Starch And Protein In A Healthy Diet

Eat Only Moderate Amounts of Starch and Protein

It is beneficial to eat smaller amounts of starchy foods and whole protein (meat, fish, eggs and milk) than most people do to make your diet healthy. This may require a great shift in thinking.

Many of us are used to a large portion of potato or rice, and a chunk of meat or other protein in our diet. This is ok now and again, but is really not healthy as a daily part of our diet. This approach is common because, in the past, priority was given to getting enough protein and starch to provide calories to keep healthy.

Getting Sufficient Protein And Starch
Getting enough protein and starch in the diet is really not an issue for 99% of people. In fact, sufficient protein and starch (and calories) for our needs are easily available in the diet if these foods comprise 20-50% of the diet. Even 50% is probably too much - try and get nearere 25% in your healthy diet.

It is a big problem in our Western society is that we are getting too much protein and too many calories in our diet. Clearly this is not healthy, as reflected in the high level of excess weight and obesity in much of the Western world.

Nearly half of the UK population are overweight, and almost half of these are obese. Figures for the US are a little higher. Interestingly, although Germany's rate is near to that of the UK, France's obesity rate is much lower than that of the UK.

We all know obesity is not healthy, leading to raised incidence of various diseases, not least heart disease and arterial disease, common causes of death. Another issue is diabetes which is rising dramatically and which is, together with obesity, hypertension and heart disease part of the 'Syndrome X' which we are hearing so much of today. Syndrome X, or metabolic syndrome, is very much related to diet.

Another ailment related to a poor balance of dietary intake, is the high level of osteoporosis in the West.This is closely related to excessive dietary protein.

A further disadvantage of eating a lot of starch and protein is that they easily fill up the stomach. The protein they contain is valuable for health - in moderation - but there are relatively few vitamins, minerals and trace elements in these foods compared, ounce for ounce, with vegetables and fruit. They are thereful less healthy. Where a lot of protein and starch are eaten, there is less appetite for the more healthy and nourishing vegetables and fruit in the diet.

The answer is to eat starch in smaller amounts in your healthy diet; and to greatly reduce the amount of meat, fish, and dairy foods and eggs in the diet.


Starchy Foods In Your Healthy Diet
For nearly everyone, it is healthy to leave as many nutrients as possible in the food in our diet.. In the case of salad vegetables, we can eat them raw - so that's quite easy. With potatoes, though, this is not possible. But one thing we can do with potatoes is to leave the peel on. The peel is a good source of nutrients, and should just be scrubbed. Remember to cut down on the amount of potatoes in the diet, though, to be healthy.

Similarly with rice, the outer part of brown rice contains B vitamins and valuable amounts of other nutrients, whereas the main part of it is pure protein and starch. The picture is the same with wheat, so wholemeal bread has a few healthy minerals but, again, is mainly starch. It is certainly better than white bread, but still not very healthy compared to fruit and vegetables. For your healthy diet, cut down on the amounts of rice and bread in any case.

Refined starches - white rice, peeled potatoes and white bread, for example - are not worth eating from the point of view of the nourishment they contain. To digest such nutrient-poor foods, nutrients already stored in the body are 'robbed'. Such foods deplete the body's stores of vital nutrients, but return virtually nothing to those stores after they have been digested. Leave these foods out of your healthy diet!


Healthy Starch Sources For Your Diet
Whole grains and pulses (the bean family) are good sources of starch - though they should be eaten in moderation in a healthy diet.. These foods also contain a proportion of protein. Whole wheat grain can be found at health food shops. It can be soaked overnight and simmered in water, or it can be sprouted in the same way as other seeds are sprouted. Brown rice is also a healthy source of starch, and accompanies bean dishes well.

Bread is made from powdered wheat and, as such, is probably less healthy than whole grains. It is best used only occasionally in a healthy diet.

Remember, these starches should provide only a small part of your diet to be the most healthy.

Athletes And Manual Workers - Exceptions To The Rule
If a large amount of energy is expended every day, for example, for concentrated manual work, or athletic exercise, then the requirement for calories in your diet will be much higher than for the majority of people to keep healthy. Extra starch and protein will be needed to provide these extra calories.

Whole grains, which are a combination of starch and protein, are a good source of the extra calories and protein required. If the extra calories are obtained from meat in the diet, there is a tendency to put on weight, unless the body type is such that it can digest the extra fat which is contained in meat. If the same amount of calories are eaten in the diet as are expended in work and exercise, body weight should stay balanced.

Moderation
We should be moderate in our starch consumption - for most people, we should consume less than we are at present in our diet. It can help to use the following guide: reduce the amount of potato or rice on your plate, and double the amount of vegetables. Or reduce the amount of bread and the protein content of a sandwich, and treble the amount of the salad content. This guidelines will make your diet more and more healthy and will soon become habit.

The next page summarises our Healthy Diet

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