It is a myth that starchy foods like potatoes and rice are fattening.
It is true that potatoes and rice can be fattening if you add butter, sour cream, or oil, but not by themselves. Fats like oil or fats in butter are 9 calories per gram while the other two macronutrients of starches and proteins have less than half at 4 calories per gram. Starches and the carbohydrates they contain are healthy and not the villains they are made out to be.
The Form of the Starch
Consider the form the starches are in. Whole grains are lean but “refined” grains, which is a euphonism for “highly processed,” like wheat that is stripped of its nutrients and fiber, can be fattening, spike your blood sugar, and increase your craving for food. When fiber is removed and wheat is finely ground into flour or used in white bread it will do these things too. Healthy beets or sugar cane when processed into table sugar removing the fiber, vitamins and minerals become unhealthy in the same way. Interestingly, the same is true for olive oil where a natural fruit has all nutrients removed to leave only fattening oil.1,2
We Run on Starch
Carbohydrates in starch are the fuel, like gasoline in our cars, that our bodies are designed to run on. Their ideal form, which we evolved consuming, is in their whole form. With fiber intact in grains like wheat, barley, or oats, your blood sugar will be in balance and your satiety hormones like leptin will make you feel full.3 Fruit juice which has the pulp fiber removed is processed and can increase your blood sugar making you feel hungry while eating whole fruit actually lowers your blood sugar and is filling.4
Opt for Whole Food, Whole Grains, and Fiber
How do you know you are getting whole foods? Shop in the produce section and reduce buying prepared products. How do you know you are getting whole grain bread that is truly whole grain? Check the Nutritionfacts label to see if the ratio of fiber to calories is 5 to 1 or less.5 The American Heart Association recommends 25 to 30 grams of fiber per day from food, not supplements, but Americans average only half that at 15 grams a day.6 It is time to increase your intake of Whole Food Plant-Based food and overcome whole starch and fiber deficiency.
1. Blankenhorn DH, Johnson RL, Mack WJ, el Zein HA, Vailas LI. The influence of diet on the appearance of new lesions in human coronary arteries. JAMA. 1990 Mar 23-30;263(12):1646-52.
2. Felton CV, Crook D, Davies MJ, Oliver MF. Dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids and composition of human aortic plaques. Lancet. 1994 Oct 29;344(8931):1195-6.
3. Gogga P, Śliwińska A, Aleksandrowicz-Wrona E, Małgorzewicz S. Association between Different Types of Plant-based Diets and Leptin Levels in Healthy Volunteers. Acta Biochim Pol 66.1:77-82.
4. Törrönen R, Kolehmainen M, Sarkkinen E, Mykkänen H, Niskanen L. Postprandial glucose, insulin, and free fatty acid responses to sucrose consumed with blackcurrants and lingonberries in healthy women. Am J Clin Nutr. 2012;96(3):527–33.
5. Greger M, Stone G. How Not To Die. New York, NY: Flatiron Books; 2015:422.
6. Increasing Fiber Intake. UCSF Health. https://www.ucsfhealth.org/education/increasing-fiber-intake. Accessed August 5, 2020.
