The argument for eating starchy vegetables

by Kyn

There is a lot of debate on whether humans are meant to consume starch.

The truth is humans have many versions of the enzymes that digest starch - we should not have these so well developed if starch was poisonous.

Now, this is not to say we were meant to eat pure sugars and ultra refined sugars/syrups. These are not starches and don't require amylase to digest. (Nor were we meant to combine sugar, starch and fat together - it is not something that nature planned. These very high calorie treats are a sign of affluence - after all nature does not have restaurants or bakeries.)

The theory goes that we evolved to survive. Being able to rely on many different foods means we had a higher chance of survival, regardless of your short term health. At certain times of the year one food source could be more available and at others it could become very scarce. (When food was plentiful binge eating was most likely encouraged. When food became scarce you don't have a choice - losing body fat would occur.)

In those times, especially where cultivation and storage were non existent, the availability of food would be unpredictable - although staying in the same place there would be patterns to when food would become available.

Starch formed a component of the food that we needed to survive on. Starch is a good store of energy. In natural foods, if you relied on whole starchy foods and not much else it is difficult to get a lot of calories without consuming a lot.

Even today, many populations rely on starch (in the form of grains, potatoes not starch powder)  as their main staple. Some of these groups are very long lived like the Okinawans, Japan. However, having fewer calories can also increase lifespan.

This is important because if you eat very small amounts of protein and fats, you can eat liberal amounts of whole carbohydrate sources and still be in a calorie deficit - because the volume of food is too much to overeat comfortably (some people report feeling bloated if they eat too many starchy foods).

What is clear is eating to survive and eating for the sake of it is completely different. The first almost implies you don't have a choice of what foods are available and the second you can choose what you want. What you choose can be toxic, extremely calorie dense or add lots of fat to your body.

We are meant to eat starches but we can also choose not to.