Corn, beans, and squash form a nutritionally complete human diet

Evidence

The genius of the Three Sisters lies not only in the process by which they grow, but also in the complementarity of the three species on the kitchen table. They taste good together, and the Three Sisters also form a nutritional triad that can sustain a people. Corn, in all its guises, is a superb form of starch. All summer, the corn turns sunshine into carbohydrate, so that all winter, people can have food energy. But a human cannot subsist on corn alone; it is not nutritionally complete. Just as the bean complements the corn in the garden, it collaborates in the diet as well. By virtue of their nitrogen-fixing capacity, beans are high in protein and fill in the nutritional gaps left by corn. A person can live well on a diet of beans and corn; neither alone would suffice. But neither beans nor corn have the vitamins that squash provide in their carotene-rich flesh. Together, they are once again greater than alone. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 481

Categorization

• XREF: Directly supports the polyad: the Three Sisters garden as a vegetarian-complete food system is the hinge example linking Indigenous food-ways (Eco-Justice), plant/place relations (Reading the Landscape), and land ethics. — connects to: Corn, bean, and squash genuinely support one another in complementary ways — , A Year of World Stories, 9716; Garden food arises from human-plant partnership where each supplies what the other cannot — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 444; Cooking maize is essential to release its nutrients. — Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects, 180
• SHARE: A full-protein, vitamin-complete pairing rooted in one ecosystem — send to anyone teaching nutrition or doing food-security work.

Broader Connections

• Corn, bean, and squash genuinely support one another in complementary ways #corroborates (0.95) — , A Year of World Stories, 9716
• Cooking maize is essential to release its nutrients. #qualifies (0.80) — Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects, 180
• Garden food arises from human-plant partnership where each supplies what the other cannot #expands (0.75) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 444