The calorie content of sticky corn and sweet corn is nearly twice as much! 8 truths about corn explained at once →

Corn is a coarse grain that many people who are trying to lose weight like to eat. However, I heard that the energy of glutinous corn is nearly twice that of sweet corn, so it is best not to eat it if you are trying to lose weight. I also heard that it raises blood sugar faster, so people with high blood sugar should not eat it. Is this true or false?

This article will explain the 8 most concerning issues you may have when eating corn all at once. If you want to eat corn with confidence, you must read this article.

1. Should I eat sweet corn or sticky corn to lose weight?

Many popular science articles recommend eating sweet corn for weight loss, so why does Teacher Gu say that you can safely eat glutinous corn for weight loss?

The energy of sweet corn is 97 kcal/100 g, which is between that of potatoes and rice. Compared with potatoes and rice, it has a richer dietary fiber content, nearly 4 times that of potatoes. Dietary fiber can enhance satiety, so for friends who want to lose weight, sweet corn is a good staple food substitute. Every 100 grams of sweet corn also contains 26.6 micrograms of folic acid, which is incomparable to white rice and potatoes. The energy of glutinous corn is as high as 165 kcal/100 g, which is 1.7 times that of sweet corn. From the perspective of energy alone, sweet corn is indeed more suitable for weight loss.

Image source: Pixabay

But if you particularly like to eat glutinous corn, there is no need to give up. In fact, you can eat glutinous corn with confidence. This is because: the edible part of glutinous corn is 67.8%, and one packaged glutinous corn is about 200-220 grams, and the energy is 224 kcal-246 kcal.

We recommend that girls eat at least 180 kcal of staple food per meal when losing weight. The energy of one sticky corn is about 30% more than 180 kcal. For friends who want to eat less staple food and more protein and fat, it is still very suitable to use one sticky corn as a staple food.

Besides, the energy of a sweet corn is only slightly lower than that of glutinous corn . Are you surprised to see this sentence? Indeed, this is because a sweet corn is heavier, generally around 350 grams, and the edible part is 61.3%, which is 208 kcal. In addition, compared with glutinous corn, the skin and flesh of sweet corn are easy to separate, so that many people have a lot of corn husks on the sweet corn cobs after chewing them, which reduces the intake of dietary fiber and weakens the advantage of corn as a staple food instead of refined rice and white flour. So if you are losing weight, you can eat both sweet corn and glutinous corn with confidence, but as a staple food, just eat one corn per meal . In addition, the sweet corn should be chewed more thoroughly, and the husk should be eaten to feel full.

2. To control blood sugar, should I eat sweet corn or sticky corn?

Sweet corn is so sweet, is it not suitable for people who want to control their blood sugar? Not really. Although sweet corn is sweet, its glycemic index (GI) is only 48 after cooking for 20 minutes, which is a typical low-GI food; the GI of glutinous corn is as high as 82 after cooking. This is because: although the content of glucose and sucrose, which can quickly raise blood sugar, in sweet corn is nearly 7 times that of glutinous corn, the content is only 5.4 grams per 100 grams. The carbohydrate with a higher content in corn is starch, and the starch contained in glutinous corn is almost all amylopectin, which can quickly raise blood sugar . (Common forms of starch in food are linear and branched. The structure of linear starch is like a spring, and the structure of amylopectin is like a tree root with many branches. The latter has a larger contact area with digestive enzymes and is easier to digest, so it raises blood sugar quickly.)

Therefore, if your blood sugar is high, it is best to use sweet corn as the staple food. However, it does not mean that you cannot eat glutinous corn at all . For example, you can eat half a glutinous corn and half a sweet corn in one meal, and pair it with 1.5 to 2 fists of non-starchy vegetables and 1 fist of protein. This way, your blood sugar will not easily soar after a meal.

3. Is it difficult to digest glutinous corn when it is left to cool?

Sticky corn is very sticky, and you might think that it will stick together even more after it cools down, making it harder to digest, but that’s not the case.

The starch composition of glutinous corn is almost all amylopectin. The structure of amylopectin after cooking is very loose, which greatly increases the chances of digestive enzymes contacting it, so it is easy to digest. This structure will basically not change even if it is cooled, so the glutinous corn is still easy to digest after cooling. However, the content of amylopectin is lower and the content of amylose is higher in sweet corn. After cooling, the amylose is easy to aggregate again, resulting in a decrease in the contact area between them and the enzyme, which makes it difficult to digest.

So the sweet corn is difficult to digest after cooling down, while the glutinous corn is still easy to digest. Therefore, glutinous corn is more suitable for people with poor digestion.

