What Does a Sugar Shortage Mean for a Corn-Free Diet?

I was watching Colbert Report last night and Mr.Colbert had one of my favorite people on, Marion Nestle (watch the video here). Marion Nestle is this food guru and I highly recommend her book What to Eat. It will make you see grocery shopping in a whole new way. Anyways, Nestle was a guest to discuss this week's sugar crisis. Whaaaaaat? What sugar crisis? Is it true that I'm really getting my news from parody news shows because this was the first I'd heard of this! Colbert put it well when he said, "Oh my God, there’s a sugar shortage. How could this happen? Well, like interstate highways and potable water, it’s the government’s fault".


Well, APPARENTLY, this week was the beginning of a smidge of a sugar shortage, due to Cuba wanting more money for its sugar. Which I mean, seems to make sense to me, since we have been buying it from them for the same price since the 1940s. I can understand how that little increase in price can throw American food manufacturers (and consumers) for a loop. The American Sugar Refining Co., the country's biggest sugar cane refiner, actually has feared that all of its plants would run out of raw sugar in the next two weeks. Nestle said in the interview that "It's a manufactured crisis because the food companies want to have cheap sugar from other countries". That's all well and good, but it still doesn't bode well for those of us who eat the food put out from food companies. And those of us trying to give up corn sweeteners.

This means sugar prices are going up, which probably means at some point, foods with sugar in it will go up in price. Foods with HFCS and other corn sweeteners will gain in popularity. I will be broke and having a harder time finding food to eat. It's apparently time for me to take matters into my own hands.

"Dear Cuba,
I honestly don't know much about you. Not because I don't want to, it's mainly because you won't let me visit. I know you make a mean cigar, and you have a body of water named after pigs. Oh and we get lots of sugar from you. So please let us buy your sugar so I don't go crazy. Thanks! -Jessica"

Thing that will solve the problem? I hope so.

-Jess

And the Media Circus Begins!

Not really. But I did make the local CBS 19 news for my corn celibacy. New phrase...I like it, what do you think? If you must watch the video, you can check out the video here. You can read the little article they wrote about it here.

It was fun to tape, although my trashcan did not want to participate in being slammed closed. We had to tape that a few times. I must confess though, I have still yet to watch it. Im one of those people that hate to watch myself on tv and definitely when I feel like I sound like a loon. I didn't even really mention it to people. I'm not ashamed of my experiment, but I get more "crazy lady" feedback than anything else. I also then have to go into a tirade about why I would do such a thing. I should just print up cards with my name and the blog and hand them out so I can save some breath.

I was Body Pumping at the gym today with my friend Lauren and she mentioned that people had been commenting about the video on Facebook. Super. I didn't read the comments, but I imagine its something along the lines of "That girl needs to get a hobby...", etc.

Here's some irony for you though. Stephanie Satchell, interviewer extraordinaire, asked me what I can't eat and my first response was "No Mexican food!". Then after the interview, my boyfriend and I decide to go to lunch. And where does he suggest? Aqui es Mexico - the best little Mexican restaurant in Cville.

I'd never been to Aqui and I'd been wanting to, so I said yes, and was ready for a challenge. Dining there was surprisingly non-corn eater friendly. I avoided the corn chips and salsa, which was hard, real hard. I then spoke to the sweet little ole' lady owner (she's not that old, but its weird to say "sweet little middle-age lady") and asked her about their flour tortillas. Were they made in house? Yes. Did they have cornstarch, baking powder, anything like that in it? I was reassured with a big headshake and a "no, no, no, no, no". You can't get more reassuring than that can you?

So I went with a stellar quesadilla that had spinach, cheese, jicama (I LOVE jicama!) and various other veggies in it. And felt ecstatic to be eating Mexican!

The first week has been a little too easy. But of course now the Chinese cravings have begun. And damnit, I'm pretty sure like all Chinese foods sauces have corn in them. A year without Chinese food!? Noooooo.

-Jess

Oprah Giving Back to School Lunch Tips

I'm sitting in front of the tube, watching Oprah and Dr. Oz, talking with overweight kids and the author of Eat This, Not That, David Zinczenko, about school lunches. Now I'm glued to the tv. Although I'm not crazy about Oprah's new audience voting system, I must say I love, LOVE Oprah. She's a class act in my opinion, and though sometime she still delves into trash tv topics, most of her topics are relevant and aim to help her viewers live a better life. The other thing I love is nutrition, and childhood obesity and school nutrition are really important causes to me.

And I have to say, that many of the things they are saying on the show, are validating my reasons for going corn-free. One stat the David Zinczenko mentioned is that kids (that's just kids, not diet coke addicted adults) eat an average of 450 extra calories a day in liquid form - that's from sodas, fruit juices, and milkshakes. If you're getting cheap fruit juices, that aren't 100% fruit juice (like Sunny D which has high fructose corn syrup in it!), and you're drinking corn. Sodas - corn. Milkshakes - corn. So there you go, cut that corn, cut some calories, lose some pounds.

