• F_State@midwest.social
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    5 hours ago

    The change from teosinte to maize involved a surprisingly small change to it’s genetic code. Something like 5 genes.

  • amino@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    11 hours ago

    thx for the diabeetus

    fun fact, that is a eugenicist health scare campaign started by settlers to demonize indigenous peoples whose traditional diets are rich in corn.

    famine and genocide are known causes of chronic illness. surviving colonialism is inherently disabling and heightened diabetes rates are a side-effect of that. it makes no scientific sense to me to completely ignore the social determinants of health and blame the diets of entire ethnic groups for their chronic illness rates.

  • Colonel Panic@programming.dev
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    14 hours ago

    thx for the diabeetus

    you know you don’t have to turn it into corn syrup right? that crap isn’t used widely anywhere but in the US

    • flora_explora@beehaw.org
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      2 hours ago

      Especially because most of the corn eaten in the rest of the Americas isn’t sweet at all. It’s more equivalent of rice, pasta, potatoes, etc…

    • coaxil@lemmy.zip
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      6 hours ago

      The crazy thing is, every time I have tried a yank drink with corn syrup that my country has the equivalent to without corn syrup, the yank one tastes like ass without fail, and leaves your mouth feeling weird.

    • Taldan@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      Corn syrup is better than our other main use for it: Ethanol

      Problem is that we have such extreme subsidies that vast swaths of farmers are now entirely reliant on corn subsidies. We make far more corn than we have any use for because of it

      No politician wants to be the one to take away the insane corn subsidies because a whole lot of farmers will be upset, and the American public is generally unaware of how wasteful the subsidies are

  • FundMECFS@piefed.zip
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    16 hours ago

    Mexico didn’t exist back then. Europeans hadn’t conquered and genocided and created states in the Americas.

    This was native (indigenous) americans.

      • amino@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        11 hours ago

        indigeneity and nationality are two different concepts that have nothing to do with each other.

        this can range from indigenous Oaxacans who are US citizens to Mexican citizens who are settlers who murder indigenous people in Mexico to steal their land.

  • AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net
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    9 hours ago

    While some foods are associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes, no single ingredients in and of themselves cause diabetes - obesity does. That’s why every fad diet can make a semi-credible claim to have “cured” people’s diabetes. If you lose enough weight, it might go into remission.

    And to be clear, none of what I just said is meant to imply a moral, individual failure on the part of anyone who is living/struggling with obesity and diabetes. It’s a complex thing, and like all complex things we can go ahead and blame corporations for it. 👍

  • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    Ain’t nobody made you fat from that but you. If you were living like the natives were back then, you might be keeping fitter with it

  • FrowingFostek@lemmy.world
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    19 hours ago

    I don’t think it was the Mexican farmers that gave us diabeetus. I’d blame it on the sugar cartels in the US.

      • thisbenzingring@lemmy.today
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        20 hours ago

        Chinese food as we know, everywhere except China, is a purely American invention. It’s history is really interesting, especially how the restaurant owners of the 80s convinced everyone MSG was poison.

        • F_State@midwest.social
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          5 hours ago

          Not true, apparently Chinese immigrants in Ireland created something called a “Spice Bag” which is wholly unrelated to Americanized Chinese food.

        • Duranie@leminal.space
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          18 hours ago

          It even started in the late 60’s early 70’s, originally referred to at “Chinese restaurant syndrome.” Rooted in anti Asian racism, supposedly we were slowly being poisoned… by tasty tasty Asian food with added msg.

        • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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          16 hours ago

          That’s no longer accurate, as there are plenty of authentic Chinese restaurants in areas with Chinese communities that aren’t just trying to get western locals to visit. The dim sum place I’ve been to didn’t even have much English on their menu and it really helped to have some colleagues present who knew Chinese (both the language and the food).

          Easily one of the best meals I’ve ever had, and I’m not usually a fan of the western chinese style.

          • thisbenzingring@lemmy.today
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            13 hours ago

            dim sum is called dim sum though, you wouldn’t expect to get dim sum except at brunch/lunch time and if someone says they are going to get Chinese food it’d be a surprise to get dim sum. Even traditional Chinese restaurants that cater to Chinese people serve Americanized Chinese food. In the Seattle Chinatown there’s restaurants that have Chinese only menus that don’t have any of the same stuff as the English menu. I’ve been to them with Chinese speakers and it’s a totally different experience then going there with just my wife.

            my original point is that “Chinese food” to most of the western world is the stuff that American Chinese immigrants invented. Real Chinese food isn’t called Chinese food because China is massive and they have so many food cultures that those cultures are what that style of food is called

          • Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world
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            19 hours ago

            It’s psychosomatic. MSG is also in tomatoes, mushrooms, and tons of savory salted snacks such as Doritos. None of those tend to trigger the symptoms people claim to have after eating Chinese food.

