Position on Processed Foods

Position on Processed Foods

Phillip J. Harris

Advanced Composition, Professor: Jeff Martin

DeVry University

Reading the Omnivore’s Dilemma a theme of this book is that conventional wisdom about societal issues and challenges is often incorrect. Using processed foods as an example one can say that they have been the greatest boon for humanity, while others say it is the greatest bane. The United States today faces a problem unique to it in the world; morbid obesity which in part can be traced back to processed foods. Though the benefits have been good for feeding the population, the low cost and high unhealthiness of processed foods may be more harmful than helpful in the United States.

Corn that is grown in the United States often does not end up on our dinner plates; that is in the form, of corn anyway. Even though we take in 2000 pounds of corn each year less than two bushels of that is in the form of actual sweet or white corn. What isn’t processed for eating is sent to wet and dry mills to be broken down into baser forms to be used in a variety of ways. Essentially the corn that is diverted for industrial use is “digested” broken down into simple sugars and alcohols to be used in the making of other products. Really the only thing different about animal digestion and corn processing is that at the end of corn processing there is effectively no waste left behind. Of the many products produced from processing; high fructose corn syrups are among the most prolific. HFCs are found in most of the processed foods such as a very unhealthy component of most processed foods. HFCs in my opinion are to be likened to crack cocaine for its addictiveness and their potentially dangerous uses if eaten in large quantities very often such as in say fast food and sugary drinks. It is in these forms that processed foods contribute greatly to the obesity problem we face.

Processed foods are generally cheap and wide available which in an economic sense...