Corn-Made Calories

In the fifth and sixth chapters of Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan describes how corn is processed into almost every food product that we eat and how that affects human health. Most of the corn that farmers grow are given to feedlots or passed onto a "wet mill", which breaks down the kernels into many parts that can be used for a variety of ingredients. Some of these ingredients include: glucose, fructose, malodextrin, and high fructose corn syrup. Pollan also states that food industries are now aiming to make consumers eat more food and spend more money on that food. One way of achieving this goal is increasing portion size. This ultimately affects human health by allowing people to overeat. Since portion sizes have increased, the amount of fat, sugar, and other additives in our food has increased. This is the reason for the rise in Type II diabetes and obesity. Pollan also states that "researchers found that a dollar could buy 1,200 calories of potato chips and cookies; spent on a whole food like carrots, the same dollar buys only 250 calories...It makes good economic sense that people with limited money to spend on food would spend it on the cheapest calories they can find" (108). At the end of the chapter, he suggests that the government should subsidize the healthier foods, rather than the foods made from corn-made calories.


I agree with Pollan that the government should change the food that they subsidize. Currently, the government is subsidizing corn, which produces most of our processed foods. However, if the switch was made to subsidize healthier foods, then more people could afford to eat healthier. Those with low income would finally be able to purchase fruits and vegetables instead of eating fast food everyday. This would also cause a decrease in diet-related illnesses, such as Type II diabetes. Obesity would decrease and general public health would change for the better. It may be difficult to change the current policy, but over time, I think that the switch is possible. What can consumers do to encourage a change in the subsidization of corn? It seems that corn is in almost every food product in some shape or form; will there ever be a time when there is no longer any corn in our processed foods?


Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore's Dilemma. New York: Penguin Books, 2007.