Restaurants, cafes, and shops knowing about the fashion to give up sugar are happy to meet us. You can easily find cheesecake without sugar, but most likely it will contain starch. This carbohydrate is found in biscuits and pies, and at the same time - in potatoes, bananas, lentils, and rice. Some nutritionists call for starch to be abandoned once and for all, while others argue that it is necessary.
LET ME INTRODUCE MYSELF: CRACHMAL
Starch is a natural product. During maturation, these plants form glucose during photosynthesis, part of the glucose is transformed into starch and accumulated in tubers, fruits, and seeds of plants - as a source of backup power.
Approximately the same thing happens in our body: after a large piece of cake with cream, our body is unable to cope with so much glucose, stores it for the future in folds on the sides.
WHERE TO FIND IT
Starch is found in many familiar products: not only in rice, wheat, corn but also in various root crops, including potatoes. It can be found in bananas, chestnuts, sweet potatoes, lentils, beans, and chickpeas.
Starch is often used as a sweetener in foods without sugar. To make starch sweet, it is boiled for several hours in diluted sulfuric acid, after which chalk is added to it to neutralize the acid. After the chalk is filtered out, the substance is evaporated and a thick sweet mass is obtained - starch molasses, which is a glucose solution in water. It is used to make buns, biscuits and those "sugar-free cheesecakes".
White rice: 78% starch
Wheat flour spaghetti: 75% starch
Cornflakes: 74% starch
Flour (wheat, barley): 72% starch
Bread: 66% starch
Corn: 65% starch
Buckwheat: 64% starch
Rye bread: 45% starch
French fries: 35% starch
Boiled potatoes: 14% starch
STARCH = SUGAR?
Scientifically, starch is a large number of simple sugars. Once in the body, it turns into glucose, i.e. sugar, in several stages. But since the rate of starch in the blood is much lower than that of sugar, it is a "slow" carbohydrate, so it is a storehouse of energy, such as potatoes and lentils can saturate for a long time. But here's the paradox: a bun also contains a lot of starch, but after it you will quickly want to eat. This difference is due to the fact that different starch is digested and digested differently in two ways - in the small intestine and rectum.
GOOD, BAD, EVIL
Digestion of the most easily accessible starch (white rice, flour products) begins in the mouth with enzymes contained in saliva. These enzymes decompose starch into glucose, a carbohydrate that directly enters the bloodstream. For each glucose molecule, one water molecule is needed. Therefore, after macaroni or rice, we are thirsty to drink: in this case, it is worth following the example of Italians who drink a lot of water while eating. But not all starch is digested in the small intestine, and this is the most useful starch, biologists call this type of starch resistant. Passing unharmed through the stomach and small intestine, it gets into the large intestine, where it becomes a breeding ground for beneficial bacteria. Bacteria turn resistant starch primarily into oil acid and other short chains of saturated fatty acids, which serve as an ideal "fuel" for cells of the intestinal walls and do a lot of good for our body. For example, they reduce inflammation in the intestine, increase the sensitivity of the body's cells to insulin and reduce blood glucose levels.
WHERE TO LOOK FOR GOOD STARCH
We've already found out that not all kinds of starch are equally useful. Therefore, we should limit white flour and white rice, flour products, and instant cereal porridge. As a result of physical treatment starch in these products is absorbed by the body much faster, which leads to a sharp jump in blood glucose levels. Also, it is not necessary to look at pastries, cookies, pretzels and corn flakes - useful starch in these products you precisely will not find.
Resistant starch is found in beans, green peas, and other legumes, potatoes, and bananas, but the problem is that it comes with a lot of common starch. The main rule of thumb is that there is much more useful starch in raw food than in heat-treated food. Therefore, it is better to cook vegetables quickly in order to preserve vitamins and healthy starch.