Is Corn Healthy? 99 Calories an Ear, and the Can Adds the Salt
A medium ear of boiled sweet corn is 99 calories, with 2.5 g of fibre and almost no sodium. That is the case for corn: a whole-grain vegetable at under 100 calories a portion. What changes the answer is the form it arrives in. A cup of canned corn carries 336 mg of sodium, a cup of cream-style corn is 184 calories, and salting the cooking water puts 261 mg into a single ear.
- Boiled ear, medium
- 103 g · 99 kcal
- Fibre per ear
- 2.5 g
- Canned, per cup
- 336 mg sodium
Corn by form: every USDA portion that matters
| Form | Record | Per 100 g | Portion | Weight | Calories | Fibre | Sodium |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boiled, no salt | FDC 169999 | 96 kcal | medium ear | 103 g | 99 | 2.5 g | 1 mg |
| Boiled, no salt | FDC 169999 | 96 kcal | large ear | 118 g | 113 | 2.8 g | 1 mg |
| Boiled, no salt | FDC 169999 | 96 kcal | 1 cup, cut | 149 g | 143 | 3.6 g | 1 mg |
| Boiled, salted water | FDC 168525 | 96 kcal | medium ear | 103 g | 99 | 2.5 g | 261 mg |
| Raw | FDC 169998 | 86 kcal | medium ear | 102 g | 88 | 2.0 g | 15 mg |
| Canned, drained | FDC 169214 | 67 kcal | 1 cup | 164 g | 110 | 3.3 g | 336 mg |
| Canned, drained and rinsed | FDC 168397 | 64 kcal | 1 cup | 150 g | 96 | 2.6 g | 244 mg |
| Canned, cream style | FDC 169215 | 72 kcal | 1 cup | 256 g | 184 | 3.1 g | 668 mg |
| Frozen kernels, boiled | FDC 168399 | 81 kcal | 1 cup | 165 g | 134 | 4.0 g | 2 mg |
| Popcorn, air-popped | FDC 167959 | 387 kcal | 1 cup | 8 g | 31 | 1.2 g | 1 mg |
What an ear of corn gives you
Boiled sweet corn carries 2.4 g of fibre, 3.4 g of protein and 218 mg of potassium per 100 g, and 906 µg of lutein and zeaxanthin, the two carotenoids concentrated in the eye’s macula. A medium ear weighs 103 g, so it delivers slightly more than those per-100 g figures for 99 calories, and none of it depends on cooking method as long as nothing is added.
The starch is real: a cup of boiled kernels is 31 g of carbohydrate. That is the part of the Healthline and Cleveland Clinic disagreement worth knowing about, and it is a portion question rather than a verdict on the vegetable.
Where corn stops being the healthy version
Three things move the numbers, and none of them is the corn. Salting the cooking water takes an ear from 1 mg of sodium to 261 mg. Canning adds salt to the brine: a drained cup is 336 mg, and a rinsed cup in a separate USDA sample set is 244 mg. Cream-style corn is 184 calories and 668 mg of sodium a cup, because it is corn in a thickened sauce. No-salt-added cream-style corn is 8 mg a cup and no-salt vacuum-packed kernels 6 mg.
Butter is the usual fourth. A tablespoon of salted butter is 102 calories (FDC 173410), which more than doubles a medium ear.
Is corn better for you than rice?
Cup for cup, boiled corn is 143 calories with 3.6 g of fibre; cooked long-grain white rice is 205 calories with 0.6 g (FDC 168878). Corn is the lower-calorie, higher-fibre side on both counts.
Popcorn is corn too
Air-popped popcorn is whole-grain corn with the water taken out: 387 calories per 100 g but only 31 per cup, because a cup weighs 8 g. It carries 14.5 g of fibre per 100 g, the densest source on this page.
Tracking corn without guessing the ear
USDA’s own ear sizes disagree between records: a small ear is 73 g raw but 89 g boiled, and a large ear is 143 g raw but 118 g boiled. That spread is why a photographed plate is a better record than a looked-up “one ear”. PlateLens logs corn from a photo or a typed description such as “one ear, boiled, with butter”, and its calorie estimates have been checked twice: ±1.1% error on 180 weighed meals by the Dietary Assessment Initiative, then reproduced by the open-source Foodvision Bench on another 231.
The short version
- Medium ear, boiled: 99 calories, 2.5 g fibre, 1 mg sodium.
- Cup of canned, drained: 110 calories and 336 mg sodium.
- Cup of cream-style: 184 calories and 668 mg sodium.
- Against white rice: fewer calories and about six times the fibre per cup.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is corn healthy?
Plain corn is a whole-grain vegetable: a medium ear of boiled sweet corn is 99 calories with 2.5 g of fibre and 1 mg of sodium, per USDA FDC 169999. The form changes that: a cup of canned corn carries 336 mg of sodium and a cup of cream-style corn is 184 calories.
How many calories are in an ear of corn?
A medium ear of boiled sweet corn is 99 calories at 103 g, a large ear 113 calories and a small ear 85. A medium raw ear is 88 calories at 102 g.
Is corn good for weight loss?
At 99 calories and 2.5 g of fibre a medium ear, plain corn is a moderate-calorie side. What moves it is what goes on it: a tablespoon of butter adds 102 calories.
Is corn better for you than rice?
Per cup, boiled corn is 143 calories with 3.6 g of fibre, and cooked white rice is 205 calories with 0.6 g. Corn is lower in calories and about six times higher in fibre.
Is canned corn healthy?
Canned corn keeps the fibre but adds salt: a drained cup is 110 calories and 336 mg of sodium. A rinsed cup in a separate USDA sample set was 244 mg, and no-salt vacuum-packed corn is 6 mg a cup.
What's the easiest accurate way to log corn?
PlateLens logs corn from a photo or a sentence such as "one large ear, boiled, with butter", sizing the ear and the butter from what is on the plate; "it was a small ear" corrects it. With a database you choose the ear's size yourself, and small, medium and large boiled ears come to 85, 99 and 113 kcal before the butter. PlateLens was measured on plates as served: in a validation study it published, the Dietary Assessment Initiative put the calorie error at ±1.1% against 180 weighed meals, and the open-source Foodvision Bench confirmed it on 231 more on its public GitHub leaderboard.
Where these numbers come from
- USDA FoodData Central records retrieved on 23 September 2026. Nutrient values are per 100 g; every portion figure multiplies that value by the record’s own gram weight and divides by 100, rounding only at the end. Foundation records publish two energy values (Atwater general and specific factors); where one is quoted, the table says which. Retrieval confirms the published record, not a new laboratory analysis.
- FDC 169999 and FDC 168525: sweet yellow corn, boiled, without and with salt. FDC 169998: raw. FDC 169214, FDC 168397, FDC 169215: canned drained, drained and rinsed, cream style. FDC 168399: frozen kernels, boiled. FDC 167959: popcorn, air-popped. FDC 173410: butter, salted. FDC 168878: white rice, cooked.
- The drained and the drained-and-rinsed canned corn figures come from separate USDA sample sets, not from rinsing the same can.