I watched King Corn last night at the Coolidge Corner Theater. This is a must see for individuals, but also very important for fitness professionals. After all, if we are in the business of helping people exercise their way of fitness, and they think they’re eating the right foods for their goals - what happens if we realize that any achievements and changes are thwarted because of the “good” food we eat.
The alarm is being sounded on corn. The King Corn website has some fantastic and scary statistics about it in their faq and farm bill section.
One thing that is clear is that not all corn is equal. The corn that is massively produced today is not the corn that was once eaten. Looking at a history of corn is different than looking at what the corn industry says about corn. Can you see the bias? It’s interesting to look at this list and at the same time question the assumptions that lead to this type of thinking.
Here are a few interesting links about the issues:
- How the feds make bad-for-you food cheaper than healthful fare
- Wikipedia’s History of Corn
- Corn, It’s What’s Bad for you (by a grass-fed-beef farmer, so it is biased, but valuable for it’s insight)
- Michael Pollen, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma
There’s a lot more to research here, but this is a start.