Is Corn Bad for Stomach Ulcers

Probably there is nothing quite such a crisp cob of sweet corn. But if you have stomach ulcer, it’s important to make sure everything in your diet is OK to eat. Certain foods have an effect to make the disease worse, making the recovery take longer to heal. How about corn? Is it actually bad for stomach ulcers?

Corn health benefits

Corn is actually a healthy vegetable loaded with several nutrients, though it is high in starch (a kind of carbohydrate). Its high carbohydrate property is a good way to keep you full of energy throughout the day.

This vegetable is not as popular as spinach and kale that have better reputations as top nutrition stars, but it also has something to count. It provides vitamins (B and C), as well as a few important minerals (potassium and magnesium) [1].

Vitamin B is involved in our energy metabolism. Vitamin C is an immune system booster; it’s important in our cell repair and also plays a key role to help fight aging. Magnesium is required to help support muscle contraction and nerve conduction.

Yellow color of corn provides lutein and zeaxanthin, both are carotenoids (antioxidants). Dietary intake of antioxidants is important for your eye health, especially carotenoids [2]. Most carotenoids found in corn are lutein and zeaxanthin, accounting for about 70 percent.

A half cup serving of corn contains for about 3 grams of fiber. This is a good way to help manage your healthy weight. Diet high in fiber is also good to maintain blood sugar and cholesterol levels.

This starchy food can be part of your healthy meal plan, though portion size matters. It is high in starch, eating too much starch is bad for your weight control – so, consume it in moderation!

Stomach ulcer diet, what to remember?

Stomach ulcer is an open sore that forms on your stomach lining. The ulcer itself is medically called ‘peptic ulcer’, which also can occur on the inside lining of the small intestine’s upper portion (this is called duodenal ulcer).

The open sore develops along the path for what you eat and drink travel during digestion. So it could be quite painful if you consume foods /beverages that irritate the lesion. The good news, many people with the disease can still eat normally — whatever they want as long as they stick to a healthy-balanced diet.

There is no single formula of stomach ulcer diet that works for everyone since this may vary from patient to patient. For example, many people with ulcer can eat chocolate in moderation with no problems, but it could be a trigger for heartburn flare-up for some.

 Although stomach ulcer diet can vary, certain foods are often to blame for triggering /worsening the symptoms.

In general, experts recommend avoiding foods and drinks that can cause a spike in your stomach acid production, hurt /irritate your stomach lining, and cause upset stomach /unpleasant side effects (heartburn, for example). Typically, these include:

1. High-fat and greasy foods. They’re likely to stay longer in your stomach since they’re usually not easy to digest. This stimulates more stomach acid production.
2. Acidic foods, including citrus fruits, which are bad for heartburn (one of common stomach ulcer symptoms).
3. Spicy foods, they could be an irritant for your stomach lining especially if you eat them a lot at one time.
4. Alcohol and high-caffeine drinks, though drinking tea in moderation probably is still OK for some people with ulcers.

Corn and stomach ulcers

When it comes to stomach ulcer diet, acidic foods are considered bad because they may aggravate several symptoms of the disease. But what to understand, acidic foods won’t cause a significant effect to make stomach become more acidic, contrary to popular belief.

The stomach is naturally designed to secrete a powerful ’very acidic’ substance called ‘hydrochloric acid (HCl)’ during the process of digestion. The pH of this substance is between 0.1 and 1.0 which is probably the most acidic thing known. HCl is one of the main components for gastric juice with pH of about 2.0! With digestive enzymes, digestive juice processes what you eat and drink.

So now you know that the digestive liquids of the stomach are already very acidic. Eating acidic foods actually don’t have a significant effect to make the stomach to turn into more acidic. It’s similar to throwing a gallon of salt water into the sea, not carrying much of an effect [3].

But your diet may drive more production of stomach acid, making the stomach to become more acidic which is bad if you have stomach ulcers. What and how you eat matters.

In general, corn is safe for most people. Even it contains a number of healthy properties as mentioned before. Furthermore it is not as acidic as you think. It’s moderately acidic, which should be safe for anyone. Even sweet corn, harvested early (earlier than field corn), is moderately alkaline – also it’s a healthy whole grain.

What’s more?