The Maze Of Corn Essay

The maze of maize

Those delicious yellow tidbits that your grandmother once had straight from the golden fields -well, now they are pretty much everywhere. From the rusty shelves at the supermarket to the glossy candy in your pocket, it is the ear that’s everywhere.

Maize (a.k.a Corn) comes in all sorts of colors and sizes -Blue, red, purple, orange, yellow, and the most recent -rainbow colored (called the glass gem corn). Interesting!

The strength of corn lies in its versatility. Corn can be consumed as kernels straight from the ear, or can be processed as corn meal, corn oil, as animal feeds and processed in manyother ways. Its applications are ample - so much so that a country’s economy depends on it.

Exactly how much of corn do we consume?

That’s not entirely true. The outer coat of the kernel is made of cellulose - which we humans can’t digest due to the lack of an enzyme called ‘cellulase’ in our system. This coating is the corn fiber - an excellent probiotic. It keeps the gut healthy. The insides consisting of the endosperm and the germ are extremely nutritious. It is said that nearly 20 percent of the world’s food calories come from corn. It is power packed with a lot of energy, protein, vitamins (A and C), and minerals (iron, folate, potassium and phosphorous).

Corn also contains functional phytonutrients like the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin, anthocyanin and protocatechuic acid (of purple corn) which exhibit an impressive antioxidant effect.

Corn has proven positive effects on alleviating digestive problems such as constipation and hemorrhoids. Being a whole grain, it has also been proven to lower the risk of colon cancer. Other studies say it has anti-atherogenic effects- it is heart healthy, and fights hypertension and anemia.

Its versatility, availability and nutritious quality can be the reason for its excessive use. Corn is also grown widely with the intent of producing ethanol (fuel for vehicles), and for livestock feed. Other than being the staple food in countries like Mexico, China, parts of Australia, New Zealand and India, Corn has been extensively processed to meet the demands of the food

Words like dextrose, maltodextrin, maltose, malititol, xylitol, polydextrose and hydrolyzed vegetable protein can all be derived from corn, not to mention the more obvious things like high fructose corn syrup and corn oil’

This can be loosely termed as ‘non-food corn’. The High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is a word so commonly seen on food -labels that we have become ignorant of it. HFCS is a low cost sweetener used in mainstream packaged foods like bread, soda, breakfast cereals etc. It has functional properties of improving texture, flavor, bulk and of inhibiting crystallization in beverages. However, this sweetener is definitely not sweet to our health. Studies have proved its link with non-communicable diseases such as cancer, diabesity (diabetes and obesity), cardio vascular diseases, and also liver diseases.

All the processed corn derivatives possess these detrimental effects on health, in addition to the ever present controversies on genetically modified foods. Using industrialized corn is a question of safety. Its consumption is in our