CHAPTER 6
Starches
Remember high-school biology? In the segment on photosynthesis, we all learned how plants use the energy they get from sunlight to produce glucose, which is stored in the form of starch. That makes starchy foods great energy sources for humans. In fact, starch is more or less the most basic carbohydrate in the human diet—a source of quick, sustained energy. Rice, wheat, corn, barley, quinoa, oats, millet and potatoes are eaten around the world, ingredients of the most basic foods of every culture, from Mediterranean flatbread and Mexican tortillas to a coarse rye bread or a slender French baguette, Moroccan couscous to Asian rice.
For our purposes—losing weight and preventing or managing diabetes—the starchy foods on the Beat Diabetes Pyramid offer the gift of fiber, an important benefit, and one of the Four Phenoms for beating the killer disease. You remember the reasons. First of all, fiber is filling—a big plus for weight loss. But as you recall from Chapter 1, fiber offers even more diabetes-fighting power. It helps maintain insulin levels by slowing the absorption of sugar into the bloodstream. It lowers blood pressure and reduces total and LDL cholesterol and triglyceride counts, thus in turn reducing the risk of heart disease, a key complication of the disease.
In fact, as we also said back in Chapter 1, fiber is the one nutrient in the fight against diabetes to which we can actually assign a recommended daily amount to consume: at least 25 to 30 grams—easy to get if you follow the Pyramid guidelines and get your fiber from a range of sources, enjoying a range of tastes and textures in a varied eating plan.
The reason starches occupy a smaller rung than vegetables or the fiber-filled legumes of the protein rung is because they are not the most calorically economical way to get fiber. For the same amount of fiber as you would get in green beans, for example, a starch can cost you substantially more in calorie count. Or take a look at the demonstration featuring cauliflower on the next page.
CALORIE ECONOMICS
The whole-grain brown rice on the Beat Diabetes Pyramid offers more fiber for the same number of calories as the white rice, which, as a refined grain product, does not make it onto our Beat Diabetes Pyramid at all. But look at the vegetable, cauliflower; it achieves the same high fiber content at a much lower calorie count than even the whole-grain starch. That’s why starches are afforded a smaller rung on the Pyramid than vegetables.
Nevertheless, in a varied diet—and especially in their role as sideshow to the main courses of vegetable and protein—starches serve as excellent delivery mechanisms for getting part of your recommended daily hit of fiber and all its benefits.
And the best way to get the fiber benefit from starchy foods is through whole-grain products, light and high-fiber breads and such starchy vegetables as corn and sweet potatoes.
WHAT’S WHOLE ABOUT WHOLE GRAIN?
Why whole-grain products? The answer is simple: they’re the ones with the nutrients. In order to make the foods that derive from grains, the grains are put through a refining process that strips off the germ of the grain and its outer bran layer, leaving only the starchy part. Yet it is precisely in the germ and bran that the nutrients are found: B-complex vitamins, vitamin E and the fiber so important to weight loss and fighting diabetes. There is so little nutrition left in refined grain products that farmers report that even bugs die when trying to sustain themselves on it in silos.
The whole-grain products, therefore—brown rice rather than white, whole-grain pasta and polenta, whole-grain cereals and breads—are thus better for your health in general, and if you’re trying to lose weight and prevent or manage diabetes, their fiber content provides an extra benefit. So as you shop for grain products in the market—cereals, pastas, rice, bread—make sure you look for the whole-grain version (see the sidebar to know how to be sure). And in your favorite restaurant, make a point of stressing that whole-grain products are what you prefer to order.
THE HOLE IN WHOLE GRAIN
Whole grains! Harvest wheat! Organic! Natural! Healthy!
So proclaim the marketing banners sprawled across bread packages. But look closely. Whatever the size of the print, does the package really say “whole grain,” or does it just “contain” whole grains or come “with” whole grain?
There was a time when “whole grain” meant just that. But now, consumers need to beware the circumlocutions of marketing. Here’s the reality: unless the package clearly states “100 percent whole grain,” or unless a whole grain is the very first item listed in the ingredients list, it isn’t whole grain.
