes levied against my vice. Cigarettes are demonized like little else in our society, and with good reason.
However, by focusing so vehemently on the ills caused by one of our societal vices, we often lose focus on the big picture, and that there are many, many risks to our collective health in the American lifestyle. Corn is one of the pieces to that puzzle. Again, corn isn't the only problem. It's one of them. But too few people are even aware that it's a risk (let alone trying to do something about it) and that is what makes it so dangerous. I'm just trying to make aware to as many people as I can exactly what corn has become. If two people are convinced enough by my crazy escapade to become more aware of the food they eat, than I've helped out two people.
Do not be crazy like me. Don't try to cut corn out of your life entirely. It's hard. Almost impossible. But be conscious of the fact that in the grand scheme of things, the $1.99 cheeseburger you're considering buying actually costs us all a lot more than $1.99.
Yesterday was my first day off since I started NoCorn, and it was also the first day where I actually ate no corn. Here's my strategy - eat local, and know exactly where your food is coming from. Now that shouldn't be so hard to do, especially if, like me, you're blessed to live in an area like Burlington, which is surrounded by farmland. Granted, it's a bit harder if you live in a large urban area, but it's still possible. Most veggies don't involve corn (for the time being at least), and as I proved this weekend, it isn't so hard to find a farmer who raises cows or chicken without the use of corn. Most towns and cities (at least during the warmer months) have a farmer's market - check it out if you haven't yet. I promise you'll be pleasantly surprised.
I even managed to eat out yesterday, for breakfast (I had oatmeal). Strangely, breakfast is actually a fairly difficult meal to go corn-free. One would not expect your typical American breakfast to involve so much corn, but in fact it's almost impossible to avoid. Eggs? Usually involve corn. Milk? Already been over this one...Bacon? Sausage? Both likely come from corn-fed pigs. Your best bet in avoiding corn at breakfast is to eat like a peasant, which, all things considered, is a very good idea. Peasant breakfasts usually involve cheap foods that are very high in energy - think beans, rice, oats and grains. I know that may not appeal to the eggs Benedict side of your morning, but maybe try it once or twice...who knows, you might like it.
I still had to use my car the last two days, so cutting corn out 100% is still a work in progress. But I can honestly say that I have not digested anything in two days that had corn as an ingredient or a feed, and I don't plan on ending that streak any time soon.
Now, just to be clear, I don't for a second think that corn is the only problem facing American society today. It's simply one problem off of a laundry list of problems. I'm a smoker, and I occasionally indulge in the pleasures of alcohol and certain other vices of humanity. I'm not perfect and I do not expect anyone else to be. We all have our weaknesses and we all make choices in life that don't have the best outcomes. But I'm aware the health risks that come from the choices I make in life. I know that my cigarette habit is detrimental to my health. Trust me, I've seen every ad campaign and public service announcement targeting smokers, and am well aware of the taxes levied against my vice. Cigarettes are demonized like little else in our society, and with good reason.
However, by focusing so vehemently on the ills caused by one of our societal vices, we often lose focus on the big picture, and that there are many, many risks to our collective health in the American lifestyle. Corn is one of the pieces to that puzzle. Again, corn isn't the only problem. It's one of them. But too few people are even aware that it's a risk (let alone trying to do something about it) and that is what makes it so dangerous. I'm just trying to make aware to as many people as I can exactly what corn has become. If two people are convinced enough by my crazy escapade to become more aware of the food they eat, than I've helped out two people.
Do not be crazy like me. Don't try to cut corn out of your life entirely. It's hard. Almost impossible. But be conscious of the fact that in the grand scheme of things, the $1.99 cheeseburger you're considering buying actually costs us all a lot more than $1.99.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
September 11th, Day 3
Holy shit this is harder than I thought...
Within 10 minutes of showing up for work today, I grabbed some left-over birthday cake, without even thinking, and took a bite. Part way through chewing, I realized that there was a fairly good chance (and by that I mean it's pretty much a given) I'd just eaten corn product (likely in the form of either high fructose corn syrup or corn oil).
It's amazing (and pretty alarming) that corn has made its way so far into our collective diets that I can't even eat a piece of iced sponge cake...
Today was probably the worst of the three days. After making staff meal that I thought was corn free, I came to quite the annoying realization that the cooking oil we use is no longer soy-based (which isn't great either, but that's a different story entirely) but possibly corn based. So for the rest of these two weeks, I will not be able to eat any of the food from work.
Tomorrow is my first day off since I started these crazy shenanigans. If I don't drive at all, and I can manage to only eat the food at home, it may be my first 100% corn-free day. My intuition, however, says otherwise, as I've learned in these first three days that cutting corn out of my life is far easier said than done. Wish me luck!
