This is No Corn on the Cob – How it’s Made S1:E1
Here's my review of How It's Made, episode one. I've always liked this show, but I don't think I started watching it until it was in season 2 or 3. You can't ever get enough ideas and understanding of how stuff works so why not. The thing with the first episode was interesting.
If you are familiar with the show, How It's made usually has a factory or other manufacturing outlet and they show you who stuff is is made. Things like guitars, q-tips, or shoes. Sometimes electronics. But this episode was different. I found it on Netflix, so you can watch it there if you've got an account. If you don't, at least you can try it free for like a month and see what you're into.
They cover how Corn is made. But wait! corn isn't made right? it's a plant, it just grows. Yes, technically it grows and it isn't made. Plus We eat corn all the time, so why is this in the first episode? Well the fact is that we do "make" corn, we've engineered to be certain way in order to feed our world's growing population. Not just as a food, like corn in the cob. That is actually a very small part of the production of corn.
Corn is used to make all kinds of things. This episode of How it's made covers all aspects of corn production and they did a good job at presenting a really complete picture. The look and feel of this episode, being the first one of the show is much different than those in later seasons. But as far as content goes, it is just as good as any other one I've seen.
It's worth mentioning that watching this reminded me of a few food related documentaries I've seen lately. I'll be reviewing those soon. They've made me change many eating habits just in the past 2 months. For now, all I can say is that you gotta cut out products with High-fructose corn syrup.
One of the cool things you learn from this episode is that corn actually can be used to produce a type of "green plastic" or bio-plastic. It can be used in things like water bottles, plastic knives and forks, cups, and other similar plastics. And all of this comes from a tiny yellow kernel grown in our country. Crazy stuff.
They cover how it is engineered, planted, grown and broken down for different things. They can make plastics, food, even whiskey. They cover this other product you've most certainly seen in something you ate at some point or another. They talk about how xanthan gum is made, one of the most important products made from corn. We use xantham gum in almost any type of industry. We even eat it. You can find it in lots of products you consume or eat. Seriously. Look it up!
After they cover "dead corn" then they go into more edible varieties, like pop-corn and other types. Must watch. Hopefully this sparks a sense of wonder and you get into learning more about your world!
[box type="alert"]If you're into knowing how stuff works and how your world works all around you, then you should watch this. If you're not into that stuff then now is as good a time as ever to stop watching Housewives of Orange County and following drama in Facebook and start with this. It's on Netflix! And if you don't have Netflix, you can try it free for 30 days just visit the link.[/box]
