Is Corn Good for Diabetes?

Diabetes is a serious condition which increases your blood glucose or blood sugar more than needed. There is a hormone called insulin which helps glucose to get released into your cells to generate energy. In type1 diabetes, insulin is not produced by your body. In type2 diabetes, insulin is not utilised by your body well. Type 2 is more commonly seen. Without this insulin, glucose remains in your blood, increasing your blood sugar levels very high. When this blood sugar increases over time, all the other body parts begin to deteriorate. So, it is important to keep your blood sugar in control. This level mostly represents the food you take. Food plays a very vital role in controlling your blood sugar levels.

If you got retinal damage symptoms due to diabetes, it is not only important to cut down sugars in your food, but also, know which kind of food to include in your diabetic diet. In this article, let us see whether corn is good for diabetes or not.

Nutritional Facts about Corn

Before knowing the benefits of any food item, it is always good to know its nutritional value. Corn is a very good source of fiber. Including half cup of corn kernels to the diet is very healthy. Corn contains so many nutritional values which are useful to our body in many ways. It has decent amount of vitamin C, B vitamins, Magnesium, Carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin. A half cup of corn kernels contain 3 grams of fiber. One small ear of corn contains 85 calories, and 19 grams of carbohydrates.

Benefits of Taking corn for Diabetics

Below are the advantages for diabetic patients when they include corn in their daily diet.

Starch content

Corn is considered as starchy food and most of the diabetic people avoid it.
However, corn has highest levels of polyphenols. These antioxidants are very good for diabetic patients.
Polyphenols have very good effects on your health and help control blood sugar levels.

Glycaemic index

Glycaemic index is a measure that needs to be considered for all diabetic and prediabetic patients.
The lower the glycaemic index, the better it is for diabetic patients.
Sweet corn falls under moderate Glycaemic Index category. It measures 52 on a scale.
With this moderate number, corn is definitely a very good choice for diabetic patients.

Cholesterol

Corn is rich in Vitamin C, bioflavonoid and carotenoids which helps in lowering LDL cholesterol. LDL cholesterol is also called bad cholesterol.
Reducing bad cholesterol is important to maintain good levels of sugars in the body.

Fiber

Corn contains very high amount of fiber.
Diabetes often causes constipation and they suffer a lot. Also, because of the fiber, sugar gets released into the blood very slowly.
This will definitely reduce the blood sugar levels.

Guidelines to include Corn in your diet

Below are the guidelines on including Corn in diabetic diet.

The shacked corn can be used in many ways to include in your diet. They can be boiled, steamed, grilled or microwaved. If you like to keep the husks, then you can grill or roast them directly with husks on. They act as very good side dish which are crunchy, sweet and tasty.
The main advantage of corn is, it tastes sweet and doesn’t require much flavouring. Avoid using butter, cream or sauces on top of corn, as it will only affect the good qualities of corn. You can dip them in herbs and spices to add up more flavour.
If you are a person who looks for different flavour, you can brush your corn with olive oil and roll them into herbs and spices like chili powder, cilantro, basil, garlic, paprika, thyme, and jalapeno.
You can include corn in salads, soups, dips or even in grain side dish.
It is always preferable to plate your dish with non-starchy vegetables or fruits in half of the plate, in another smaller section, add starchy food like corn, brown rice oats and in the last smaller section include meat substitutes like tofu, eggs etc.,
You can also include corn in your diet by making pop corn without any butter. This is all-time favourite for anyone.

In this article, you came to know about how a starchy food item like corn is beneficial to diabetic patient. So, it is recommended to include half cup of corn kernels in your diet.

More to read: Exploring the Benefits of Advanced Technology Cataract Surgery