Corn Is Not Evil: 100-Plus Healthy Recipes That Prove It

By Megan O. Steintrager, Epicurious.com

Along with heirloom tomatoes, fresh corn on the cob is one of my favorite high-summer foods. I'm clearly not alone: Adam Roberts wrote about his love of dressed-up corn here in the Epi-Log earlier this week and Epicurious sister publication Gourmet Live has an ode to corn by farmer Kristin Kimball in this week's farmers' market issue. Of course corn has its detractors too, including those who think of it as lowly pig food, carbophobes, and high fructose corn syrup haters who cast sweet corn on the cob in the same light.

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I don't fall into any of those camps, and I'd gladly eat corn for pure pleasure, but it never hurts to have a few health reasons too. So I was happy to come across a blog from EatingWell discussing the health benefits of corn: Corn is a good source of fiber, as well as lutein and zeaxanthin (compounds that help keep your eyes healthy), the author explains. Elsewhere online, the World's Healthiest Foods' entry on corn says that "corn is actually a unique phytonutrient-rich food that provides us with well-documented antioxidant benefits," while in Healthy Farm Stand Recipes, Self explains that sweet corn is whole grain source of potassium.

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Feeling corny? Try one of the more than a hundred healthy corn recipes here on Epi, including the low-cal, low-cholesterol, and high-fiber Smoky Corn Salsa, and check out What to Cook Now: Corn for more recipes and tips.