1: Pg. 86- Explain how a kernel of corn will be broken down into it’s various parts.
The first rough breakdown of all that corn begins with the subdivision of the kernel itself: its yellow skin will be processed into various vitamins and nutritional supplements; the tiny germ will be crushed for its oil; and the biggest part, the endosperm, will be plundered for its rich cache of complex carbohydrates.
2: Pg. 86- What are some of the names of compounds that are in products that are made from corn?
Glucose, fructose, and maltodextrin; ethanol, sorbitol, mannitol, and xanthan gum; modified and unmodified starches; as well as dextrins and cyclodextrins and MSG, to name only a few.
3: Pg. 88- “it takes about _____ gallons to process a bushel of corn, and prodigious amounts of energy. Wet milling is an energy-intensive way to make food; for every calorie of processed food it produces, another ____ calories of fossil fuel energy are burned. “
5, 10
4: Pg. 89- What did the discovery of glucose isomerase do for the industry?
They discovered that an enzyme called glucose insomerase could transform glucose into the much sweeter sugar molecule called fructose.
5: Pg. 90- What does it mean when we say that we are “liberating food from nature?”
stopping food from going back to nature
6: Pg. 91- Corn is the key constituent of what four processed foods? Is this surprising?
The twentieth century prestige of technology and convenience combined with advances in marketing to push aside butter to make shelf space for margarine, replace fruit juice with juice drinks and then entirely juice free drinks like Tang, cheese with Cheez Whiz, and whipped cream with Cool Whip.
7: Pg. 93- How much does it take to make a box of cereal? How much is it sold for?
4 cents' worth of commodity corn, transformed into 4 dollars' worth of processed food.
8: Pg. 94- What is the average growth rate of Americans? What does it mean by “fixed stomach” and how does this relate to profits?
1% per yearstomach that is taking in processed foods and not natural grown/organic food
9: Pg. 94- How many pounds of food does the average American eat per year?
15,000 pounds
10: Pg. 94- “There’s money to be made in food, unless you’re trying to grow it”- explain this statement.
A good percentage of that added unnecessary weight is due to the annual corn harvest: a large part of that harvest is turned into 17.5 billion pounds of high fructose corn syrup whose use in thousands of processed food products is killing US, no matter what the defensive ads are saying
11: Pg. 97- Explain what the author means by, “getting more fruits and vegetables into food.”
I had thought fruits and vegetables were already foods, and so didn't need to be gotten into them, but I guess that just shows I'm stuck in the food past. Evidently we're moving into the fourth age of food processing, in which the processed food will be infinitely better (i.e., contain more of whatever science has determined to be the good stuff) than the whole foods on which they're based.
12: Pg. 98- Does “natural raspberry flavor” mean that the flavoring is actually raspberry or even natural? Explain.
The natural raspberry flavor is just artificial flavors that are trying to make the taste of natural raspberry. The companies use the extracts from raspberries to give their foods the flavor of
raspberry.
13: Pg. 98- What is resistant starch and how does it get around the biological limit on how much you eat in a year?
You would not think this is a particularly good thing for a food to be, unless of course your goal is to somehow get around the biological limit on how much each of us can eat in a year.
The first rough breakdown of all that corn begins with the subdivision of the kernel itself: its yellow skin will be processed into various vitamins and nutritional supplements; the tiny germ will be crushed for its oil; and the biggest part, the endosperm, will be plundered for its rich cache of complex carbohydrates.
2: Pg. 86- What are some of the names of compounds that are in products that are made from corn?
Glucose, fructose, and maltodextrin; ethanol, sorbitol, mannitol, and xanthan gum; modified and unmodified starches; as well as dextrins and cyclodextrins and MSG, to name only a few.
3: Pg. 88- “it takes about _____ gallons to process a bushel of corn, and prodigious amounts of energy. Wet milling is an energy-intensive way to make food; for every calorie of processed food it produces, another ____ calories of fossil fuel energy are burned. “
5, 10
4: Pg. 89- What did the discovery of glucose isomerase do for the industry?
They discovered that an enzyme called glucose insomerase could transform glucose into the much sweeter sugar molecule called fructose.
5: Pg. 90- What does it mean when we say that we are “liberating food from nature?”
stopping food from going back to nature
6: Pg. 91- Corn is the key constituent of what four processed foods? Is this surprising?
The twentieth century prestige of technology and convenience combined with advances in marketing to push aside butter to make shelf space for margarine, replace fruit juice with juice drinks and then entirely juice free drinks like Tang, cheese with Cheez Whiz, and whipped cream with Cool Whip.
7: Pg. 93- How much does it take to make a box of cereal? How much is it sold for?
4 cents' worth of commodity corn, transformed into 4 dollars' worth of processed food.
8: Pg. 94- What is the average growth rate of Americans? What does it mean by “fixed stomach” and how does this relate to profits?
1% per yearstomach that is taking in processed foods and not natural grown/organic food
9: Pg. 94- How many pounds of food does the average American eat per year?
15,000 pounds
10: Pg. 94- “There’s money to be made in food, unless you’re trying to grow it”- explain this statement.
A good percentage of that added unnecessary weight is due to the annual corn harvest: a large part of that harvest is turned into 17.5 billion pounds of high fructose corn syrup whose use in thousands of processed food products is killing US, no matter what the defensive ads are saying
11: Pg. 97- Explain what the author means by, “getting more fruits and vegetables into food.”
I had thought fruits and vegetables were already foods, and so didn't need to be gotten into them, but I guess that just shows I'm stuck in the food past. Evidently we're moving into the fourth age of food processing, in which the processed food will be infinitely better (i.e., contain more of whatever science has determined to be the good stuff) than the whole foods on which they're based.
12: Pg. 98- Does “natural raspberry flavor” mean that the flavoring is actually raspberry or even natural? Explain.
The natural raspberry flavor is just artificial flavors that are trying to make the taste of natural raspberry. The companies use the extracts from raspberries to give their foods the flavor of
raspberry.
13: Pg. 98- What is resistant starch and how does it get around the biological limit on how much you eat in a year?
You would not think this is a particularly good thing for a food to be, unless of course your goal is to somehow get around the biological limit on how much each of us can eat in a year.