Whether it be cost, convenience, or a combination of both, sourcing fresh ingredients is not always an option. Buying yellow or white sweet corn in a can is an affordable way to get a serving of vegetables. Even though it may not be as good for you as eating fresh, is canned corn healthy?This ORAC test shows how much antioxidant content is in 100 grams of canned corn. The value of 413 is quite low but it needs to be viewed in context. Even in the fresh and raw form, yellow sweet corn only comes in with a value of 728. Yes, that is quite a bit higher than what you get from the can, but both of these numbers are quite low relative to many other types of produce.Does corn have any nutritional value for humans then? Absolutely! Using the same portion size (100 grams, which is about 3.5 ounces) this nutritious vegetable provides us with 9 grams of protein, 26% of our daily value of thiamin, 12% of riboflavin, 18% of niacin, 31% of vitamin B6, and lower amounts for most of the other essential vitamins. The exception being vitamin C, vitamin K, and vitamin B12, which it provides none of.For minerals we get healthy amounts of almost all of the essentials like iron, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, copper, manganese, and selenium. Though corn is a poor source of calcium as it hardly provides any - only 1% of the daily value.Conclusion? Both fresh and canned corn have plenty of nutritional value for essential vitamins and minerals. But they're both bad for you to rely on when it comes to antioxidants, at least with the yellow and white varieties. If you want to get more antioxidants than blueberries from your corn, that is possible with the purple variety.
ORAC Source
USDA Database for the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) of Selected Foods, Release 2 - Prepared by Nutrient Data Laboratory, Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center (BHNRC), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) - May 2010