            • Supervisor194@lemmy.world
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              14 hours ago

              “Ranch” flavor comes basically 100% from salt and MSG. There is a microscopic amount of herbs that make next to no difference. Ask anyone who thinks MSG is bad for you if they have cut out Ranch dressing for some hilarity. (May not apply to non-Americans).

              • Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world
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                14 hours ago

                I have a feeling there’s a huge overlap between the people who complain about Chinese food and the people who raved about the Mississippi pot roast viral recipe (which has two packets of MSG-loaded seasonings in it).

            • LurkingLuddite@piefed.social
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              10 hours ago

              What isn’t psychosomatic when the target is the average fucking moron?

              … I mean, besides all the things that turn out to be real… but morons will believe anything up to and including their mumbling jibberish is a connection to God with glossolalia…

              • Miles O'Brien@startrek.website
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                18 hours ago

                Personal anecdote from cooking for years for a variety of people of varying intelligence, background, and countries:

                Most people claim it gives them headaches and nausea.

                They “know” this because they feel it every time they eat (american) “Chinese food”

                Not a single one has ever had either symptom after eating my cooking that has a little sprinkled in.

                Now, I have tried to prove a point to some by informing them (many hours after the food, and asking about how they feel) that they in fact ingested MSG without issue and had no symptoms, usually to rounds of spontaneous nausea and headaches that had apparently gone unnoticed for hours until just then.

                It could be that ingesting a shit-load of greasy, oily, carbs and over-eating that caused their nausea and headaches when they gorged themselves on “Chinese” food, but no, they know it’s the MSG.

                • xx3rawr@sh.itjust.works
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                  10 hours ago

                  Another personal anecdote from a non-American: My parents never buy MSG. When I did, they freaked out a little then I have to explain it’s not bad other than another source of sodium we need to watch. I need to point out that all of our staple liquid seasonings are filled with added MSG: soy sauce, vinegar, patis.

                  Despite being Asian, this happened because my shitass country often rely on shitass recommendations from the US health department. Another example is the ban on magic sugar, which is also propaganda by US sugar manufacurers.

        • psx_crab@lemmy.zip
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          19 hours ago

          Chinese food* as we** know

          *only applicable to western chinese food

          **the American

    • Jankatarch@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      In Turkey corn is called “Egypt” and India is called “land of” either “Turkeys” or “Hinduists” depending on how you chose to interpret it.

      I select the first one.

  • OneWomanCreamTeam@sh.itjust.works
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    12 hours ago

    It feels kinda strange to call them Mexican farmers. Like referring to the people who lived where the US is 9000 years ago “American Farmers”.

    Like I guess that’s technically correct in a way. But it still feels weird.

    • NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.net
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      3 hours ago

      Mesoamerican for what we’ve called the aztecs and Indigenous American for the ones who were genocided by Europe?

    • F_State@midwest.social
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      5 hours ago

      You might say “prehistoric mexican farmers” or “prehistoric farmers of modern day mexico”

  • KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    4 hours ago

    This shit is the cause of a fair bit of anemia and malnutrition in sub Saharan Africa.

    Fuck corn.

    Edit: there are tons of research articles about how corn meal such as pap/samp or other regional varieties cause iron and micronutrition deficiencies in babies in the area.

    Spouting out “bUT tHeY jUsT NeEd to PReParE iT CorReCtly” is so fucking privelaged abelist arm chair scientist that it’s insane.

    Fortification helps, but that doesn’t happen in a lot of places that grow and process their own corn.

    Not everyone gets to go to the corner store and buy their corn in a fucking bag.

    Corn is a shit food, your body doesn’t even process it well and it has an actual impact on rural populations nutrition and development because of this.

    • F_State@midwest.social
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      5 hours ago

      Maize (corn) processed into masa like they did for millennia in the Americas is highly nutritious. White people thought it was something “dumb” brown people did and didn’t reap the true benefits of the crop

    • amino@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      11 hours ago

      that’s like blaming potatoes for deaths caused by green potatoes.

      corn doesn’t cause anemia or malnutrition, it’s partly because it’s not processed properly through nixtamalization and partly because of poverty caused by colonialism

      • KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        3 hours ago

        Potatoes aren’t green by default when ripe.

        this is like blaming guns for killing people, it’s just that they didn’t have the right bullets loaded

        • reabsorbthelight@lemmy.world
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          3 hours ago

          But it’s the bullets fault the potatoes are green!! Is the fascist colonists immigrants hasn’t shot the potatoes, they’d be brown!