Starch: benefits and harms. Useful properties of corn and potato starch

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Several decades ago, starch was widely popular among housewives as a food product and as a useful substance in the household. After some time, the world learned the "terrible" truth: from its use they get fat and lose their he alth! It should be clear what starch actually gives a person. Benefit and harm are opposite concepts, like day and night. Where is the truth and what is fiction?

To dot all the “and”, you need to “decompose” the starch into its constituent parts and understand how each of them affects the human body, what it is needed for and what causes damage.

Potato starch: benefits and harms

One of the main sources of energy for the human body are carbohydrates. Mono- and disaccharides are simple carbohydrates that have nothing in common with potato starch. Polysaccharides are also carbohydrates, only complex ones, which include starch.

The benefits and harms of this substance are still disputed by various scientific minds. Hence the myths about body fat appeared in the media, which arise due to an irrepressible addiction to jelly and fried potatoes.

Some he althythere is meaning in it. You will not be able to find an obese person who does not like and does not eat the mentioned dishes. But this is not the full truth. The truth is that it is polysaccharides that are an integral part of the he alth of the body. Moreover, the benefits of starch are in promoting weight loss!

The key to success

Those adherents of a he althy lifestyle who successfully switched from eating potatoes and potato pancakes to eating rice porridge and pasta did not become slender, like the Chinese or Italians. In fact, they changed "an awl for soap." Nothing fundamentally changed in their diet. And all because these new "he althy" foods also contain polysaccharides.

The whole secret is in the method of cooking everyone's favorite potatoes, once brought to Russia by Peter the Great. Compare for yourself:

• A raw potato tuber is three-quarters water, the remaining quarter is all solids. There is even less starch in it.
• Starch puree already contains 11%.
• 14% of this substance in boiled potatoes.
• 35% polysaccharides in french fries.
• Chips - 53% off!

Moderation is good for everything. Both in the amount of food eaten and in its quality. Consuming starchy foods is no exception.

What is vegetable starch for?

• It is important for muscle fibers and the brain.
• In addition, starch is necessary for immunity strength.
• The benefits and harms of this substancefor each organism is individual - this must be remembered. But common to all is the positive effect of the use of this polysaccharide - energy production. The body cannot do without complex carbohydrates.
• It also helps the body resist inflammation.
• Reduces blood sugar, making it a success for people with conditions like diabetes.
• Starch is involved in the formation of organic acids.

Corn starch: good or bad?

This type of starch is similar to potato starch with only a slight difference - it is slightly more caloric. 300 kcal is found in 100 grams of "crunchy" substance from potatoes, 330 kcal contains cornstarch. Their benefits are identical.

The norm is how much?

Hence the question arises: how much starch per day can be considered the norm for the average person? If you cannot imagine your life without potatoes, then you can safely eat up to four kilograms of it per day, provided that you do not eat other products. No wonder doctors prescribe the potato diet to some of their patients.

Caution: starch

It turns out that all the "horror stories" about this substance are "duck" generated by the competitive struggle of industrialists? So what really scared people of starch?

The benefits and harms mentioned above apply only to plant products containing this polysaccharide. The real danger lies in refined and modifiedstarch. It will not give the body anything from which it could benefit. The contribution of negative content is made by mechanical and chemical methods of processing potato or corn raw materials in the production of starch. It is in such a substance that there is a lack of dietary fiber, so necessary for the body, and too few nutrients.

And if the average housewife avoids the addition of industrial starch to food, then she may not notice that this product still ends up on her family's dinner table in significant quantities. After all, everyone loves bakery products baked from high-quality, and therefore high-starch, flour. The "enemy" encroaches on human he alth, hiding in mayonnaise, ketchup and many other products where starch is added during the production process.

It is this white powder that is capable of provoking hormonal disruptions, atherosclerosis and other equally annoying problems in the human body.

What to do?

The answer to this question is obvious, but it will require some effort from a modern person.

Firstly, if possible, avoid products containing industrial starch. You can carefully reread the list of ingredients written on the packaging of the product, but it would be more correct to switch to eating simple home-made products.

It is better to permanently exclude store-bought sausages, sausages, sauces, chips and other similar products and fast food from the diet. Well saturateand benefit from meals cooked at home from products grown in their own backyard.

Secondly, you need to remember that you should not expect much benefit from starch that enters the human body along with protein foods. It simply will not be absorbed, since the alkaline acid involved in this process will be busy digesting the protein. What will starch do? It just settles in the fat cells of the human body.

But such “fellow travelers” of potatoes, squash, corn, celery, radish, pumpkin, horseradish and similar vegetables, such as vegetable oil, sour cream, cream - only good! Help yourself to your he alth!