Prana Food | Corn

“A light wind swept over the corn, and all nature laughed in the sunshine.”

Anne Bronte

What food is more popular in summers than a freshly made corn on a cob?! Though most people don’t think of corn as a healthy-for-you vegetable, besides being delicious, it has a lot of health benefits too.

Corn is a low-fat complex carbohydrate and a good source of fiber, with only about 80 calories per medium ear, which deserves a regular place in a healthy diet. Corn also contains 2 important carotenoids, lutein and zeaxanthin, several vitamins including vitamin A, as well as folic acid, which prevents neural-tube birth defects. Corn supports eye health because of its vitamin A content and can help in preventing heart disease.

Its insoluble fiber can improve digestive problems such as constipation and hemorrhoids while its antioxidant properties can fight cancer-causing free radicals.

Corn also has a good content of protein and provides more vitamin A, calcium and phosphorous than rice.

Corn can help control diabetes, lower blood pressure and prevent anemia.

From an energetic point of view, corn has a lot of orange and green pranas and therefore is considered a cleansing vegetable. Both orange and green pranas have cleansing and de-congesting properties. Orange is diuretic and also helps in constipation.

Corn, being one of the most popular cereals in the world, forms the staple food in many countries including the US.

The kernels of corn hold the majority of its nutrients and are its most commonly consumed part. The kernels come in different colors depending on the species and where it is grown.

Sweet corn compared to traditional corn has more sugar and less starch. Sweet corn is often used fresh since the sugar in its kernels quickly converts to starch.

In general corn helps in:

1. Digestion – The high fiber content of corn aids in alleviating digestive problems including constipation. The orange prana in corn helps in stimulating bowel movement and therefore can improve constipation.

The fiber content of corn comes in the form of soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber turns into a gel-like substance that helps block cholesterol absorption while the insoluble one promotes soft and bulky stool that prevents intestinal problems.

Fiber helps to bulk up bowel movements and stimulates production of gastric juice. It also can add bulk to overly loose stools and therefore decreases the chances of irritable bowel syndrome.

Corn also can support the growth of friendly bacteria in large intestine that transform it into short chain of fatty acids, known as SCFAs, which can supply energy to intestinal cells. This in return lowers the risk of intestinal problems.

2. Improving Hemorrhoids – The fiber content of corn also helps with hemorrhoids. Insoluble fiber through speeding up the passage of food and waste through the intestines and keeping the stools soft by absorbing water, can reduce the risk of hemorrhoids. Green and orange prana because of their disintegrating and cleansing properties can break down the dirty congested energy around anus and improve hemorrhoids. Hemorrhoids ailment is basically caused by congestion and accumulation of dirty red energy in the anus area.

3. Preventing Cancer – Based on the studies of Cornell University, the antioxidant source of corn, can fight cancer-causing free radicals. Corn has a high content of a phenolic compound, called feulic acid that is shown effective in treating tumors that lead to breast and liver cancers.

Though not yet proven scientifically due to insufficient data, it is believed that corn being a whole-grain reduces the risk of colon cancer as well.

In fact green and orange color pranas can help in disintegrating cancer cells.

4. Improving Heart Ailments – Some researches show that corn oil has an anti-atherogenic effect on cholesterol levels that prevent various cardiovascular diseases. Corn is close to an optimal fatty acid combination, which allows omega-3 fatty acids to strip away the damaging bad cholesterol and replace them at the binding sites. These fatty acids together with green and orange pranas, which have disintegrating effect on the congested energies that cause blockages in the arteries, reduce the clogging of the arteries, lower the blood pressure and decrease the chances of heart attack and stroke.

Researches also show that lutein in corn, may help prevent the arteries to harden.

5. Lowering LDL Cholesterol – Based on the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, corn oil reduces the plasma LDL cholesterol level by lowering cholesterol absorption in the body. This reduction however, does not affect the HDL cholesterol level, which is considered beneficial in reducing heart disease and preventing atherosclerosis.

6. Having Good Vision – Yellow corn is high in beta-carotene that forms vitamin A in the body. Vitamin A is essential in maintaining a good vision as well as a good skin. The body converts beta-carotene to vitamin A, to a level that it requires. The excess amount of beta-carotene that is not yet converted to vitamin A, acts as a very strong antioxidant, which help the body to fight cancer and heart disease.

Lutein and zeaxanthin in corn also help reduce the risk of a chronic eye disease called macular degeneration. They can slow down the development of cataracts as well. Some scientists believe that these powerful antioxidants can protect the clear proteins in the lens from undergoing the oxidation process that makes them become cloudy.

7. Preventing Anemia – Since corn has vitamin B12 and folic acid, it is believed to prevent anemia caused by deficiency of these vitamins. Corn also contains a significant level of iron. Iron is an important mineral needed to form new red blood cells. Deficiency of iron is one of the main reasons behind anemia and corn through providing iron can prevent this ailment.

8. Controlling Hypertension – Corn is believed to be effective in fighting hypertension due to the presence of phenolic phytochemicals in it.

Green and orange pranas, through disintegrating and decongesting the dirty red energies in the body tend to unclog the arteries and reduce the blood pressure.

9. Preventing Diabetes – Adding corn into the diet can reduce the signs of diabetes. Phytochemicals in corn, can help regulating the absorption and releasing of insulin in the body and therefore reduce the sudden spikes and drops in blood sugar.

Furthermore sufficient fiber and protein content in corn helps to regulate food digestion and prevent too rapid or too slow digestion. As a result they prevent too rapid or too slow uptake of sugar from the digestive tract into the bloodstream.

10. Nerve Health – Corn has a rich content of vitamin B constituents. Thiamin is believed to be helpful in maintaining nerve health and cognitive function.

Green and Orange pranas because of their decongesting and disintegrating qualities in general help in cleansing and healing.

Although most of the facts mentioned above have scientific reasons behind them, these qualities are either directly or indirectly related to the qualities of orange and green pranas that are present in corn. The quality of all color pranas and their effects on the human body have been completely explained in Advanced Pranic Healing by Master Choa Kok Sui.

References

1. Master Choa Kok Sui. (2006). Advanced Pranic Healing. The Institute for Inner Studies Publishing Foundation, Inc.
2. Tan, M. M., & Tan, M. R.-G. (2008). Medicinal Fruits & Vegetables. Health Futures Foundation, Inc.
3. Sorour Aldin, M. (1971). The Great Medicine. Ataei Publications.
4. Fresh Sunshine Sweet Corn Council. (n.d.). Health Benefits of Corn. Retrieved from Sunshine Sweet Corn: http://sunshinesweetcorn.com/health-benefits-of-corn
5. The George Mateljan Foundation. (n.d.). Corn. Retrieved from The World’s Healthiest
6. Health Benefits of Corn. (2011). Retrieved from Organic Facts: https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/cereal/health-benefits-of-corn.html