The Nutrition Of Stone Ground Corn

Cornmeal is the ground corn kernel, much like flour is the result of ground wheat. Stone grinding is a process that retains nearly the entire grain of corn rather than other types of milling that discard nutritious parts of the kernel to extend shelf life. Stone-milled is also called water-milled on cornmeal packaging because water is the energy source that propels the stone mill's movement. The nutritional value of whole-grain cornmeal offers you significant nutrients that you can benefit from in cornbread, polenta, grits, fish and meat coating and in combination with flour in pancakes and savory bread products.

Calories

The calorie content in cornmeal is relatively high -- 442 calories per cup, which is 20 percent of a standard 2,000-calorie diet. While many foods in the diet may be fat-based, or provide empty, nutritionally devoid energy sources, cornmeal offers an abundance of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients, which help justify its significant energy composition. In other words, sometimes consuming foods that provide a lot of calories is good for you, and whole-grain cornmeal falls into this category.

Protein

The grains in the diet usually offer you protein, but the level is generally lower compared to meats, legumes and other "protein" foods. In the case of whole-grain cornmeal, however, it carries its weight in the protein category, offering you 9.9 grams per cup, which is about half the amount available in a serving of steak, and equivalent to a serving of some types of fish. If you want to consume a complete protein in one meal, prepare a cornmeal dish alongside beans, which offers your body all of the dietary amino acids necessary for building enzymes, tissue and repairing organs in the body.

Fat

Fat in the diet is the source of the highest amount of calories -- 9 calories per gram of fat. But with regard to weight gain, a calorie is a calorie and the amount of fat is only significant when considering the amount of saturated fat a food contains. Stone-milled cornmeal gives you only .6 grams, which is 3 percent of the 20 grams the American Dietetic Association recommends you limit your intake to each day.

Carbohydrates

The human body's primary source of energy is complex carbohydrates. They give you glucose. A cup of cornmeal offers you 93.8 grams of carbohydrates, nearly one-third of the 300 grams the American Dietetic Association recommends you consume each day. Consuming a meal that includes stone-milled cornmeal within 24 hours before an athletic event or as a regular component of a physical-performance-enhancing diet is beneficial to sports and exercise.

Potassium

The cornmeal contribution to your body's 3,500-milligram potassium ADA requirement is 350 milligrams, or 10 percent of the total. In the U.S. where heart disease is the No. 1 fatal health condition, deriving enough potassium is essential because it regulates the heartbeat, preventing arrhythmias, and balances the fluid level in the blood, a contributing factor to blood pressure.

Lutein

Lutein and zeaxanthin are nutrients associated with eye health that also protects the human body's healthy cells from oxidation and DNA damage that precedes diseases development. The amount cornmeal provides is 1.7 milligrams per one cup serving. No real recommendations exist for this nutrient because health agencies do not consider it essential in the diet, but about 2 milligrams is considered supportive by the University of Maryland Medical Center. The agency also promotes zeaxanthin as a nutrient for preventing macular degeneration, the leading cause of age-related blindness in the United States.