Sweet Corn: Complete Amino Acid Profile

Sweet Corn: Considered a good source of amino acids?

Sweet corn is not considered a good source of amino acids, because it doesn't contain all the essential amino acids in significant quantities. It contains some but not enough to consider sweet corn as an adequate source of complete proteins. Sweet corn is predominately comprised of simple carbohydrates with only small amounts of both fat and protein. The amount of total protein found within sweet corn is low compared with other plant-based sources – close to 1-1.25% by dry weight. There are around 9 essential amino acids that humans need to obtain from their diet, none of which can be produced internally. These nine essential amino acids consist of histidine, threonine, methionine, valine, phenylalanine, tryptophan leucine, lysine and isoleucine. Sweet corn does not have most of these (except for tryptophan) in sufficient concentration to make up a significant portion of our dietary intake. As such, sweet corn should not be relied on as a major source of amino acid consumption