Wednesday 17 February 2010

Are starches as bad as we think?


Earlier this week I spent some time with my delightful family. My Nan, who is 92 (bless her) has just come out of the hospital so I thought I would pop down and see her and give her my best wishes.

My gran has the most voracious appetite of any old lady I have ever soon. It is fairly common place to see an old dear nibbling on a piece of lettuce and being satisfied for several days. However, my Nan is the exact opposite. I recall that on once occasion we went out for a meal together as a family and for dessert we ordered the sharing platter dessert (notice the deliberate emphasis on sharing there). Once the dolce had arrived, no sooner had it been placed on the table whereupon my Nan lunged into it like a crack addict going towards their next hit. She gobbled up at least three quarters of the tasty morsel herself- The greedy BITCH!

I digress. My Nan, is as thin as a rake and has been for as long as I have known her. I do recall reading somewhere that Insulin control has been linked to longevity (a future post methinks). When I questioned her about what she ate when she was younger, there was no fruit and hardly any sugar. She did eat a lot of potatoes and some bread but never had a problem with her weight. Oh and she ate copious amounts of fat and butter. Incidentally, this was also the staple diet of my mother (bread and dripping anyone?).

Some research recently has suggested that the carbs we eat from starches may not necessarily impact people as badly as was previously thought. Certainly once a person is insulin resistant, then starches do cause a serious problem if you can no longer tolerate carbs. However, the damage may not be from starches themselves but the combination of excess sugar in the diet that gives the insulin system a damn good battering for several years and buggers up the system.

Potentially, this could mean that once you have "healed" your metabolic conditioning, you may be able to introduce starchier food without the same detrimental effects.

4 comments:

  1. My grandmother is 90 and sounds like a spittin' image of your Nan! It seems as if Richard from Free the animal is successfully reincorporating some starches back into his diet (potatoes).

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  2. Well that's good news! I don't think I'll be eating grains again anytime soon but I do love spuds now and then. Especially with lashings of butter. Your gran sounds like a good sort!

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  3. Aww that's so funny, she sounds hilarious! I sneak in a potato every now and then, it stops me losing weight but I think it's probably ok as part of maintenace. I second judiths suggestion with lashings of butter :)

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  4. How about a sweet potato? THAT sounds wonderful!

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