OTHER BREADS
Still, don’t feel that whole grain is the only bread you can eat when you’re trying to lose weight or fight diabetes. There are other options. You’ll find them in supermarkets under a range of labels: light breads, high-fiber breads and low-carb breads. Check out the photograph below to see something of the variety of these breads available.
Light breads have fewer calories than both whole-grain and refined bread—some 40 or 45 calories per slice versus 80 or 100—but they contain the same amount of fiber as whole grain and sometimes even more. The reason? To get the calories down, the manufacturers of these breads use fiber ingredients such as wheat bran, thus raising the fiber content while lowering the caloric impact.
CEREALS
Cereal presents another dilemma altogether—namely, the sheer number of choices. Walk down the cereal aisle of any supermarket today, and you will grow dizzy from the number and variety of breakfast possibilities. It can be downright confusing.
As with bread packages, beware the marketing slogans, and read the fine print. The package of a particular cereal may scream that it contains soy protein, omega-3s or fiber, promising that you can get the health-giving benefits of these components early and easily with just a quick bowl of the cereal. Turn the package around, however, to check the ingredients list, and you may find that in addition to protein, omega-3s and fiber, the cereal also contains a virtual truckload of sugar.
Here are three different types of cereal—refined, whole grain, and high fiber, including some of the very best-known brands. Each type has approximately the same number of calories in a cup—around 100 to 140. But note the stunning difference in fiber content.
The refined cereals—the Kellogg’s Corn Flakes and Rice Krispies that have fed generations of Americans—provide not quite a single gram of fiber in a cup.
Whole-grain cereals such as Wheaties and Cheerios do considerably better—3 to 4 grams. But their fiber content pales by comparison to the knockout fiber content of the high-fiber cereals such as Fiber One and All-Bran Extra Fiber. The latter provide a full day’s recommended fiber allotment in a single cup of breakfast cereal. That makes these cereals a real fiber bargain.
So how can you get past the slogans and taglines, not to mention the confusion, and choose a good cereal—one that will offer the fiber benefits you’re looking for without the infusion of sugar that afflicts so many commercial cereals? Here’s a simple guideline: look for a cereal that contains at least 3 grams of fiber per serving and no more than 6 grams of sugar per serving. Whatever else it may contain, if the cereal follows those two guidelines, it’s a good cereal for helping you lose weight and fight diabetes.
STARCHY VEGETABLES
If this were a contest, corn and sweet potatoes would beat out even whole-grain starches in terms of weight control and fighting diabetes. Certainly, these starchy vegetables have fewer calories and far more fiber than refined products; plus, they add the bonus of phytonutrients.
And while whole-grain and high-fiber breads are also great sources of fiber and phytonutrients, they’re less economical calorically than the vegetables.
But of course, this is not a contest. Instead, all three kinds of foods—whole grains, light or high-fiber or low-carb breads and starchy vegetables—are good ways for those trying to lose weight and fight diabetes to get their fiber.
CEREALS—ALL 1 CUP
THE STARCHY VEGETABLE ADVANTAGE
Here’s another look at the fiber advantage vegetables provide over refined starches. This portion of rice costs 440 calories and delivers less than 1 gram of fiber. Contrast it with this vegetable plate containing corn and baked sweet potato. The corn comes in at 90 calories with 3 grams of fiber, the potato at 100 calories with 4 grams of fiber. Total for the veggie plate: 190 calories, less than half of what the rice contains, and a full 7 grams of fiber.
2 cups of white rice
440 calories,
>1 gram fiber
|
Ear of corn |
90 calories |
3 grams fiber | ||
|
Baked sweet potato |
100 calories |
4 grams fiber | ||
|
TOTAL |
190 calories |
7 grams fiber |
BOTTOM LINE
But here’s the last word on the starches in the Beat Diabetes Pyramid: don’t rely on them as your sole or even main source of fiber. Instead, make them side dishes or accompaniments in a varied diet.
Above all, make sure your eating plan contains proportionally more of the two base rungs of the Pyramid—vegetables and protein—than of starches.