Education
A Pot of Gold!

By Brenda Miller-Sanford, Education & Computer Co-ordinator, OCPA

Is there really a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? Well, if the rainbow just happens to end over a field of golden grain corn ready for harvest…then, there sure is.

And this particular pot of gold is shared by all of us in our daily lives. How so, you ask…just read on!

About 60% of the grain corn grown in Ontario is used for livestock feed. In return we receive products such as eggs, meat and milk. Of the other 40% of the corn crop, about 20% is exported out of the province. This leaves us with about 20% of the crop which is used for industrial or commercial applications. Many products are made using grain corn in one form or another.

Let’s take a journey through a full day of activities and see how many products you personally may have used.

7:00 a.m. - Breakfast

A good start every morning includes a good breakfast. The menu this morning includes a bowl of corn flakes, toast with peanut butter and jam and a cup of instant coffee or tea. Several breakfast cereals contain corn, corn starch, corn meal, and/or a corn sweetener as ingredients; bread may have corn starch, corn syrup or dextrose as ingredients; some brands of peanut butter may contain dextrose or corn syrup which can be ingredients in the jam as well; instant coffee or instant tea contains the corn by-product, maltodextrin.

8:00 a.m. - Brush teeth, use mouthwash, and apply cosmetics

Most brands of toothpaste contain sorbitol, in fact, a gel toothpaste may contain up to 50% liquid sorbitol; cosmetics use sorbitol or corn starch in the processing. The sorbitol is for humidity control and it also absorbs moisture from the air; mouthwash contains sorbitol for that cool sweet taste.

8:30 a.m. - Prepare shopping list and a list of things to do while you are out

The paper you are writing your shopping list on may contain corn. Paper manufacturing uses corn starch, dextrin, dextrose and/or corn syrup.

9:30 a.m. - Baking for a friend who is in the hospital

We have a lemon loaf recipe that calls for a lemon cake mix, a lemon instant pudding and corn oil. The cake mix contains dextrose and the lemon instant pudding contains modified corn starch.

12:00 p.m. - Lunch

Pizza can have corn starch and dextrose in the pizza sauce and corn meal on the crust. With your cup of instant tea, you could have some chocolate chip cookies. The instant tea contains a maltodextrin and the chocolate chip cookies contain a dextrose for sweetening.

1:30 p.m. - Put your shoes on

Did you even consider the fact that you may be leaning against corn as you lean against the wall to put your shoes on? Gypsum wallboard contains corn starch which provides the bond between the gypsum and the liner; corn oil and free fatty acids are used in making paint and varnish, even the paste on the wallpaper is made with corn starch and corn dextrin; a concrete wall may contain corn syrup since it is used as a setting retardant in concrete.

1:45 p.m. - Check your car over

Your car can contain several corn by-products. The washer fluid and fuel can both contain ethanol; the production of rubber tires uses corn starch in the molds to keep the rubber from sticking; spark plugs contain corn starch in the porcelain; if CMA (Calcium Magnesium Acetate) was used as a road de-icer, your vehicle would not suffer from rust as much.

2:30 p.m. - Visit the hospital

If you have a family member or friend who is in the hospital and if they have an IV in the room, check to see if it is a dextrose solution. Dextrose is a corn sugar. In fact, corn has been referred to as the “lifeline of the hospital”. Steepwater from the corn wet milling process is used to make antibiotics and pharmaceuticals. Corn starch is used to make the clear coating for coated tablets, e.g. Tylenol.

4:00 p.m. - Grocery shopping

Grocery shopping would take a long time if we stopped to see what corn ingredients may be in each package that we pick up. Did you know that in a typical grocery store of 10,000 items, at least 2,500 items use corn in one form or another?

6:00 p.m. - Dinner

A dinner menu could be meat with gravy that has been thickened with corn starch, a brand of ‘potatoes and sauce’ that can contain corn starch and maltodextrin and cream of corn that has been thickened with corn starch as well. For desert, a deluxe pecan pie with ice cream. The pecan pie recipe may call for corn syrup and corn oil. Ice cream may be sweetened by corn syrup or dextrose.

7:30 p.m. - Leisure time with corn

Many crafts can be done using corn. Corn cob dolls, corn cob baskets, corn husk dolls, corn husk wreaths, corn cobs with husks tied together with bows. Have you seen ducks made from corn husks? These ducks are finely detailed and look a lot like skillfully crafted wooden ducks. In the fall, many places use the dried corn stalks in displays with scarecrows and pumpkins.

8:30 p.m. - Snack

You can choose from many snack foods that contain corn. Cheese twists have corn meal; some flavoured potato chips will have corn by-products in the seasoning; corn chips like Doritos are made from corn. What goes better with corn chips than a softdrink? High fructose corn syrup is being used to sweeten almost all of the softdrinks made in Canada.

9:30 p.m. - Bed time preparations

It is time to call it a night by washing your face, brushing your teeth and rinsing with mouthwash. At 8:00 a.m. we explained how corn is used in the toothpaste and mouthwash. Sweet dreams!

What do you think of when someone says, “pot of gold”? Maybe you think of a gold bucket filled with gold coins at the end of the rainbow. Think about a field of golden corn ready for harvest, now that we have shown you how it can affect your life each day. Maybe you will even think of the box of chocolates that contain the corn by-products, glucose, instant coffee, dextrin and dextrose.

For those of you who have seen the movie, Forrest Gump, we could say “life is like a box of chocolates”. In the case of corn you never know which corn-containing product you’ll pick up next”.

Corn is truly A-MAZE-ING!!