--- title: Fiber Foods and Corn Syrup: Is Corn Good or Is Corn Bad? description: Corn is high in fiber, protein and potassium, but is all of it healthy? Find out what five experts say about eating corn and corn syrup canonical: https://time.com/3820034/should-i-eat-corn/ author: Mandy Oaklander article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-30T15:12:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:04:34.909Z article:section: Health og:title: Should I Eat Corn? og:description: Corn is high in fiber, protein and potassium, but is all of it healthy? Find out what five experts say about eating corn and corn syrup og:url: https://time.com/3820034/should-i-eat-corn/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c9fe4715134e093/6987ed3de20a870001a891cf/screen-shot-2015-04-28-at-1-17-57-pm.png?branch=production&width=560&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 560 og:image:height: 315 og:image:alt: screen-shot-2015-04-28-at-1-17-57-pm.png og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Should I Eat Corn? twitter:description: Corn is high in fiber, protein and potassium, but is all of it healthy? Find out what five experts say about eating corn and corn syrup twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c9fe4715134e093/6987ed3de20a870001a891cf/screen-shot-2015-04-28-at-1-17-57-pm.png?branch=production&width=560&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Should I Eat Corn? > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Apr 30, 2015 3:12 PM UTC  Illustration by Lon Tweeten for TIME  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Apr 30, 2015 3:12 PM UTC **5/5 experts say yes.** Corn as a health food seems like a no-brainer, and indeed it is: all five of our experts give it the thumbs up. For something so delicious and fun to eat, corn comes with an impressive density of nutrients. A cup of boiled sweet yellow corn has 143 calories, 5 grams of protein and a surprising amount of potassium—9% of your daily value and almost as much as a small banana. A cup even packs 4 grams of fiber, which is 16% of the daily recommended value. There’s something extra special about corn fiber. It’s a prebiotic, meaning it’s fermented by gut microbes and stimulates the growth of good bacteria, according to the [research](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3705355/) of **Joanne Slavin**, PhD, a registered dietitian and professor in the department of food science and nutrition at the University of Minnesota. “Our research has found that corn bran is linked to satiety—making you feel fuller,” she says. But when corn isn’t in the form of a kernel, it’s often bastardized beyond recognition. Words like dextrose, maltodextrin, maltose, malititol, xylitol, polydextrose and hydrolyzed vegetable protein can all be derived from corn, not to mention the more obvious things like high fructose corn syrup and corn oil, says food writer **Nina Planck**, author of [_The Real Food Cookbook_](http://ninaplanck.com/books/). “Corn on the label usually signifies industrial food,” Planck says. Instead, opt for fresh or frozen sweet corn, home-popped popcorn, stone-ground whole yellow corn in the form of polenta or cornbread, and tortilla chips for a treat. “If you buy organic maize, you’ll avoid the crops which have been genetically modified to resist pests and herbicides,” she says. More than 90% of corn grown in the U.S. is genetically modified, so if you care about such things, buy organic. Look for “whole grain corn” on a label, advises **Dr. David Katz**, director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center, just as you would whole grain wheat. **Elsayed Abdelaal**, PhD, acting research manager at the Guelph Food Research Centre in Canada, agrees. Whole grain corn comes with plenty of [lutein and zeaxanthin](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3705341/), two carotenoids that Abdelaal has studied at length. “Lutein, zeaxanthin and anthocyanins are bioactive compounds which have shown several health benefits for humans,” he says; studies have linked them to eye health and preventing cataracts. By some [estimates](http://www.allaboutvision.com/nutrition/lutein.htm), vision benefits kick in around 6 mg a day, and a cup of corn supplies about 23% of that. **Richard Pratt**, PhD, department head and professor of plant and environmental sciences at New Mexico State University, researches maize and feels so passionately about corn that he responded on vacation with a passionate _yes_: “Ever since I enjoyed my first bite of a corn tortilla as a boy, I have been hooked on the wonderful flavor of corn.”  Illustration by Lon Tweeten for TIME [_Read next: Should I Eat Falafel?_](http://time.com/3772723/falafel-fiber-chickpeas/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3820034/should-i-eat-corn/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3820034/should-i-eat-corn/"},"headline":"Should I Eat Corn?","datePublished":"2015-04-30T15:12:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:04:34.909Z","description":"Corn is high in fiber, protein and potassium, but is all of it healthy? 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