I really should write more often; if I don't, my technique suffers.  Since I'm currently reading "Omnivore's dilemma," by Michael Pollan, I will write about his book until I feel like sleeping.

What should we eat?  is a question we ask multiple times a day.  Such a question is unique to omnivores - After all, most animals rarely think about this question.  A carnivore such as a lion will hunt for meat when hungry - it does not contemplate whether he/she will eat an apple pie or a salad for lunch.  Other animals graze on grass without thinking.  But omnivores?  We were created to intake different nutrition from various sources, including the sunlight (did you know very little foods contain vitamin D?  We get most of our vitamin D from the sun).  Omnivores are not designed to eat solely one type of food like a lion (e.g. eating nothing but tofu for a whole year) for a prolonged period of time - that would be a nutritional fiasco.  So what will YOUR dinner be tonight?  This is the omnivore's dilemma.  A dilemma unique to omnivores.

But it seems to me (or Michael Pollan) that people are becoming increasingly confused about what they should eat.  After all, do most Americans even know what they are eating?  Let's take a look at the modern American supermarket, where there are virtually no seasons (we often forget all fruits and vegetables have seasons in nature).

Starting from the vegetable section - this is quite easy.  Everyone can differentiate between a broccoli from a tomato.  The next easiest section would probably be produce.  Even though these animals are chopped into small pieces, it's quite easy to distinguish between a cow and a pig.

But as you walk down further the aisle, differentiating becomes increasingly difficult.  Cereals?  Fruit loops?  Twinkies?  Well, isn't it true everything you're eating must have been either a plant or an animal at some stage?  We all know that a steak used to be a cow, but what about a waffle?  The frozen chicken nugget surely must contain chicken, but where does its 37 other ingredients come from?  Which plant or animal are we eating when a food contains "xanthan gum" or "maltodextrin?"  Is mayonnaise made from wheat, barley, chicken or what?  Most of us have no idea. 

Ever since The New York Times Magazine article ran an article about carbohydrates and the Atkins diet in 2002, it seems to me that nearly everyone in America became a nutritional expert, demonizing carbs in the process.  The number of so-called nutritional/diet experts, however, seem to be indirectly correlated to the obesity epidemic, as Americans are becoming fatter every year.  The truth is, very few people know about food and food industry in America, and even fewer people know what's really in their food.

So what's really in our food?

Surprisingly enough, there's actually a dominant ingredient to virtually all processed food.  Thousands of food you buy at the supermarket is actually a cleverly engineered output of a single plant that triumphed over all fauna and flora in terms of human consumption.  What does beef, chicken, coca-cola, twinkies, mayonnaise, frozen waffles, margarine, salad dressings, candies, canned fruit, MSG, and frozen yogurts all have in common?  Corn.  If we are what we eat, we're nothing but processed corn walking.  Creation of food has become an industrial process in America, with corn being the dominant raw material.