Image source: Pixabay

4. Which color of corn is more nutritious?

The sweet corn we usually eat is mainly yellow, while the sticky corn is white. In fact, sweet corn is also white, and sticky corn is also yellow and purple. Sweet corn and sticky corn also have white, yellow and purple colors. Yellow corn is rich in beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin , which are all beneficial to eye health. Office workers who use their eyes more often can choose yellow corn. Purple corn is rich in anthocyanins, which can resist oxidation . Friends who have low blood sugar and want to take in anthocyanins can choose purple corn. By the way, whether it is purple corn or colorful corn, they are the result of their own gene changes, not artificial genetic modification.

5.Can corn be eaten raw?

The sweet corn and glutinous corn we usually eat don't taste very good when eaten raw, but there is a kind of sweet corn called fruit corn. Its skin is thin and tender, it breaks when you bite it, and it tastes refreshing and juicy, with a strong natural fragrance. This kind of corn also comes in white and yellow.

However, its yield is low, so the price is relatively expensive. You can see that a piece of white fruit corn sold on a certain platform is about 8 yuan. You can buy some to try it.

6. Which type of corn should never be eaten?

Moldy corn must not be eaten , because moldy corn is prone to produce aflatoxin. This substance is identified as a Class 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer under the World Health Organization, which means it is carcinogenic to humans. The scary thing is that the general boiling and steaming temperatures cannot destroy this toxin. Fresh corn kernels are easily moldy if they are bruised or cut with a knife and placed in a humid refrigerator. Therefore, fresh corn is best stored in the freezer. If you refrigerate it, don't keep it for too long. If a corn kernel is moldy, be sure to cut off the nearby corn kernels, then rinse them with running water before cooking.

7. Should alkali be added when cooking corn?

Some people say that adding alkali to cooked corn is more nutritious because the niacin in corn is bound and cannot be absorbed by the human body, while alkali can convert bound niacin into free niacin that can be absorbed by the human body. However, niacin is widely present in various foods and we are basically not lacking in niacin. On the contrary, the intake of vitamin B1 and vitamin B2 by adults in China does not meet the recommended intake [7]; and adding alkali will destroy these two vitamins, so it is recommended not to add alkali when cooking corn.

In addition, it is best to cook the corn with one or two pieces of corn husk, so that the cooked corn will taste more fragrant; after cooking, do not soak it in water, but put it directly on a plate for a while, so that it tastes better.

8. How to eat corn more nutritiously?

When eating corn, you should chew off the cob completely without leaving any part. Don't drop the yellow grains close to the cob, because that is the germ of the corn. The germ of corn is not only sweet and delicious but also nutritious. It is rich in oleic acid and vitamin E. Oleic acid can increase the "good cholesterol" in the body and reduce the "bad cholesterol", while vitamin E has a strong antioxidant capacity. How can you chew it so cleanly? You can first cut off a row with a knife, and then you can easily eat it row by row. This way of eating is not only more nutritious but also very elegant. By the way, you can't eat corn germ when eating corn steamed bread or drinking corn paste , because the oleic acid, linoleic acid, and vitamin E rich in corn germ are easy to oxidize and become rancid. When processing into cornmeal, the germ must be removed. In addition, many corn steamed breads and corn paste are made of very fine cornmeal. Compared with whole corn, the dietary fiber of cornmeal is removed and there is little left. It is a typical coarse grain that is eaten finely, and the health benefits are further discounted.

References

[1] https://consumer.fda.gov.tw//Food/tfndDetail.aspx?nodeID=178&f=0&id=91

[2] https://consumer.fda.gov.tw//Food/tfndDetail.aspx?nodeID=178&f=0&id=136

[3] https://consumer.fda.gov.tw//Food/tfndDetail.aspx?nodeID=178&f=0&id=347

[4] https://glycemicindex.com/gi-search/?food_name=corn&product_category=&country=&gi=&gi_filter=&serving_size_(g)=&serving_size_(g)_filter=&carbs_per_serve_(g)=&carbs_per_serve_(g)_filter=&gl=&gl_filter=

[5] https://glycemicindex.com/gi-search/?food_name=corn,+fresh&product_category=&country=&gi=&gi_filter=&serving_size_(g)=&serving_size_(g)_filter=&carbs_per_serve_(g)=&carbs_per_serve_(g)_filter=&gl=&gl_filter=

[6] https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Illustration-of-the-structure-of-amylose-and-amylopectin_fig1_341036116

[7] China Residents Nutrition and Health Status Monitoring Report (2015-2017)[M]. People's Medical Publishing House, 2021:84-85

Planning and production

Source: Nutritionist Gu Chuanling

Editor: Zhong Yanping