A mealie a day

A mealie a day would provide much of the sugars and starch we need for energy but a quarter of that sweetness is lost within twenty-four hours of the cob being harvested.

Take this little test. Pick two identical cobs of corn, shuck the one, and then cook it immediately chewing mindfully so you can remember the flavour and texture. Have the other a day later; chalk and cheese.

Stored at room temperature, corn quickly loses a quarter of its sugars; you can certainly taste the difference. It has slow-release carbs with a GI of only 48; that is excellent. Nevertheless there is about 16 grams of starch, one tenth of it indigestible fibre^[6] that passes through to the colon where it feeds the microbiome.

What is a dietary fiber you may be thinking.

The obese need to limit their total digestible carbohydrate to less than 50 grams; perhaps enjoy just half a mealie a day. And take a short walk after all starchy-food so the glucose is instead turned into glycogen.

For nearly four-months we have enjoyed a mealie a day at our green home but there was a tinge of sadness at the end. The rats ate the last two cobs. In fact they came close to stealing a third of the harvest.

For that I should be grateful; a Zulu friend confirmed that again this year he did not get one-cob from his garden in Sweetwaters. The rats ate the lot; and most of the pumpkins and butternut too.

I was shocked to read recently, as I am sure many of you were, that 27% of South African children under the age of five are permanently stunted^[5], one of the most laggardly countries in the world. The reasons are complex but I started wondering if the epidemic of rats, the planet’s worst invader-specie, is not part of the cause.

Rural children would in the past have enjoyed at least a cob a day throughout the summer but no longer. Instead schools and their parents have turned to ultra refined maize-meal to fill that gnawing hole in their bellies; it is the equivalent of cake flour.

Corn has a reasonable amount of protein, about 3g / cob, nearly 10% of the requirement of a growing child but it is not complete; it is lacking in lysine and tryptophan, two essential amino-acids. So a nutritious meal would need to complement that mealie with legumes, meat and eggs; or dairy products.

A mealie a day is also rich in several B-vitamins and many minerals; and two very important carotenoids called lutein and zeaxanthin^[3][4]. Without them we would go blind.

Refined maize-meal, like cake flour, has zero of these nutrients; it is high on the list of truly junk foods and not fit for human consumption. Certainly no farmer would feed it to his chickens or cattle.

Whole mealies are high in fibre which is indigestible unless you have a blooming colon; that should contain an incredible 2kg of friendly bacteria and other bugs that together are known as the normal flora. Unpasteurised maas, yoghurt with live culture and kefir are excellent probiotics.

Otherwise the cobs and whole grain maize-meal may give one a bellyache.

• Why is whole grain better?
  

A mealie a day

A mealie a day is a staple in many countries but once refined it becomes a junk-food of the highest order; it is not fit for human consumption. It is one of the chief causes of stunting of children in South Africa.

But the satisfaction you get from eating a young mealie that you have picked yourself from the garden and immediately cooked is something you'll remember all your life. In fact the old adage suggests putting the pot on to boil and only then go and pluck your cob.

At our green home we rely on mealies in the summer for these important nutrients, along with several varieties of freshly-picked beans and eggs. They would provide the full complement of amino acids that are required to prevent the stunting of our children and frailty in the elderly.

Carbs in the life of a Believer should not be a contentious issue; it's the refined starches that are killing us.

• Believers can enjoy green mealies
  

If I was the Minister and concerned about South Africa’s children, I would start prodding the environmentalists to find a Pied Piper to deal with the rats; that is a very complex long term situation. My thoughts would turn to worm-farming to manage the waste from our kitchens that currently is simply dumped in a hole in the garden; that is the chief cause of the infestation.

Secondly I would completely ban refined maize from our school kitchens and instead contract with local farmers to provide a cob a day for each child in the summer; and freshly-ground wholemeal corn for the rest of the year. Other grains like sorghum are excellent too. We call it mabela.

This corn flour milling machine would do the trick.

Thirdly I would contract with local-farmers to provide a glass of maas and an egg for each child every day. Zulus are lactose intolerant; milk gives them diarrhoea.

And fourthly I would absolutely insist that the headmaster and staff would have their salaries docked by 10% if their school-garden did not provide greens like spinach and beans for the children.

