Skip to main content

Starches are not healthy!

I haven't got much time to write anything today, so I think I will just continue the theme of the last couple of posts thinking about low carb diets and what really constitutes a healthy diet.
I saw this post the other day which ties together the low carb/healthy eating threads with that about "science" and the need to think critically about what you are told.

This is Dr John Briffa talking about the dangers of promoting a starch based diet.

Well, if we’re going to recommend starch on the basis of their nutritional content, let’s perhaps look a bit more closely at this. For a start, most starchy carbs are actually really quite un-nutritious [1] when compared to other foodstuffs such as fruit and veg. While the starchy carbs advocated by the FSA are called food, they are actually better described as fodder.

If we’re going to recommend foods on the basis of nutrients such as iron and B-vitamins, then why not advocate meat, which contains these nutrients in abundance? And is it not possible to get our fibre from fruit of veg? (Of course it is).

But remember, it’s not just the lack of nutritional value of many starch carbs that gets my goat, but also their apparent capacity to cause chronic disease and probably shorten life. And yet the FSA continues to promote these foods as ‘healthy’!


Mark Sisson recently made the same points:

The Best Way to Get Diabetes: Follow the Diabetes Dietary Guidelines



If you want to understand diabetes, Sisson's post here is a great place to start.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Dry January

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was taking part in "Dry January".  I didn't make a big song and dance about it, but I decided to go for a calendar month or so with no alcohol.  A few people have asked me about my experience, so here are a few points. Why take a break from drinking? Alcohol is an interesting topic.  As a drug it is widely accepted in society, central to so much of our socialising and leisure.  There seem to be lots of health benefits - so we are told - yet there are also a lot of problems in terms of health, relationships and lifestyle that come from drinking. Over a few years I'd begun to become aware and then concerned that I was drinking too much and too regularly.  I am in a busy and stressful job and sometimes a glass of wine after work to relax is really helpful.  But over time, one glass became two.  Two glasses became ....I might as well finish the bottle.  A habit got established....and was starting to get too e...

So where have I been?

You will have noticed that this blog has been quiet for a while....  There are a few reasons for that, reasons that I thought I'd list here: WORK -  my day job has been incredibly busy and stressful this year. Working 10-14 hour days the last thing on my mind when I got home was putting something on here.  FACEBOOK/TWITTER - I suppose I've been using other channels to do some of what I used to do here. Quick fire posts pointing to interesting studies or news etc tend to get posted to Twitter (@chrishighcock) or to the Facebook Hillfit group http://www.facebook.com/groups/263083947097000/  REASSESSMENT - I've found myself less comfortable with some of the positions I've taken in the past. Sometimes I'm embarrassed by some of the things I've promoted. I'm not Paleo or low carb. I think Tabata and intervals are misunderstood and misapplied. I cannot really claim to be HIT.   I find myselfunable  honestly to post things on here and pretend that I am some sort o...

Taking up space for a brief update

I've a couple of posts in draft that I will get up soon -  an update / reflection on Dry January and some thoughts on the scheduling benefits of short workouts if your life is busy.  Before that though, I am pointing to something else. However, I wanted to highlight something that is coming this weekend that I've been involved in.   Amber Rogers (Gokaleo and author of Taking Up Space ) has been pulling together a bundle of books from various authors with a common theme, one that I've been pushing here recently.   Keep it simple, avoid the hype, be patient, be consistent and flee the gurus.   I've talked before about how we get obsessed with pushing for more and more, when enough is OK.  I've given my view that so much of the health and fitness internet world is more like a gnostic religion than something that will benefit your life. There are other voices out there saying similar things and I'll be pointing to a bundle of books later this week ...