Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Diet Plans: Is Corn Safe To Eat?

By Saleem Rana


Most people naturally assume that corn is a good diets food, but you should be cautious in adding it to your diet plans.

There's nothing like a good piece of corn on the cob at your summer barbeque or your buttered popcorn to go along with your favorite movie, right? Or wrong?

More and more people are raising the question...

Should corn be included in diet plans?

Although it has been estimated that about 60% of crops are genetically modified, this is only a conservative figure and the numbers are much more likely to be higher. The practice was implemented to produce a bigger crop so farmers and national revenues from the agricultural sector were higher. Genetically modified corn could now kill insects that had become resistant to pesticides.

Sweet corn, now also called Bt-corn, has been altered to produce an insect-killing poison.

This may sound like progress--especially from the perspective of the farmer and the national income--but there is a reason to be concerned. The new foods may have long term effects on ruining our health.

Well, because the introduction of GMO (genetically modified organism) foods is still relatively new, we're in a way being used as "guinea pigs" in a massive experiment (Yikes!). In April 2007, Arpad Pusztai, from the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, UK, announced that experiments had shown intestinal changes in rats caused by eating genetically engineered potatoes (and I don't know about you, but I'm not happy about anybody trying to mess with my intestines).

This actually doesn't surprise me. It's amazing to me how many more people now complain of things like irritable bowel syndrome and other nagging digestive problems. I'm not saying that eating GMO foods is the only cause for these conditions but I'm sure it's a significant contributor (along with processed foods, but that's a story for a different day).

Assuming that you can get your hands on non-GMO foods, then does corn fit into good diet plans?

Weight Loss And Carbohydrates



The most important thing to be aware of is that your body processes corn as if it were a carbohydrate rather than a vegetable. This means that you should not consider meal with brown rice and corn as a carbohydrate and vegetable meal. Instead, it is more accurate to classify corn as a grain. Thus, a meal with corn should be counted as a meal with a serving of carbohydrates.

What role does microwave popcorn play in a healthy diet?

Even organic microwave pop corn is not healthy for you. The bag is lined with the same chemical coating that is used in non-stick cookware and the pop corn contains preservatives.

What about air popped popcorn?

This is the better choice when it comes to pop corn. However, you have to only enjoy this snack occasionally because your body will not lose weight if you consume too much carbohydrates.

Here is the main takeaway from the article: one, stay away from GMO corn; and, two, include corn as a grain and not as a vegetable when making diet plans.




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