This is the second complainy thread I've started today.

I've been suffering from all sorts of weird and unexplainable maladies since I was about 15 years old. I've tried all kinds of things to help myself feel less sick over the years, but mostly, I still feel sick most of the time.

I made a discovery a couple of years ago. When I spent about six weeks in Canada in 2001 (visiting Mudcatters, of course), I found that a lot of my symptoms either disappeared, or became significantly less severe. It took me a while to put all of the pieces together, but I have discovered that one of my problems is that I'm allergic to corn.

The reason that these two things; my Canadian trip, and my corn allergy are connected is this: in the US they put corn into (almost) literally everything, while in Canada, they do not.

Since I've been trying to avoid corn, I've discovered that in the US, there's at least one corn-derived substance in the following foods:

-ketchup
-spaghetti sauce
-bread (all breads except some pita breads), both inside, as well as sprinkled, as corn meal, on the bottoms
-most breakfast cereals
-pizza (many pizzas have corn products in the sauce, and many also sprinkle corn meal on the bottoms of the crusts)
-almost all baked goods
-almost all coffee whiteners
-many brands of soy milk
-baked beans
-most Chinese food (corn starch thickener)
-pretty much all salad dressings
-all non-diet soft drinks except a few sold in health food stores
-etc. etc. etc.

When we were staying in Michigan, we stocked up on products that contain corn in the US, but not in Canada (ketchup being formost among them). But we're back in the US south again, and far away from our source of Canadian products.

One thing I discovered as a result of this, is that Canadian "Heinz" ketchup tastes significantly better than US "Heinz" ketchup. So we're paying a price in taste for this corn situation.

I've also discovered that there are a lot of people who have corn allergies.

I don't eat meat because I don't want to (it would probably make me sick anyway, even if I did want to). I can't eat dairy or eggs because they make me very sick. I can't eat corn, peanuts, coconut products, or chocolate, because I'm allergic to them. Now, in most restaurants, I could find at least one thing to eat that doesn't have dairy, eggs, or meat. But corn is another story. Here's a typical situation I often find myself facing in restaurants: at a Tim Hortons in Michigan... I order the Garden Veggie Sub sandwich with no cream cheese, and substituting the ranch dressing that contains dairy products with the honey mustard dressing. After doing this a few times, I had to wonder if there was corn sweetening in the honey mustard dressing. So until I find out (the people who work there have no idea), I have to stop eating at Tims.

So anyway, I think this sucks. I was told that the reason they use corn in so many products is because of tariffs on cane sugar. And someone else suggested that it's because of the Archer Daniels Midland lobby pushing their corn products to the US govt.

Maybe if they start using all of their corn to make ethanol or something, they'll start leaving our food alone. One can only hope.