The New Complete Book of Food

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r Corn

(Hominy)

See also Flour, Vegetable oils, Wheat cereals.

Nutritional Profile

Energy value (calories per serving): Moderate

Protein: Moderate

Fat: Low

Saturated fat: Low

Cholesterol: None

Carbohydrates: High

Fiber: High

Sodium: Low

Major vitamin contribution: Vitamin A (in yellow corn), B vitamins, vitamin C

Major mineral contribution: Potassium

About the Nutrients in This Food

Like other grains, corn is a high-carbohydrate, high-fiber food. Eighty-one

percent of the solid material in the corn kernel consists of sugars, starch,

and dietary fiber, including insoluble cellulose and noncarbohydrate lignin

in the seed covering and soluble pectins and gums in the kernel.* Corn has

small amounts of vitamin A, the B vitamin folate, and vitamin C.

Corn is a moderately good source of plant proteins, but zein (its

major protein) is deficient in the essential amino acids lysine, cystine,

and tryptophan. Corn is low in fat and its oils are composed primarily of

unsaturated fatty acids.

Yellow corn, which gets its color from the xanthophyll pigments

lutein and zeaxanthin plus the vitamin A-active pigments carotene and

cryptoxanthin, contains a little vitamin A; white corn has very little.

One fresh ear of yellow corn, 5.5– 6.5 inches long, has three grams

dietary fiber, one gram fat (0.1 g saturated fat, 0.3 g monounsaturated fat,

0.4 mg polyunsaturated fat), 137 IU vitamin A (6 percent of the R DA for a

woman, 5 percent of the R DA for a man), 34 mcg folate (9 percent of the

R DA), and 5 mg vitamin C (7 percent of the R DA for a woman, 6 percent

of the R DA for a man).

* The most plentiful sugar in sweet corn is glucose; hydrolysis (chemical splitting)

of corn starch is the principal industrial source of glucose. Since glucose is less

sweet than sucrose, sucrose and fructose are added to commercial corn syrup to

make it sweeter.