Within 10 minutes of showing up for work today, I grabbed some left-over birthday cake, without even thinking, and took a bite. Part way through chewing, I realized that there was a fairly good chance (and by that I mean it's pretty much a given) I'd just eaten corn product (likely in the form of either high fructose corn syrup or corn oil).
It's amazing (and pretty alarming) that corn has made its way so far into our collective diets that I can't even eat a piece of iced sponge cake...
Today was probably the worst of the three days. After making staff meal that I thought was corn free, I came to quite the annoying realization that the cooking oil we use is no longer soy-based (which isn't great either, but that's a different story entirely) but possibly corn based. So for the rest of these two weeks, I will not be able to eat any of the food from work.
Tomorrow is my first day off since I started these crazy shenanigans. If I don't drive at all, and I can manage to only eat the food at home, it may be my first 100% corn-free day. My intuition, however, says otherwise, as I've learned in these first three days that cutting corn out of my life is far easier said than done. Wish me luck!
Saturday, September 10, 2011
September 10th, Day 2
Fucking white Russians...
I was flawless today until, after a particularly hairy evening on the line, I got to enjoy the company of a Caucasian. And then, for the second night in a row, I realized that the milk I was drinking was, well, corn-based. Maybe there's a little pattern starting to develop here...I consume so many dairy products on a regular basis that I don't ever register it.
The question was posed to me a number of times today why the hell I care about dairy products. I mean, really, why is corn even part of the discussion with milk, cheese and yogurt? There aren't 'ingredients' in milk. It's just milk.
You know the saying that 'you are what you eat'? Well, it holds a fair bit of truth. You have to understand milk if you want to understand why the cow's diet is so important. Most milk in the United States comes from either the Jersey cow, whose milk is at about 5% fat, or the Holstein cow, whose milk is at about 3.5%. Roughly 30% of that total fat content is in the form of unsaturated fat, known to most of us as essential fatty acids (EFAs). Our bodies need these fatty acids for a number of processes but cannot produce them. A healthy, varied diet should have about equal parts omega-3 fatty acids and omega-6 fatty acids. A cow raised mostly off grasses will have a mostly even proportion of the two (about 16 mg each per gram of total fat), however a cow raised mostly off grain (and that means corn, which itself is very high in omega-6s) will have about 5 times more omega-6s per gram of fat (about 42 mg) than omega-3s (about 8 mg). This necessarily creates a dietary imbalance, an imbalance that has been positively linked to some of the so-called 'diseases of civilization' (type 2 diabetes and obesity being two such diseases commonly associated with a high level of 6s versus 3s). I'm not going to bore you with the details, but I urge you to brush up on your chemistry and read about it yourself.
What it all boils down to is that your milk reflects the diet of its origin cow. A cow's milk is not so different from a human mother's milk. A nursing mom is told not to consume alcohol, to avoid passing it on, through her milk, to her infant. This same logic explains why, yes, a cow's diet is very important in the milk it produces.
More importantly than all this milk stuff is that I found eggs! I've got a dozen eggs from Jericho Settler's Farm - their laying hens are all pastured. They dozen cost $4.50, so I'm definitely paying a premium for those eggs. I guess I'm just going to vary the foods I eat, and make those damn dozen eggs last.
I was flawless today until, after a particularly hairy evening on the line, I got to enjoy the company of a Caucasian. And then, for the second night in a row, I realized that the milk I was drinking was, well, corn-based. Maybe there's a little pattern starting to develop here...I consume so many dairy products on a regular basis that I don't ever register it.
The question was posed to me a number of times today why the hell I care about dairy products. I mean, really, why is corn even part of the discussion with milk, cheese and yogurt? There aren't 'ingredients' in milk. It's just milk.
You know the saying that 'you are what you eat'? Well, it holds a fair bit of truth. You have to understand milk if you want to understand why the cow's diet is so important. Most milk in the United States comes from either the Jersey cow, whose milk is at about 5% fat, or the Holstein cow, whose milk is at about 3.5%. Roughly 30% of that total fat content is in the form of unsaturated fat, known to most of us as essential fatty acids (EFAs). Our bodies need these fatty acids for a number of processes but cannot produce them. A healthy, varied diet should have about equal parts omega-3 fatty acids and omega-6 fatty acids. A cow raised mostly off grasses will have a mostly even proportion of the two (about 16 mg each per gram of total fat), however a cow raised mostly off grain (and that means corn, which itself is very high in omega-6s) will have about 5 times more omega-6s per gram of fat (about 42 mg) than omega-3s (about 8 mg). This necessarily creates a dietary imbalance, an imbalance that has been positively linked to some of the so-called 'diseases of civilization' (type 2 diabetes and obesity being two such diseases commonly associated with a high level of 6s versus 3s). I'm not going to bore you with the details, but I urge you to brush up on your chemistry and read about it yourself.
