Corn, The Evil Empire

While my sister, in corporate/financial America stuck in offices all day used to refer to Microsoft as the "Evil Empire," and Ol' Orange Hair used the term to describe the Soviet Union, and while my first thought on hearing the words was always due to the Star Wars mythos, hot on the first in recent years has been my second -- "Archer Daniels Midland!" for nigh on 16 years I have hisssssssssed whenever the name is announced as a sponsor on NPR, or PBS, no matter how I have enjoyed, been intrigued by, or even loved the program.
They, and all things Corn were the Enemy!
As a young, (and perpetually struggling,) actor always leaning toward "plain," barely one click off "homely", the eczema didn't just move me that last dreaded click, it had the power to topple me into "grotesque," even, once or twice, "monstrous."
Heck, even if my looks hadn't been a professional liability, I would have hated the corny aspects of big agribusiness.
I had discovered purely by accident that the culprit in the allergies to blame for my painful and sometimes debilitating skin condition, having first spent literally months trying to eliminate first one, then another item from my diet, to no avail -- wheat? no. milk? no. nuts? no. cured meats? no .
Finally at a social gathering someone was extolling the tastiness of Miller beers, and declared it was because they were made from corn, and a light bulb went off: perhaps I had NOT eliminated corn during the several week period when I was giving that a try, when I though I HAD removed corn and its syrup, its starch, its oil and high fructose solids, its gelatinized protein from my diet and pharmacy and cosmetics.
Not only was corn ubiquitous, it was often hidden.
But for the past few years I'm realizing that my itching, cracking, oozing, peeling, weeping, bleeding skin is a minor annoyance compared to some of that for which Corn is presumably responsible -- the diabetes and obesity "epidemic" for starts.
One might even say that my eczema has potentially saved me from diabetes (like sickle cell saved people, or at least their ancestors, from cholera? now there's a choice....)