Is corn a vegetable on your plate?

For me it depends on my mood. Technically corn is a grain but when it has been a long day and the main course is almost done and I am lacking side….cwhipping open a can of corn now serves as a side and whether it is a veggie or grain I could care less.

Well, I’ve always been a grazer, so (especially during fresh corn season) it is often the meal. I don’t worry about balancing food in a meal, it all evens out over the course of a week.

For me, it’s a starch on my plate. At my mom’s house, she will have it as a vegetable, with another starch as the “starch.” Sometimes, she’ll have peas and rice on occasion, which, to me, is a starch and a starch.

Once in a while, but much less often than previoudly. My doctor told me it wasn’t great for my digestion.

It’s more about balancing the meal as a whole, than making sure I tick the boxes of the Food Pyramid.

I like corn (maize/sweet corn) and mashed potatoes together. Sometimes that’s all I’ll have next to the protein. Sometimes I’ll add a salad. Whatever. It’s not that big a deal.

I’m not entirely certain where this tradition of “Meat, veggie, starch” as a full dinner meal comes from.

eh.
I prefer carrots, peas, broccoli, cauliflower and red cabbage

and spinach, do not forget the spinach.

For some reason I’ve always perceived it to be a vegetable, though I do realise it isn’t.

Corn is delicious is what it is. Especially here in Illinois where you can get fresh corn from your neighbor. I only eat it when it’s in season.

also “vegetable” is a completely arbitrary designation.
That is why you have the argument whether a tomato is a vegetable or a fruit.

Corn is a grain, just like rice, or bulgar wheat pilaf, or quinoa.

I only have corn a couple times a year, and always grilled, wrapped up with onions and butter and a dash of salt. It’s a side dish to a barbecue.
When the kids were growing up, though, I often served canned corn or green beans. But never peas, because their dad told them it was rabbit poop that They had painted green. Sigh.

Wait…if I go to a buffet I’ll sometimes get corn if it’s available. Or if corn is one of the sides offered at a restaurant I’ll often get that over other “veggies.” But it has to be hot enough to melt the butter I put on it, or it’s a no go. I won’t eat it.

So, probably, 8 times a year all together, although I do love it.

And an onion is a root, just like a potato.
And a tomato is a fruit, just like an apple.
And peas are seeds, just like peanuts.
functionally, as in “as used in the kitchen”, it is a vegetable.

To answer your other question: At home, Rick and I never have full meals. When I eat at home it’s usually just one thing, like a baked potato (or a plate of fried or a bowl of mashed,) or just a piece of specialty bread, toasted, with butter and garlic. Maybe 2, if the bread is small.

Other times I’ll have a bunch of peel and eat shrimp, but nothing else.

To answer the OTHER question, I’ll casually call it a “vegetable,” although nutrition- and calorie-wise I know to compare it to other grains, not actual vegetables.

@Seek It’s from the four food groups days when I was kid. The advice was to get all four food groups in a meal. The illustrations looked like a dinner plate with a meat, starch, vegetable, and dairy was depicted as the drink often times, or as cheese. Kids would argue pizza is good, because all four food groups could easily be on a pizza. Now, the powers at be have changed that idea twice over, first with the pyramid, and now with whatever is being touted currently.

Back then, in the four food groups days, they also told vegetarians they should combine grain and legumes in the same meal to get a complete protein. Now, the common wisdom is it doesn’t have to be eaten together at the same time for the benefits.

(You know, @jca they make spray starch in a can…..just a thought! LOL!)

Yes, I consider corn to be a grain as well, not really a vegetable. I love corn, especially fresh corn on the cob. I don’t eat it a lot but yes, in the summer, I could easily eat 3 or 4 ears of fresh corn all by my lonesome. :-) Dental floss on standby. lol

I don’t think about it. I just gobble it down. There are these Peruvian women that sell these huge ears of roasted corn at certain times of the year in front of the local Safeway. There’s also ladies hawking tamales there. The corn is slathered in butter then wrapped in foil. It’s hot, messy to eat, but damned delicious.

Yep. Twas fair food. I had a roasted ear of corn, slathered with butter. Yum yum!

I cut the corn off the cob with a knife. It’s a habit from my days of wearing braces, and now it’s convenient because the kernels don’t get stuck in my teeth like when I eat it off the cob. I also find that the noise people make when eating corn on the cob is really annoying to me. It’s kind of a crunch, crunch, crunch. Eating it cut off the cob is noiseless.

Corn is a vegetable on my plate.
And yes, I try to have a vegetable with a meal, hot or cold.

I don’t really give it a whole lot of analytical thought. If I feel like eating corn, I do and I’m not obsessive about “balancing” my plate.

I mostly eat corn when it’s fresh and in season. Oh, and there’s a chunky soup version of corn and chicken chowder and it’s delicious. Sometimes that’s my entire lunch or dinner.

Nothin but fingers for this food!

I don’t think about “balancing” my plate either. Guess I never gave much thought to it when the kids were growing up either. I just fed ‘em when they were hungry. The only thing I can say is and I virtually never had chips, cookies, desserts or other kinds of junk around the house.

It’s a starchy vegetable, so are peas, parsnips, potatoes, pumpkin, squash, zucchini, yams. List came from search engine. I would not have called pumpkin and squash starchy.

Starch is good. We need the sugar that the body metabolizes from it.

^^We need as much sugar as we need, and then the extra that can’t be used is stored as glycogen, and when that storage is full the rest goes to fat for storage.

True, sugars are important, they not only are extremely important for physical activity, but also our nervous system. What does all of that have to do with whether you consider it a vegetable on your plate? This Q isn’t a lecture on whether people should eat carbs or not.

For the record I consider corn a starchy vegetable. I do think in terms of it mostly being a starch though. A starch with some fiber.

Funny, yesterday my husband described corn in the cob as a fruit. I don’t know if he actually thinks of it as a fruit, or if his sentence just came out that way. I was asking him about some Spanish translation, because Spanish has two words for corn. One that means corn like corn kernels or corn on the cob, and that is used to describe corn dough or corn tacos.

I don’t think anyone was taking issue with corn being called a “vegetable,” were they? And if there was a debate on “carbs,” I missed that too.