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 has also been genetically modified (now called Bt-corn) so that it produces a poison which kills harmful insects. This means the farmer no longer needs to fight insects with insecticides.
Now although some of these may sound like a good thing (especially if you're a farmer!), we need to consider how GMO foods respond in our bodies and what kind of long term effects they can have on our health.
Since the long term effects of GMO (genetically modified organism) foods are not known, we are all part of a massive experiments, unwitting guinea pigs. In fact, what little research that has been done on GMO has resulted in some disturbing news. In April 2007, Arpad Pusztai, a researcher from Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, UK, noted that rats fed on genetically engineered potatoes had intestinal problems.
Doctors frequently deal with patients who have irritable bowel syndrome and other digestive problems. GMO foods may be playing a significant role in this issue.
Assuming that you can get your hands on non-GMO foods, then does corn fit into good diet plans?
Carbohydrates And Weight Loss
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?
Well even the organic varieties contain preservatives (of course to keep them in the bag) and have been shown to contain the same chemical coating in the bag that is used on non-stick cookware (double YIKES!). I would stay away from this stuff.
What about air popped popcorn?
This is the best choice, but it should only be eaten occasionally. Since pop corn is a grain, it is a carbohydrate, and having too many carbohydrates will not assist in weight loss.
In conclusion, then, it's fine to include corn into your diet plans provided you take some precautions. Firstly, only get the non-GMO variety. Secondly, consider corn a grain rather than a vegetable and allocate it to the carbohydrate portion of your meals.
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 has also been genetically modified (now called Bt-corn) so that it produces a poison which kills harmful insects. This means the farmer no longer needs to fight insects with insecticides.
Now although some of these may sound like a good thing (especially if you're a farmer!), we need to consider how GMO foods respond in our bodies and what kind of long term effects they can have on our health.
Since the long term effects of GMO (genetically modified organism) foods are not known, we are all part of a massive experiments, unwitting guinea pigs. In fact, what little research that has been done on GMO has resulted in some disturbing news. In April 2007, Arpad Pusztai, a researcher from Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, UK, noted that rats fed on genetically engineered potatoes had intestinal problems.
Doctors frequently deal with patients who have irritable bowel syndrome and other digestive problems. GMO foods may be playing a significant role in this issue.
Assuming that you can get your hands on non-GMO foods, then does corn fit into good diet plans?
Carbohydrates And Weight Loss
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?
Well even the organic varieties contain preservatives (of course to keep them in the bag) and have been shown to contain the same chemical coating in the bag that is used on non-stick cookware (double YIKES!). I would stay away from this stuff.
What about air popped popcorn?
This is the best choice, but it should only be eaten occasionally. Since pop corn is a grain, it is a carbohydrate, and having too many carbohydrates will not assist in weight loss.
In conclusion, then, it's fine to include corn into your diet plans provided you take some precautions. Firstly, only get the non-GMO variety. Secondly, consider corn a grain rather than a vegetable and allocate it to the carbohydrate portion of your meals.
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