What it all boils down to is that your milk reflects the diet of its origin cow. A cow's milk is not so different from a human mother's milk. A nursing mom is told not to consume alcohol, to avoid passing it on, through her milk, to her infant. This same logic explains why, yes, a cow's diet is very important in the milk it produces.
More importantly than all this milk stuff is that I found eggs! I've got a dozen eggs from Jericho Settler's Farm - their laying hens are all pastured. They dozen cost $4.50, so I'm definitely paying a premium for those eggs. I guess I'm just going to vary the foods I eat, and make those damn dozen eggs last.
Friday, September 9, 2011
September 9th, Day 1
Definitely the hardest day so far...
My restaurant doesn't really have a glut of options...so today I was basically a Vegetarian. All our animal protein (save for the seafood, which is too expensive for us to eat anyway) is grain-fed, as is most of our dairy. So I subsisted off Red Hen sandwiches with tomato and Mozzarella (the Maple Brook Farm mozz comes from pastured cows). I drank my coffee black and abstained from Gatorade for probably the first time in 3 months.
Still, not perfect. Had to drive to and from work (about a gallon of gas, so 1/10 of a gallon of ethanol). Also, I made myself a tub of iced coffee around the start of dinner service and without even thinking, poured in a little milk (Hood, so definitely grain-fed). I'm fine with black when the coffee is hot, but iced, and midday, a little milk is always nice. And to be honest, it only dawned on me after drinking the coffee that there was corn involved.
I'm going to go to the Burlington farmer's market tomorrow and stock up on supplies. Naturally, that's going to mean a lot of vegetables. I'm going to buy some local beef, most likely, but will have to lay off the pork (pretty sure all pigs are fed a diet that consists of corn). My big goal for tomorrow is to be able to find eggs that work. The hardest part about this two weeks will be laying off the eggs (think about your life and the number of eggs you eat, either stand-alone or as an ingredient in something else) so I hope I can find some. No driving unless I have too, either...
My restaurant doesn't really have a glut of options...so today I was basically a Vegetarian. All our animal protein (save for the seafood, which is too expensive for us to eat anyway) is grain-fed, as is most of our dairy. So I subsisted off Red Hen sandwiches with tomato and Mozzarella (the Maple Brook Farm mozz comes from pastured cows). I drank my coffee black and abstained from Gatorade for probably the first time in 3 months.
Still, not perfect. Had to drive to and from work (about a gallon of gas, so 1/10 of a gallon of ethanol). Also, I made myself a tub of iced coffee around the start of dinner service and without even thinking, poured in a little milk (Hood, so definitely grain-fed). I'm fine with black when the coffee is hot, but iced, and midday, a little milk is always nice. And to be honest, it only dawned on me after drinking the coffee that there was corn involved.
I'm going to go to the Burlington farmer's market tomorrow and stock up on supplies. Naturally, that's going to mean a lot of vegetables. I'm going to buy some local beef, most likely, but will have to lay off the pork (pretty sure all pigs are fed a diet that consists of corn). My big goal for tomorrow is to be able to find eggs that work. The hardest part about this two weeks will be laying off the eggs (think about your life and the number of eggs you eat, either stand-alone or as an ingredient in something else) so I hope I can find some. No driving unless I have too, either...
Here's My Idea
Let me just explain what the deuce is going on. A number of people think I'm mentally unstable for even bothering with this. This, of course, is my personal challenge to eliminate any trace of corn products from my daily life. I think two weeks is about long enough (for now) to carry out this experiment.
Off the bat, I'm probably going to fail. My assumption here at the beginning is that it's not really possible to avoid corn entirely. For starters, it's very hard to find a gas station today that sells ethanol-free gasoline. Because I work a good distance from where I live (in and of itself something of a problem), I can't easily avoid using gasoline.
Also, corn is in just about everything. Naturally I'm going to slip up here and there and scarf something that's got corn in it, or was grown on corn-based feed.
I'm going to keep track of every day between now (September 9th) and two weeks from now (September 23rd) and log my experiences here.
Off the bat, I'm probably going to fail. My assumption here at the beginning is that it's not really possible to avoid corn entirely. For starters, it's very hard to find a gas station today that sells ethanol-free gasoline. Because I work a good distance from where I live (in and of itself something of a problem), I can't easily avoid using gasoline.
Also, corn is in just about everything. Naturally I'm going to slip up here and there and scarf something that's got corn in it, or was grown on corn-based feed.
I'm going to keep track of every day between now (September 9th) and two weeks from now (September 23rd) and log my experiences here.
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