What do you do when you have a corn allergy and you want something sweet to eat? After keeping careful watch and reading labels for a year, I have come to the conclusion that our only best bet is to make our own ‘on the go’ snacks from scratch. And drinks? Just forget about them. As a matter of fact, I challenge anyone in America to read the ingredient listings on every snack product in their favorite vending machine. It would not surprise me if every item had some association with corn, however odd or far removed as it may seem. Heck, even the water bottles are more than likely made from a corn byproduct! I digress. I really want to focus my attention on America’s romance with sugar, corn sugar to be specific, its prevalence in our lives, and a little history about how we became so addicted to the sweet stuff that grows in abundance over our midlands, and now even clutters the landscape surrounding the rocky mountain region. (more…)

Wheat and Corn allergy sufferers need to be careful with the rice they buy. Most commercial brands are fortified with vitamins and minerals, also labeled “enriched”, and this is problematic for wheat allergy sufferers, but it is a double whammy for those that need to avoid corn too. For corn sufferers, ascorbic acid, derived from corn byproducts such as dextrose, is used in the vitamin compounds sprayed on the kernels to enrich the final end product. To bind the vitamin compounds corn or wheat starches are generally but not always used. (more…)