They also packed some sample school lunches, and they contained minimally processed foods, which is what you eat when you're not eating corn derivatives. And honestly it will save you time and headaches to eat minimally processed foods because trying to figure out what some of those crazy ingredients are gives me headaches. I need to memorize all those weird chemical things, because my grocery trips are much longer when I have to stand there on my iPhone and research every chemical. If you ARE drawn to the more processed foods (I'll turn my head the other way), you should watch this video to get Dr.Oz's lesson on how to read a food label. But I'll let you know, if you go for those processed foods, that anything with corn in the ingredient name, is probably an artificial sweetener, and bringing on the extra calories.

The parents in Oprah's audience expressed trouble over the expense of minimally processed foods (a quandary that I'll never get) and its true, avoiding foods with artificial sweeteners and less processing can be more expensive (thus why high fructose corn syrup became a popular substitute for sugar - its cheap). Ways to fight the high costs - Dr Oz just said eat local! Yay! That its better for us, and many times cheaper.

I'm glad that Oprah and Dr. Oz are on to this. Because honestly, they are some of the most trusted voices in the American media. People WILL listen to them. And hopefully, they'll stop eating less artificial (and corn) sweeteners. And America will stop gaining weight!

-Jess

Buh-bye Now

See all this? These are the corn culprits that have been occupying my fridge, freezer and pantry. Amazing that most of these things aren't solid foods, no?

Corn in Pop Culture

When you become hyper-sensitive to corn in your diet, you become hyper-sensitive to corn well, everywhere. I mean it's not like I see corn everywhere I look - at least not yet, and I'm not haunted by corn in my sleep. I'm just noticing it more and more.

Corn has even made its way into pop culture - and not just as the standby snack in the movie theaters. When starting this project, I pulled from the recesses of my mind a character on of those train wreck VH1 dating shows. I couldn't quite remember what show it was, but I definitely remembered the chick. Her name was Corn Fed. Sounds like the beginning of a bad old love song, no? Well she got her name, if I remember correctly, because she's from the Midwest, and like a good Midwestern girl, she had a little meat on her bones (and I mean a little - she's on a reality show, and its not Biggest Loser, so she's still small) because she was raised on corn.

While this is I guess, supposed to be a compliment to her, its an interesting thing to get complimented on - how good your corn fed body looks. Everyone is "corn fed", perhaps Corn Fed herself actually just eats more real corn than those Americans who live farther away from the fields. Perhaps they should have labeled an obese American, or an lower income American, as corn fed. They're the ones that are more than likely consuming the large amounts of high fructose corn syrup and other corn derivatives in many of the things they eat, because these corn foods are cheaper than real sugars and other preservatives.

Just a thought VH1, but maybe you should give the corn fed label to someone who really deserves it.

Days 1 & 2 - Piece of C....Cookie?

Wednesday I started my corn-free journey and although it got off to a somewhat rough start, it's been feeling a bit easy-breezy since then. I started Wednesday morning with a sinus headache and an empty fridge. All I wanted to do was go back to bed but my stomach and unfortunately, my work load said "NO!". So I poured myself a glass of corn-free tangerine juice (it was the only thing in my fridge that didnt need to be questioned...and I was too tired to start investigating my fridge), and schlepped my way to Whole Foods, thinking this would be one of the easiest grocery stores to find products free of HFCS and other corn derivatives.

Well, it doesnt bode well when you walk in and all the free samples at Whole Foods that day seem to be corn. Corn chips, corn cheese puffs, housemade tortilla chips and salsa. I grabbed for them a couple of times before thinking "whoa now!". I was definitely being tested...and kind of slapped in the face and laughed at by someone upstairs.

I knew the easiest things to eat would be fruit and veggies so I hit up the salad bar and then the salad dressing aisle. Salad bar - easy, although I almost grabbed some good looking corn kernels on the salad bar. Salad dressing aisle - sucky. REAL sucky. I went for the oil based dressings, thinking why do you need xantham gum in an oil dressing? I don't know why, but apparently you do. Apparently ALL SALAD DRESSINGS need xantham gum! Everything I picked up, organic or otherwise, had the gum. Okay, I thought to myself I'll just make some dressing at home.

