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Corn, Soy & Wheat
Saturday, January 14, 2023 10:48 AM
Corn, Soy & Wheat
Excerpt from an article by Mike Geary, Author of best-sellers: The Truth About Six Pack Abs
What would be considered a reasonably healthy amount of corn, soy, and wheat in the human diet? Based on hundreds of thousands of years of human history, and what the natural diet of our ancestors was (indicating what our digestive systems are still programmed to digest most effectively), this would probably be in the range of about 1% to 4% MAX of our total calories from corn, soy, and wheat.
Considering that modern humans are eating 67% of their total calories from corn, soy, wheat... you can see why we have massive problems in our health, and our weight!
By "derivatives" of corn, soy, and wheat, this means the food additives such as:
• High fructose corn syrup (HFCS)
• corn oil
• soybean oil (hydrogenated or plain refined)
• soy protein
• refined wheat flour
• hundreds of other food additives such as maltodextrin, corn or wheat starch, soy lecithin, mono and diglycerides, etc., etc.
Also think about how many processed foods we have that are either fried in soybean or corn oil... and even if the foods are not fried in these oils, these oils are additives to almost every processed food.
Probably the 2 worst examples of this blatant mismanagement of our food supply is how our factory farmed chickens and cows are fed.
Cows are fed mostly corn in factory feedlot farms, even though their digestive systems are only meant to eat grass and other forage. This makes the cows sick (hmm... E-coli anyone?), alters the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of the fats to unhealthy levels, as it diminishes the healthy CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acids (Linoleic acid is a polyunsaturated omega-6 fatty acid) found mostly in the meat and dairy products derived from ruminants) ….. All of these problems go away if our cows are fed what they were made to eat naturally - grass and other green forage!
Our chickens are also fed a diet of mostly corn and soy and crowded in tight pens in horrendous conditions... when the fact is that a chicken was meant to roam around the outdoors eating a mixture of greens, insects, worms, seeds, etc. When chickens are kept inside in tight quarters and fed only grains, it leads to an unhealthy meat for you to eat, and less healthy eggs compared to free-roaming chickens allowed to eat an outdoors diet.
Our food supply has gotten so screwed up that we're even feeding our salmon and other farmed fish corn and soy...again because of the economics involved. How ludicrous is this, considering that fish are meant to eat a diverse diet of smaller fish, worms, bugs, etc. Again, this makes farm raised fish unhealthy in terms of nutrition compared to their wild counterparts.
So even when you're eating chicken, beef, and fish, you're still essentially getting even MORE corn and soy into your body (from a biochemical standpoint) ...considering that the cows, chickens, and farmed fish ate mostly soy and corn.
So, it's actually WORSE than just 67% isn't it!
Why is it so unhealthy to consume 2/3rds of our calories from corn, soy, and wheat?
Well, this section could encompass an entire book, so to keep this short, I'll just throw out a few random reasons...
• Skews the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fats in our diet to as high as 30:1, when a natural ratio of 1:1 to 2:1 in our ancestral human diet is considered healthy.
• Problems with gluten intolerance (related to heavy wheat consumption that is rampant)
• Problems with weight gain, blood-sugar swings, and reduced insulin sensitivity (and progression of diabetes) due to excessive refined corn and wheat flours, as well as HFCS in our diet
• Soy and corn are the most genetically modified crops (which also allows more pesticides and herbicides to be used, which are usually "xenoestrogens" this means it is mistaken for estrogen in our bodies, preventing the actual production of estrogen)
• Many of the pesticide and herbicide residues in these crops are xenoestrogens, which can increase "stubborn" belly fat
• Soy products and derivatives contain a double-whammy of xenoestrogens as well as phytoestrogens... again creating an environment in your body for fat storage, carcinogenic effects, and even "man boobs" for some men in very severe cases
• The feeding of corn and soy to animals reduces the health and nutritional benefits (and micronutrient levels) of those animal products
• and the list could go on and on and on...
So how do you avoid all of this overwhelming amount of corn, soy, and wheat in our food supply, and finally take control of your weight and your health?
1. Don't purchase processed foods! It all starts with your grocery cart discipline... choose only 1-ingredient foods such as fruits, veggies, beans, eggs (free roaming), raw nuts, seeds, and meats from grass-fed or free roaming animals that are raised correctly. Grass Fed and Organic is preferred. Only resort to junk foods or processed foods ONLY when dining out or away and you have no alternative... that way, the processed foods aren't in your house to tempt you. And even then, you have choice when at a restaurant;
a. eat your meat grilled, no gravy or sauces
b. ask for an extra side of vegetables instead of fried or starchy potatoes
c. avoid the bread they always bring you at the beginning of a meal, and to avoid temptation have them take it away
d. drink a bit of water or tea with your meal, no soda or carbonated drink
e. instead of an appetizer choose a salad and ask them to bring you Olive Oil and Vinegar to pour drizzle on it, no restaurant dressing that will contain soybean oil or canola oil and most likely sugar
2. Get most of your carbs from fruits and veggies instead of grains.
3. Avoid store bought salad dressings as they almost always contain soybean oil or canola oil and HFCS (instead ask for my homemade recipes)
4. Make sure that your tomato sauces don't have HFCS and soybean oils... look for sauces made with olive oil instead. Remember to avoid unhealthy canola oils too!
5. If you like guacamole (one of the healthiest snacks on the planet!), try veggie sticks with guacamole instead of genetically-modified, oil-soaked corn chips
6. If you like hummus, try veggies sticks with hummus instead of pita chips or other bread but check the ingredients, many hummus are made with soybean or canola oil.
7. Try to eliminate but at least start reducing your cereal, bread, and pasta intake (keeping a journal helps keep track and reduce it to a point where it’s zero tolerance) and stick to more of the 1-ingredient foods I mentioned in #1 above.
Our new patients are asked to fill out a food journal when starting on our program. If you have been coming to the clinic for a while, we should have eliminated, week by week (step by step) a lot of these foods during that time but if you have reverted to consuming a good amount of these foods, this article will help educate you on why they are to be eliminated or drastically reduced and hopefully motivate you to cut back.
Ask us for the list of ingredients that come from corn to help manage this. We can also help with snack alternatives. There are bread alternatives as well.
Wishing you the best of health in the new year!
