Not so much looking for the semantic or strict botanical category answer as the nutitional equivalent. When I’m looking to eat at least three servings per day of whole grains, can I safely count corn on the cob among them? Or is the corn we grow for that too substantially different than the varieties that we dry, grind and bake with?
Conversely, Is it also a yellow vegetable? Or should I count it in the fruit category since it’s so high in carbs? Again, nutritional content is the main focus here.
Yeah. Technically, corn on the cob (and popcorn & canned whole kernel corn) are whole grain, but in nutritional-equivalency terms they’re not even close. About as “whole grain” as a potato.
germ(embryo)+endosperm+seed coat(bran)=whole grain. So technically yes. It will have much less fiber per serving than, say whole wheat due to lower surface area(bran, the source of fiber) to volume(endosperm, source of starch) ratio.
Notice similar fat/carbo/protein numbers(1g/21g/3g for corn, 1g/18g/4g for whole wheat) but much higher fiber(the main benefit of eating whole grains) for wheat(12g) compared to corn(2g).
So it doesn’t do much good to treat it as a whole grain for dietary purposes.
Like the tomato, which is both a fruit and a vegetable, sweet corn is both a grain and a yellow vegetable. Most corn is more purely a grain, from which we make corn bread and tortillas. Sometimes, it’s best to not get so picky.
It’s true that most humans cannot get nourishment from corn alone, but when you mix in lime, we can digest it just fine.
No humans can live on corn (maize) alone, and it has nothing to do with digestibility. It lacks the essential amino acid tryptophan, an essential nutrient that is found in most other foods, including other grains. (It probably lacks some essential fatty acids and vitamins too, but I suspect that tryptophan deficiency is what would get you first.)
No, it doesn’t mean adding fruit, it means nixtamalization, a process of treating maize with an alkali solution in order to make it more digestible and nutritious.
I used to have a guy at the local watering hole tell me that you couldn’t digest corn, and that’s why you found it whole in your crap. I asked him if he thought about chewing his food more. He swore up and down you just couldn’t digest corn. I put it like this: Put corn in your mouth and chew it up. Are you telling me it just magically reassembles itself as it travels through your GI tract? If you are having that problem you need to chew your food more.
Of course there is a style of dried roasted corn like some people like in their tortilla soup. You can’t really chew it up, so naturally it comes out whole. He insisted he wasn’t referring to just plain old regular corn.
OK, that’s what I thought it must be – I vaguely remembered hearing about treating corn with something alkaline, and eating some (citrus fruit) lime along with your corn on the cob sounded like the opposite of that.
Of course! It’s all so clear now!
When I eat corn, the starchy innards usually end up squirting out of the … uh … rind? … of each piece of corn, and those … rinds? … seem to come out the other end of my digestive system pretty much intact.
FWIW, long-distance backpacker Ray Jardine swears by whole-grain corn pasta. In my experience, I know that whole wheat grains and breads made from whole corn keep me going for a longer time than your average white wheat sourdough english muffin bagel, but everyone’s needs and energy reserves are different, of course.
The variety of corn that is used to make corn on the cob, and the variety used to make corn meal, masa, etc. are quite different. They are also treated quite differently in processing, and cooking. The milled type has a much higher concentration of carbohydrates than the sweet corn type. The grinding makes those carbohydrates more available for digestive assimilation.
Both type have an incomplete protein assay, from the point of view of human nutritional needs, and must be consumed with legumes (beans) or meats to provide complete proteins for humans. Cows can process corn feed in their multi-chambered stomachs and obtain the other proteins from bacterial action.
