Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2023 January 29

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January 29

starchy veggies and fruits

Why do some organisations recommend against starchy veggies and fruits and to choose non starchy veggies and fruits are starchy veggies and fruits bad for you? 118.208.151.223 (talk) 05:06, 29 January 2023 (UTC)

Which organizations? Have you read Starch#Food? Shantavira|^{feed me} 09:46, 29 January 2023 (UTC)

Too much of anything is bad for you. A healthy diet will contain both starchy veggies (including beans) and starchy fruits. There is nothing wrong with that; just don't overdo it. Calorie overconsumption has become a problem of epidemic proportions in the modern world, leading to serious health problems; see Diet and obesity. The main culprits in a diet of often ultra-processed food, such as is readily available from the supermarket shelves or dished up in fast-food restaurants, are too much fat and too much sugar and starch.  --Lambiam 10:16, 29 January 2023 (UTC)

If you think about it, this is a carbohydrate question. As well as, sugar is a type of carbohydrate. You never heard of the advantages of having a low-carb / low calorie diet? 67.165.185.178 (talk) 03:22, 30 January 2023 (UTC).

Focussing the attention on any specific aspect of the dietary intake, instead of looking at the full nutritional picture, may have adverse effects. There is strong evidence that the low-fat diet advice of the past half century has greatly contributed to the obesity epidemic.^[1] The current low-carb mania is unlikely to make us more healthy.^[2] "Calorie counting" will also do us no good.^[3]  --Lambiam 10:01, 30 January 2023 (UTC)

• Starch can be broken down readily in your upper digestive tract by amylase. What that means is when you eat starches (especially things you find in starchy vegetables like white potatoes or sweetcorn) the starch gets broken down into simple sugars well before it is absorbed into the blood in your small intestine. For people who have dietary concerns when it comes to sugars (such as having diabetes or people on a weight loss program involving a low carb diet or who otherwise are trying to avoid sugars in their diet). I hope that all makes sense; recommendations against starchy vegetable are for those reasons. --Jayron32 15:07, 30 January 2023 (UTC)

It comes from WHO guidance. I think the detail on why not starch is to be found in Diet, nutrition and the prevention of chronic diseases: report of a Joint WHO/FAO Expert Consultation. WHO Technical Report Series, No. 916. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2003. AlmostReadytoFly (talk) 16:00, 30 January 2023 (UTC)

Inasmuch as the implied recommendations in that report are concrete and involve starch, it is the reported observation that high intake of energy-dense micronutrient-poor foods is a causative factor in weight gain and obesity, where energy-dense foods are foods that tend to be high in fat, sugars or starch. I did not see recommendations against specifically starch; in fact, given the same energy intake, high starch low sugars is preferable to low starch high sugars. There is also a reference to the potential health benefits of resistant starch, on which more can be found here.  --Lambiam 00:36, 31 January 2023 (UTC)