Corn is an example of how sometimes humans need processed foods to thrive.
Processed foods, particularly those in the “ultra-processed“, are one of the most debated topics currently in the field of nutrition. Most people have an opinion about processed foods, and this opinion is not usually positive.
But saying that ultra-processed foods are necessarily bad is a simplistic way of looking at the issue. It is, says , the “biggest lie we were told” about these foods.
You don’t have to look far to find evidence that not only can processing be beneficial, it may have been crucial to our survival as a species.
Corn, depending on how it is processed, gives rise to a wide range of foods with different textures and flavors. If we simply dry corn and grind it, just as we do with wheat, we get corn flour, often used as a thickening agent in bunches. On the other hand, grinding the grains coarsely results in cornmeal or polenta.
The corn tortilla, however, is not made from corn flour, but rather from “masa harina“. Although both are flours produced from corn, masa harina is ground from corn kernels that have been previously processed by soaking in lime — not the fruit, but rather a solution of calcium hydroxidea mineral.
The alkalinity of the lime helps to dissolve the hemicellulosethe main component of corn cell walls, loosens the husks of the kernels, softening the corn, and the resulting product is ground into a dough to create the fresh dough used to make tortillas and tamales.
This process is called “nixtamalization“.The process plays a crucial role in releasing the full nutritional potential of corn.
Corn is particularly rich in niacinalso known as vitamin B3. But, without processing, this nutrient is not chemically available to the human digestive system and passes directly through our body.
So, if the cereals you consumed were mainly corn, you could end up with a niacin deficiency, resulting in a disease called pelagra. It is a disease characterized by diarrhea, dementia and rashes on the hands and feet. If left untreated, it is lethal.
Processing corn by soaking it in an alkaline solution releases niacin, making it available to the human body during digestion. Throughout the 10 thousand years Since corn was domesticated, indigenous Mexicans have developed this technique that has made this food much more nutritious, and pellagra has never been a problem.
However, a problem arose after the arrival of Europeans in the Americas, who quickly incorporated corn into their diet. None of the newly arrived immigrants knew how to process corn through nixtamalization — or, if they did, they did not understand the importance of this process.
For most non-Indian Americans, the unavailability of niacin in corn was not a problem since it was present in other food sources such as meat and other cereals.
However, maize was cheap and easy to grow, so it eventually became a staple food for people in poverty, causing a sharp increase in the incidence of pellagra among the most disadvantaged.
Only in the mid-1990s 1930 and at the beginning of the decade of It was not until 1940 that pellagra was recognized as a disease resulting from niacin deficiency and was eventually eradicated through the fortification of cereals and flour.
This is an example of how food processing was fundamental to our abilityas a species, to survive and thrive, ensuring we have a predictable source of calories despite seasonal variations in the availability of fresh food and protecting us against environmental crises.