There was one major victory with salad dressings at Whole Foods that morning. I went back to the prepared foods section and salad bar, and noticed that Whole Foods now sells salad dressings they make in house. AND that they have a buttermilk ranch - and its corn free! It's got an easy to read list of ingredients, like, you actually know what they are without having to google them. Well, it did have the main ingredient as mayonnaise. I do not particularly like mayo. And I wasnt sure if there was corn in it (I'm suspicious of all foods now). But I walked back over to the salad dressing condiment aisle (I was getting my exercise walking corner to corner in WF), and looked at the Whole Foods brand mayo (assuming that is what they would use in their house-made dressing) to see what it was made of. Happily, no corn! Jackpot!
Now I havent mentioned it yet, but I love ranch dressing. I love condiments in general (blog to come) but I LOVE ranch. It's probably my favorite condiment, and blame it on the southern girl in me, but I think it makes just about any food taste better. Maybe that has turned a lot, urmmm, many, of you off from reading this, but trust me, I like plenty of sophisticated foods as well.

Anywho, I had really doubted that I would ever find a corn-free ranch. I was ready to start experimenting with making it at home. I was excited about the challenge. But I was even more excited to find a corn-free ranch on my first day! Booyah! This was going to be an easy experiment.

Too bad the ranch tastes kinda crappy.

So that was my only challenge of day one. I ate a salad for lunch, and had pasta (I read the label - no corn) with homemade sauce for dinner.

Day 2, I must confess, broke me a bit. I started my morning by stopping by one of my favorite places, Cappellino's Crazy Cakes - yes a cupcake shop, to visit one of my favorite people, Dotty. Dottie and I go back since the beginning of Crazy Cakes, which is not that long, but we're tight. She loves, loves my bulldog, Mona (but ummm, who doesn't?), and I love her cupcakes and cookies. Perfect!

I have, however, been struggling with corn versus cupcakes. Cupcakes have corn starch in their baking powder (I think cupcakes have baking powder...need to double check that), but I love them. A lot. A ton. Whatever. So how do I tell Dotty and her cupcakes no?

Well Dottie and I started talking shop and then Dotty tells me I MUST try their 3 new cookie flavors. I gave a nervous smile, tried to change the subject, but got dragged into the shop and forced, FORCED to eat a bite of a chocolate caramel cookie. Caramel - made of corn. Cookies - have baking powder. Crap. So I did swallow a bite because I can't say no to Dotty. And it was a chocolate caramel cookie.

The rest of my meals these first two days went very well. Salads and minimally processed grains. A dark chocolate chocolate bar (I have a sweet tooth and I gotta get it from somewhere) has been satisfying my need for sweets.

Soooo besides eating corn products to be nice and to not look like a complete loony to others, I think I can do this. Im not going to give up after one little slip up! This isn't a pass or fail test, its an experiment and test of my personal strength.

One Last Hurrah

So I've been M.I.A. for the past few days, which probably isn't the best practice when you're just starting a blog, but I had to get away for a few days with my beloved corn. Yes, beloved. See I've been sitting on this experiment for about a week now, and as I've said before, there's many a food today that has the good ole kernel in it. And the more I think about, the more research I do, the more I realize that corn and its assorted parts are all over the freakin' place. So I ran away with corn for a "hominy-moon", if you will (and we will) to Charleston, South Carolina where I ate corn in its many various reincarnations. I ate cornbread, I ate BBQ sauce that I'm sure had some high fructose corn syrup in it, I ate fresh corn, and I even had a brunch that consisted entirely of corn in the forms of peach corn cakes with a side of grits.

If corn and I were going down, we were going down in flames, baby.

See that cornbread in the basket? When that cornbread was brought up to our table and served to Adam and I, it was like being presented with someone's beautiful new baby in a bassinet. I just wanted to ooh and ahh at it, tickle it under its chin, tell it I loved it. Okay, its weird, I know, but cornbread is good. Reallll good. And though I don't get cornbread as good as THAT, really, ever, outside of Charleston (based on personal experience - no offense to cornbread masters out there), I won't be eating cornbread of any variety for the next year, so that cornbread looked insanely perfect.

Anywho, I'll try to keep the cracked out corn comments to a minimum. But its day 1 (as of an hour or so ago) so I must warn you, there are probably lots (Scratch that "many" more to come).

So yes, I had a last tango in Charleston with El Corno. And it was good. Grand, in fact. But it was along I-95 in the few 3G areas between Charleston and Charlottesville, that I learned the terrible news about some things that almost seem like necessities in my day to day. Namely, gum. Yes, no more gum for me for the next year. Shiotttt. It looks like I might be brushing my teeth more than usual for a while. Which is fine, I mean brushing is better than chewing, even if it is sugar-free. And my jaw can use the rest.

Yes, for the next however long this lasts (umm, the year goal is getting thrown out there a little less often), I will be the cool girl carrying around awesome individual toothpaste packets likes these gems. Thank goodness, I can get a case of 1000 of them for a mere $150.

Now, hopefully toothpaste is corn-free.

More deceivingly corn filled foods to come in the next few days. Too tired tonight. Must get lots of sleep (I actually started to write corn instead of sleep...I'm already losing it!) to battle the evils of chemical corn derivatives tomorrow.

-Jess