If your digestion is touchy, carbs aren’t all the same. Some—like plain white rice—often feel almost invisible. Others, like large portions of corn, can leave your gut louder than any dessert. Understanding which carbs cause the most trouble for you can make a big difference in how your stomach feels day to day.
On our corn digestibility page, we give corn a 6/10 digestibility score and estimate a 2–3 hour digestion time. By comparison, white rice and Yukon Gold potatoes score higher and often feel calmer. Let’s look at how corn stacks up against the other everyday carbs on your plate.
Corn vs white rice
For many people with IBS or a sensitive gut, white rice is the gold standard calm carb. It’s low in fiber, low in fermentable carbs, and rarely shows up dramatically later.
- White rice: Very simple starch, no tough outer skins, and minimal residue. Often the first solid carb reintroduced after stomach bugs.
- Corn: Tougher outer shells and more fermentable material inside. More likely to create visible remnants and gas.
If you’re in a flare or just trying to calm things down, white rice nearly always beats corn for comfort.
Corn vs potatoes
Potatoes (especially Yukon Golds) are also in the “usually okay” category for many people, with a slightly higher digestibility score than corn on our site.
- Yukon Gold potatoes: Soft texture when cooked, moderate fiber, and no hard hulls. Often feel like a comforting carb when boiled or lightly roasted.
- Corn: Can be enjoyable, but the combination of hulls and fermentable contents makes it more likely to cause noise and visible pieces.
From a digestion-first standpoint, you can think of potatoes as a gentler step up from rice, and corn as a bit more intense than both.
Corn vs pasta
Pasta’s impact depends heavily on whether you’re sensitive to gluten and what you put on top of it.
- Wheat pasta: Can be gassy or bloating for people sensitive to gluten or wheat; sauces (tomato, garlic, cream) often cause more trouble than the pasta alone.
- Corn: For some gluten-sensitive people, plain corn can actually feel better than a big bowl of wheat pasta; for others, the hulls make corn feel more irritating.
If you know you react to wheat, corn might be the lesser evil. If wheat sits fine but corn always gives you gas, pasta in moderate portions could be a more reliable base—ideally with simpler sauces.
Corn vs bread
Bread tends to be more of a snacking and side‑dish carb, which makes portion control tricky.
- Bread: Easy to overeat, and sensitive guts may dislike the combination of gluten, yeast, and whatever spreads you use.
- Corn: Easier to visually portion (e.g., one cob, one side of kernels), but more likely to show up whole and create gas.
If you find that many small bread snacks bother you more than a single small serving of corn with a meal, you’re seeing how eating pattern matters as much as the carb itself.
Corn vs sweet potatoes
Sweet potatoes are more fibrous and have different sugars compared with white potatoes or corn.
- Sweet potatoes: Can be fantastic for some guts and too gas‑producing for others, especially in large portions.
- Corn: Often creates more visible remnants and a different pattern of gas, but your gut may see them as roughly similar in “intensity.”
If both sweet potatoes and corn are tricky, that’s a sign to lean harder on white rice or Yukon Golds as your default carbs until things stabilize.
A simple “carb ladder” using corn as your middle rung
To reduce guesswork, you can organize carbs roughly like this, from gentlest to most demanding for many sensitive guts:
- Very gentle: white rice, some forms of potatoes.
- Middle ground: Yukon Gold potatoes, smaller portions of corn, simple breads.
- More challenging: large portions of corn, heavier pastas and sauces, high‑fiber grains.
This matches how we score these foods on our site: corn’s 6/10 digestibility score puts it in that “middle” tier— not ideal during a flare, but potentially fine in small amounts when your gut is steadier.
Key takeaways: when to reach for corn and when to skip it
- For flare days, white rice and gentle potatoes beat corn almost every time.
- Corn can be okay as a small side on stable days, especially if you chew well and keep the rest of the meal simple.
- If gluten is an issue, corn may feel better than pasta or bread—if you’re careful with portions and prep.
- Your own symptoms are the tie‑breaker: if corn reliably causes more gas than the same amount of rice or potatoes, let that guide you.
For a more corn‑focused deep dive (including why it shows up in your stool and how to prep it for fewer issues), you may also like: Corn and Your Gut: Why This Everyday Carb Can Be So Noisy .