The corn that comes in a can says it is “whole corn”. I noticed that Sun Chips also say they are made from “whole corn”. Meanwhile tortilla chips say they are made from “ground corn” or sometimes “stone ground corn”.
Is there any meaningful nutritional difference between these various corns? There is a difference between wheat and whole wheat but I don’t know if that applies to corn too.
Whole grains take longer to digest but I’m not sure there’s a meaningful difference with something like Sun Chips. Tortilla chips are made with maize flour it’s more processed like all purpose flour but it also goes through a process called nixtamalization which makes it more alkaline. With any grain the “healthiest” choice is the least processed like getting stone cut oats instead of rolled or instant. So for corn that would just be your literal can or ear of corn.
Corn does have different breeds (popcorn, sweet corn, and dent/flint corn). Popcorn is of course Popcorn, while sweet corn is for eating and dent/flint corn is for grinding into cornmeal for chips and such. The grinding of the corn doesn’t effect its nutritional value the same way as stripping the bran off of wheat or rice does. I would be more concerned about “modified” corn.