actually, maize is not really deficent in tryptophan -- its just the amino acid is locked up, and can't be metabolized unless first treated. the most common way to treat it, is with an a (no dictionary handy and brain dead) a "Base" -- such as lye, (sodium hydroxide) or sodium bicarbonate, or the like.

homey or samp or the blue corn meal of the Hopi indians has all been treated this way.(untreated blue corn will turn yellow when cooked, to keep it blue, you must add a "base".)

Most of the american indians used wood ashes to treat the corn, and the idea of adding wood ashes was so foreign to europeans, they just didn't do it for years! (and then they tended to soak the corn in lye, to make hominy, rather than add wood ashes to a corn meal batter, and then use the batter to make corn cakes.)

Europeans persisted in trying to make corn bread with yeast, (and since corn does haven't a lot of gluten, and doesn't make the same kind of dough, it doesn't really work with yeast.) it wasn't till after the civil war, with commercial produced baking soda that "quick" corn pone as we now know it became popular. (i read a book about Corn a few months ago, and know more that any one could want about the subject!)

adding beans or meat to the diet will also work, but treated corn is the easiest way to increase the nutrition.


my other obsession