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Comment by mrfusion | Hacker News Reader

Could we use it as a diet food if it’s indigestible?

You aren't going to get thin eating corn chips. That combination of fat and high glycemic carbohydrate is one of the worst.

The corn in corn chips has undergone nixtamalization, which makes more of the nutrients available to humans.

As others have commented, no. 2 yellow field corn can be ground into cornmeal, and even without nixtamalization, it is certainly digestible by humans, it's just that nixtamalization makes important nutrients like niacin available.

Sorry, it has not.[0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_chip

Thanks for the clarification. FWIW I was interpreting "corn chip" to mean a tortilla chip, but yep, you're right.

I think it's the lack of nixtamalization that makes cornbread so nice and gritty and corn chips so nice and crunchy. Try Ottofile dent, if you can find it or grow it.

Dietary fat does not contribute to weight gain any more than any other macronutrient. This long lived myth needs to die. Similarly dietary cholesterol also likely does not contribute significantly to blood levels.

Fat combined with refined carbohydrates produces a strong insulin reaction, which directly results in fat deposition. This is not a myth. [0]

I agree with you in that fat, by itself, does not promote weight gain. It's the combination that does.

[0] https://smile.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-About-ebook/dp/B003W...

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