A grain botanically, a vegetable in the kitchen — and the fibre passes through visibly.
Sweetcorn is botanically a grain, eaten as a vegetable. It carries more carbohydrate than
most vegetables and a reasonable amount of fibre.
It contains lutein and zeaxanthin,
the carotenoids concentrated in the retina, and yellow corn has considerably more than
white.
The reason corn appears intact in stool is that the outer hull is cellulose,
which humans cannot digest. The inside is digested normally — you are seeing the shell,
not the kernel.
Per 100g of kernels.
Based on the nutrients and fibre this food supplies. These are supporting foods, not treatments.
Chew it well if the whole-kernel issue bothers you — breaking the
hull is all it takes.
Cook it briefly. Five minutes in boiling water is
plenty; longer turns the kernels tough.
Yellow over white for the
carotenoids.
Eat it fresh. Sweetcorn converts its sugar to starch
within hours of picking, which is why supermarket corn rarely tastes like corn from a
farm.
The lutein and zeaxanthin are worth knowing about. Both accumulate in the macula of the
retina, where they filter blue light and act as antioxidants. Dietary intake is associated
with lower rates of age-related macular degeneration.
Corn's fibre is largely
insoluble, adding bulk without much fermentation, which makes it gentler on the gut than
pulses at similar fibre levels.
Kidney disease: potassium may need limiting. Ask your doctor for your
numbers.
IBS: several vegetables are high-FODMAP and commonly trigger
symptoms — tolerance is personal.
This is information, not a prescription. If you are managing a diagnosed condition or taking medication, talk to your doctor before making a large change to your diet.
Nutrition figures on this page come from standard food composition data. These links let you check the numbers and read the underlying research yourself rather than taking our word for it.