Hi Patricia,
Fair enough, you’d like a more detailed answer. What led me to say that you have been misled by marketing information is because you said you’d learned it was an empty filler. From a nutritional standpoint a filler is something without nutritional benefit. Air, water and fiber would meet that definition, yet even fiber can have benefits for the colon. Corn supplies essential amino acids , essential fatty acids, vitamins, antioxidants, and energy and therefore it does not meet the definition of “filler”
I would respectively disagree with DFA that corn is only of marginal nutritional value. Certainly it is not a complete food and its primary value is being a source of energy but it has attributes that I believe elevate it from marginal status.
A place to dive deeper is to utilize Pub Med to read the original research on the use of corn as an ingredient in pet foods. This is a decent review article https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34078195/ but the true value is in mining the references and reading those supporting papers.
It has been years since I went through and read all the research on corn. As I recall, one of the unique features of corn is the amino acid profile that is relatively high in the essential sulfur containing amino acids. This may be important when formulating a controlled protein food yet need to meet essential amino acids.
In regards to modifying a diet for kidney patients, controlling phosphorus is key Protein is a source of phosphorus and my understanding is that when using plant based protein the phosphorus is less absorbable. This could be desired for a kidney patient.
For me corn is neither “good” or “bad” it just is… and like anything has pros and cons.
I’d also think that other factors weigh in as to what ingredients are chosen as a means to supply nutrients.
