Corn on the cob

Sycoholic
Sycoholic Posts: 282 Member
in Food and Nutrition
So, I'm eating two ears of frozen corn on the cob and thinking to myself, there's no way this is 240 calories. Are they taking the cob into account or just the kernels? There's not much corn on a cob, so I can't see how it's that many calories. I googled it but no success. Just wondering if anybody had any "right" answer, and not just "seems like".

Replies

  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    it's a grain...grains tend to be calorie dense...and if you cut the corn off, you will likely find that it's more than you think.

    to get the "right" answer you would need to cut the kernels off and weigh them...just using a generic corn on the cob entry in the database will provide a reasonable estimate but isn't going to be highly accurate due to the fact that that particular entry might be a bigger cob than you're eating, etc...
  • NaurielR
    NaurielR Posts: 429 Member
    How big are these ears? Are they an entire ear or just a portion? I'm a Midwestern girl so i love my sweet corn, but each average ear has about 100 calories. 100 grams of corn is about 80 calories. I measured the weight of the cooked cob before and after eating, and unfortunately each cob did come out to at least 100 calories. It's not going to stop me from eating my sweet corn (with butter, thank you very much) but I do feel like it shouldn't be so much.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    edited August 2015
    I think you got to weigh the whole thing, eat, then weigh what's left, and just log the difference as 'corn cooked'.

    But yeah I bought some frozen cobs too and it was confusing, it said one ear was 240 calories, so that might be accurate (I only ate one once, and passed the second time, that's just too much for little food).
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 33,589 Member
    Also - especially if you're buying frozen and find the calorie count unusually high compared to reference sources - find the ingredient list in fine print, just to be certain: Some companies still add sugar to "sweet corn".
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited August 2015
    No, the cob doesn't count toward the weight if you are using a normal corn entry. My cobs generally don't have anywhere near 240 calories, so my guess is you are counting the cob.

    (I didn't know there was a such a thing as frozen cobs, though -- I always eat fresh. So I suppose they might be bigger?)
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    No, the cob doesn't count toward the weight if you are using a normal corn entry. My cobs generally don't have anywhere near 240 calories, so my guess is you are counting the cob.

    (I didn't know there was a such a thing as frozen cobs, though -- I always eat fresh. So I suppose they might be bigger?)

    Shop Rite has some... mini ones. 4 fit in a regular frozen veggie bag. The package says 170 per ear, which seems kinda nuts.
  • shadowfax_c11
    shadowfax_c11 Posts: 1,942 Member
    Corn is pretty calorie dense. Lots of sugar in it.

    I just go with weighing it after it is cooked and before eating and then weigh the cob after and subtract. Use the resulting number to log corn, cooked.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited August 2015
    Normal corn is something like 125-130 calories/cup, which is a LOT of corn, and roughly what I get off a normal cob (although I measure by the gram and it's more often a bit less). So I don't think it's super calorie dense, but what one considers calorie dense will vary. (I scrape it off and cook it without the cob, usually, just because of personal preference.)

    (It would be calorie dense compared with a non starchy veg, but I've never considered corn a veg, but a grain or starch, so more analogous to rice or potatoes.)

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