New York - In the US it is not required for food suppliers to trace their sources for ingredients or materials used in their food production. This tracing if any is normally up to the individual industry and is seldom-invoked, unlike in Europe where in 2002 they adopted a regulation that required this reporting. As a result consumers are in the dark about the specifics of their diet and are unable to adequately evaluate what they consume.
According to a recent study lead by Dr. Hope Jahren of the University of Hawaii’s, department of Geology and Geophysics, Americans spend in excess of 100 billion dollars on fast food annually consuming what Dr. Jahren termed “as a disproportionate amount of both meat and calories within the U.S. diet.”
In the study that was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences November 2008 Issue, the researches sampled foods from McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s.
They sampled hamburgers, fries and chicken sandwiches within the different geographically distributed fast food restaurants in the U.S.
Using carbon isotopes that researchers were able to trace what the animals consumed based on the conspicuous carbon-13 signature of corn.
The statistically significant results showed conclusively that the beef and chicken meat used to make the sandwiches was from animals whose food source was mainly corn. The animals are feed the corn to maximize their calorie intake and also to maximize their tissue growth in attempt to keep up with the ever increasing demands of the fast food industry.
The results for the French fries also showed that Wendy’s used corn oil for deep-frying while burger king and McDonalds which favored other vegetable oils.
Dr. Jahren and the research team concluded that corn is an integral part of the fast food industry which shows the importance of corn agriculture when equated to the amount of money American consumers spends on the fast food industry.
According to Dr. Jahren, corn agriculture has been given a bad rap as an environmentally unsustainable and conspicuously subsidized agriculture.
This stance needs to be revisited based on the study’s findings. The study also concluded that Americans need to know exactly what is in their diet and where it comes from.
The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
10 Comments, Comment or Ping
Universal Diet
So it basically means that you people (fat people) were fed like pigs and cows for well over a hundred years. No wonder you all look like fat cows.
Nov 17th, 2008
Tom
This is ancient news. Corn is the main ingredient in virtually everything we eat. This subject was discussed at great length in Michael Pollon’s 2006 book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.”
Nov 17th, 2008
universal diet responder
Dude, if they had found that cows and pigs primarily ate rusty nails, you could say the same thing you just said.
If people eat cows and pigs then yeah I guess they are fed like cows and pigs since they are just eating cow/pig food in the form of cow/pig.
I don’t see your point.
Also I agree with your implicit statement that the fat are horrible creatures.
Nov 17th, 2008
mary
So, I see it is OK to be a bigot when it comes to portly people. Be less judgmental less you be judged? mp
Nov 17th, 2008
evn
say mary: portly?????
do you mean FAT?
what do you mean by the word “judgemental”??
no one judges you to be a bad person, it is self evident you are fat
(if indeed you are fat). or portly as it seems you might be.
it does not require “judgement” just simple perception.
Nov 17th, 2008
Gen
I agree with Evn on that, fat/portly/obese/chubby/chunky whatever, overweight is overweight, and it is basic perception.
In the case that an individual does not wish to be seen as fat, then they need to do something about it… like… not consuming so much damnable HFCS, go outside on walks, do some resistance exercise, hell read a lot of books, working the mind out burns a helluva lot of calories, most of all EAT LESS, Drink WATER, and stick to it.
Giving up and giving into the fat does not make you special it makes you lazy and weak spirited. I have cut and kept off 120lbs getting me to a healthy weight for my height, I knew I was fat, I felt bad about it, and I did something about it. It took 5 years because of my bad back, diabetes, and weak knees.
Never once did I feel discriminated about something I, like damn near every other fat person out there, let happen to myself.
Nov 17th, 2008
Tom Linkenhoger
To fat people and diabetics. The main ingredient in your FAST FOOD is the bread and it is the most fatting food in the meal or ’sandwich” because bread contains yeast which will increase the “fermenting” and brakedown of the sugars in the other foods with the meal or sandwich. Lose the bread loose the fat
Nov 18th, 2008
Tom Linkenhoger
Media UK In England “The Bolton News” printed an article on the internet regarding an appeal to the House Of Lords by a Barroness Gardener to educate the British public to reduce the slices of bread on sandwiches because bread contributes to obesity. One in three American children are now obese. Tom LINKENHOGER
Nov 18th, 2008
David Kamatoy
I think the point of this article is that we in the US should know where are food comes from. I eat meat but I also believe that through subsidies the actual real cost of meat is not indicating of the price. We use water and a lot of corn/vegatables to feed the animals which then we kill. Because of the subsidies and economy of scale meat is cheap. The reality is that if we paid for what it really costs we would eat less. Also if we ate more crops we would use less resources because the food would skip the cow and go to us.
Even those that hate the hug a tree vegans can see the validity of this point. Again I eat protein and am trying to balance it out a bit.
I linked this post on my site.
Nov 18th, 2008
Universal Diet
Unfortunately nothing and no one would be able to change the FAT outlook of American future. Did you guys know that only one in 100 overweight Americans read diet related news?
We could call Fat folks overweight, be nice to them and make them feel good about themselves…or we can start to call them Fat make them feel bad so take can wake up from that Fat dream and take defensive action against…in this situation …corn…or what I like to call it a pet food.
robert@dietuniversal.com
Nov 18th, 2008
Reply to “Corn – The Main Ingredient in Your Fast Food”