Corn Allergies and Sensitivities

Corn Sensitivity Food Guide

If you have a corn allergy or sensitivity and you need to avoid corn, one thing you HAVE to do is read the ingredients list on EVERYTHING you eat.

As someone who regularly works with corn allergy suffers, I’ve got to warn you…corn is everywhere! You can find corn in anything from medications to food to beauty products.

The hardest thing about finding corn on an ingredients list is that it is not always listed as simply as ‘corn’ – in fact, corn can be listed under many different names.

I have seen many patients who think they are avoiding corn and are still having allergy or sensitivity symptoms. As I look at what these patients are eating, I can usually find that there are foods, medications or supplements they are consuming that do in fact contain corn.

Upon removing these foods, these patients feel much better. Here is what is really important to understand: because corn is found in so many products, under a wide variety of names, it is very easy to ingest corn without knowing.

The list provided in this post contains ingredients and food items that may be derived from corn, the ingredients may also be derived from other sources. If you need to avoid corn, and these ingredients are listed in what you are eating, you need to call the food or drug manufacturer to ask if the ingredient in question is derived from corn. The list is not all inclusive, but it is very comprehensive – making it a good place to start.

If you’ve scanned the ridiculously long list below, you may be wondering WHY corn is EVERYWHERE. The truth is that corn is a super cheap material (largely because it is a genetically modified crop – more on that later) and it’s very versatile so it has a variety of uses.

Ingredients and food items that may be derived from corn*:

Acetic acid
Alcohol
Alpha tocopherol
Artificial flavorings
Artificial sweeteners
Ascorbates
Ascorbic acid
Astaxanthin
Baking powder
Barley malt
Bleached flour
Blended sugar (sugaridextrose)
Brown sugar
Calcium citrate
Calcium fumarate
Calcium gluconate
Calcium lactate
Calcium magnesium acetate (CMA)
Calcium stearate
Calcium stearoyl lactylate
Caramel and caramel color
Carbonmethylcellulose sodium
Cellulose microcrystalline
Cellulose, methyl
Cellulose, powdered
Cetearyl glucoside
Choline chloride
Citric acid
Citrus cloud emulsion (CCS)
Coco glycerides cocoglycerides
Confectioners sugar
Corn alcohol, corn gluten
Corn extract
Corn flour
Corn oil, corn oil margarine
Corn starch
Corn sweetener, corn sugar
Corn syrup, corn syrup solids
Corn, popcorn, cornmeal
Cornstarch, cornflour
Crosscarmellose sodium
Crystalline dextrose
Crystalline fructose
Cyclodextrin
Decyl glucoside
Decyl polyglucose
Dextrin
Dextrose (found in IV solutions)
Dextrose anything (such as monohydrate or anhydrous)
d-Gluconic acid
Distilled white vinegar
Drying agent
Erythorbic acid
Erythritol
Ethanol
Ethocel 20
Ethylcellulose
Ethylene
Ethyl acetate
Ethyl alcohol
Ethyl lactate
Ethyl maltol
Fibersol-2
Flavorings
Food starch
Fructose
Fruit juice concentrate
Fumaric acid
Germ/germ meal
Gluconate
Gluconic acid
Glucono delta-lactone
Gluconolactone
Glucosamine
Glucose
Glucose syrup (also found in IV solutions)
Glutamate
Gluten
Gluten feed/meal
Glycerides
Glycerin
Glycerol
Golden syrup
Grits
High fructose corn syrup
Hominy
Honey
Hydrolyzed corn
Hydrolyzed corn protein
Hydrolyzed vegetable protein
Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose
Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose pthalate -HPMCP
Inositol
Invert syrup or Invert sugar
Iodized salt
Lactate
Lactic acid
Lauryl glucoside
Lecithin
Linoleic acid
Lysine
Magnesium fumarate
Maize
Malic acid
Malonic acid
Malt syrup from corn (barley malt ok)
Malt, malt extract
Maltitol
Maltodextrin
Maltol
Maltose
Mannitol
Methyl gluceth
Methyl glucose
Methyl glucoside
Methylcellulose
Microcrystaline cellulose
Modified cellulose gum
Modified corn starch
Modified food starch
Molasses (corn syrup may be present; know your foods)
Mono and di glycerides
Monosodium glutamate
MSG
Natural flavorings
Olestra/Olean
Polenta
Polydextrose
Polylactic acid (PLA)
Polysorbates (e.g. Polysorbate 80)
Polyvinyl acetate
Potassium citrate
Potassium fumarate
Potassium gluconate
Powdered sugar
Pregelatinized starch
Propionic acid
Propylene glycol
Propylene glycol monostearate
Saccharin
Salt (iodized salt)
Semolina (unless from wheat)
Simethicone
Sodium carboxymethylcellulose
Sodium citrate
Sodium erythorbate
Sodium fumarate
Sodium lactate
Sodium starch glycolate
Sodium stearoyl fumarate
Sorbate
Sorbic acid
Sorbitan
Sorbitan monooleate
Sorbitan tri-oleate
Sorbitol
Sorghum (syrup /grain can be mixed with corn)
Starch (any kind not specified)
Stearic acid
Stearoyls
Sucrose
Sugar (not identified as
cane or beet)
Threonine
Tocopherol (vitamin E)
Treacle (aka golden syrup)
Triethyl citrate
Unmodified starch
Vanilla, natural flavoring
Vanilla, pure or extract
Vanillin
Vegetable anything not specific
Vinegar, distilled white
Vinyl acetate
Vitamin C and Vitamin E
Vitamins
Xanthan gum
Xylitol
Yeast
Zea mays
Zein

If this list has you feeling overwhelmed, there are three things you can do to make this process less of a chore:

1. Meet with a registered dietitian (who specializes in food allergies or sensitivities) for additional guidance and support. I design personalized grocery store tours for my patients, and the ones on restricted diets find the tours to be very helpful. Why spend two or three hours perusing grocery store shelves if there is an expert who can guide you along on a tour?
2. Clean up your diet. Many of the ingredients derived from corn are found in processed foods. If you can take these out of your diet….voila! There goes a lot of the corn you were consuming. Getting rid of processed foods also means less label reading – because whole foods (or foods that come from the earth and are minimally processed at best) will not contain added ingredients. When trying to consume more whole foods, think in the direction of fruits, veggies, whole grains and high quality meat and poultry. Speaking of high quality meat – if you are sensitive to or allergic to corn, it may help to alleviate symptoms if you consume meat from grass-fed cows. Many cows are fed corn, and it is possible for someone who is highly sensitive to corn to react to beef from a corn fed cow.
3. Do not forget to check your medications and supplements. NEVER stop taking a prescription  medication without your doctor’s permission. If you are taking any type of medication with corn, you may be able to have it compounded at your local compounding pharmacy. When a medication is compounded, the offending ingredient (in this case corn) is removed. This can be expensive, so be sure to check with the pharmacy on the pricing of the compounded medication to make sure it fits in your budget. Your doctor may also be able to prescribe a similar medication that is manufactured corn free. Oh…and here’s a (not so) fun fact – vitamin C is almost ALWAYS derived from corn! So if you have a corn allergy, and take a multivitamin, or a vitamin C supplement, you could be ingesting corn.

*This might make things easier for some of you – it’s my personal opinion based on my clinical experience – if you need to avoid corn and it is in your beauty products and you do NOT have skin issues, it may not be an issue for you when applied to the skin. However, I would encourage everyone who has been diagnosed with an allergy to sensitivity to corn to be really intentional about not ingesting corn.

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