{"id":316,"date":"2019-07-04T13:39:29","date_gmt":"2019-07-04T17:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=316"},"modified":"2022-04-13T22:17:20","modified_gmt":"2022-04-14T02:17:20","slug":"does-corn-make-you-fat-gain-weight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/does-corn-make-you-fat-gain-weight\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Corn Make You Fat? Gain Weight?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Worried about whether corn makes you gain weight or makes you fat? Short answer: it really can. Learn more about why, and how to avoid gaining weight when eating corn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

We Eat a LOT of Corn<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We are what we eat, which for Americans is mostly processed corn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This can actually be quantified. A scientist can tell which type of plant \u2014 corn, wheat, soy \u2014 created a given carbon atom in a human bone, and can therefore determine the composition of a person\u2019s diet by their remains. Carbon atoms created by corn are different, and their presence indicates how much corn was in a person\u2019s diet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Americans eat more wheat than corn outright \u2014 114 pounds wheat flour a year, versus 11 pounds of corn flour.  But Americans, compared to Mexicans, have diets much higher in corn, because of all the processed corn we eat in various forms. (Mexicans eat grass-fed as opposed to corn-fed beef, and use cane sugar instead of corn syrup as a sweetener.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fattened by Corn<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Does corn make you fat? It seems the answer is yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our consumption of so much corn in unhealthy forms, especially high-fructose corn syrup, has helped create an epidemic of obesity in the U.S.  
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There are striking parallels between our obesity problem and the epidemic of alcoholism in 19th century America. The latter was also driven by excess corn, which was turned into cheap corn whiskey.<\/strong>
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In the early 19 century American farmers, especially in the fertile Appalachians, were producing too much corn. Transporting it over the mountains to sell more widely was difficult and expensive.  Like today, the way to use up the surplus of cheap corn was to process it. They distilled it into alcohol, and corn in this value-added form was easier to transport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Americans began drinking more than they had before or have since. This created the public health epidemic of its day. The typical American drank more than a half-pint of corn whiskey a day (five gallons of spirits a year, compared to less than one today). The coffee break began as a late-morning whiskey break<\/strong>.
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The overconsumption resulted in public drunkenness, violence, family breakups, and alcohol-related diseases. Several of the nation\u2019s founders, including George Washington, decried America\u2019s transformation into \u201cThe Alcoholic Republic.\u201d
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The Alcoholic Republic has been replaced today to The Fat Republic.<\/strong> We\u2019re eating excessively today, as we drank then, for some of the same reasons. So does corn make you fat? Yes.
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Obesity has become our greatest public health problem:<\/p>\n\n\n\n