And lastly I would try to convince the minister of finance that ultra processed cornmeal and cake flour should attracted a sin-tax, the same as sugar. They are not food in the true sense of the word; no farmer would feed them to his livestock.

That sin-tax could be used to finance the school feeding schemes.

The cost would be significant but in comparison with a workforce, a quarter of whom are permanently mentally or physically stunted, it is minuscule. I estimate that R10 per child every day would go a long way to solving the problem. Perhaps a third of the ten-million kids in primary school would need that kind of support.

It would provide a huge boost to local farmers; and the children, when they see corn in flower would know that wonderful food and greater well-being are on the way.

Lignans

Every woman should have at least a cursory understanding about lignans; they are the phytonutrients found in the bran that help prevent malignant breast tumours^[1]. A mealie a day in the summer and whole-grain corn porridge for the rest of the year would make a massive difference.

• Maize-meal porridge
  

Keep your mealies simple

The food manufacturing industry has ruined our mealies; here are a few tips for keeping it simple yet wholesome.

• When choosing a good ear be that on the plant or from the greengrocer, press on the kernels through the husk; they should feel plump and firm. Only shuck the cobs just before cooking.
• Look for the older varieties; the newer ones have three-times greater sugar content and do our blood glucose no good.
• Within 24 hours of being reaped, half the sugars have turned to starch; enjoy them freshly-picked.
• Add your salt at the table; test it yourself but you will not be able to taste the difference if you put it into the cooking-water.
• The best way to cook a young mealie is to bring the water to a hard boil, drop in the cobs and restore it back to steaming. Then immediately turn off the heat; in ten-minutes they will be perfect. The starch will have gelatinised but the fibrous pectin will not have broken down and will pass through the small intestine to the colon; creating the ideal prebiotic for the teeming billions of the friendly flora.
• Keep the cooking water and use it to make stews and even your maize meal porridge; improves the taste and retains many minerals.
  
• An easier way to cut the kernels off the cob for a risotto or succotash is to first stand it on end and slice off two-rows of pips; then place it on its side and do the rest.
• Having done that, use the back of a knife to milk off the remaining juices and pulp; put them into soups and other dishes for extra flavour and nutrition. Waste not, want-not is our slogan.
  
• A green mealie risotto made with brown-rice is a very nutritious and simple dish to make.
  

Glycemic index

I am unable to find data on white mealies. In much of the world it's considered hog food and the humans eat only sweet-corn.

One medium-ear of sweetcorn has 17g of carbs of which 3 grams are sugars (about 1/2 tsp), and a glycemic index of 52; that's low.

White-maize would certainly be lower but even sweetcorn has a very satisfactory GI less than 56.

However the glycemic load is on the high side (> 10) at 15; it contains quite a lot of slowly-absorbed starch. White maize would probably be about 12. So, if you are diabetic, no more than half a cob would be desirable.

Whole-grains like half a mealie a day actually reduce the risk of diabetes; but keep the load down or, in other words, enjoy small portions.

Better still would be to allow the cooked maize to cool first, becoming "resistant" starch which is absorbed even more slowly. Much then is not digested into sugars in the small intestine but reaches the colon where it is turned instead into very good short-chain fatty acids.

To get 100% cornmeal one really has to have a milling machine; virtually everything on the shelf has been refined.

Corn and beans

Corn and beans have been traditional fare for centuries; unrefined, they contain what is known as resistant starch. The molecules are configured in such a way as to slow the action of amylase, the enzyme that digests the carbohydrate and turns it into glucose.

It is unfortunate that the ketogenic diets lump unrefined-starch like you would get from a mealie a day or legumes together with sugar and cake flour. We enjoy our corn and beans in a traditional dish called succotash; maize and limas.

Weight loss research confirms the importance of limiting refined carbs; but corn and beans are highly recommended^[8].

We are enjoying carbs galore from our green garden right now in midsummer; new potatoes are nearly over but at least one mealie a day is standard. The lima beans are prolific. Neither the good wife nor I have put on an ounce.

It's the refined carbs you must watch; they are the very devil. Succotash and chocolate cake are two completely different creatures.

Once you understand how net carbs work it will all become perfectly clear.

Having said all of this, we still recommend a short walk after any starchy food; and diabetics need to test themselves after enjoying a mealie a day. During the winter months it's wholegrain cornmeal.

Stone-ground grits is a great favourite in the southern United States.

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