To maintain or regain a healthy liver, you must limit your consumption of starchy foods and, above all, choose them carefully.
- There are three types of starchy foods: tubers, legumes and cereals. The key to selecting the best is to favor starchy foods with a low glycemic index.
- For example, it is more interesting to eat a sweet potato than a mashed potato.
- You should also favor steaming or stewing.
Carbohydrates – which include starchy foods – are one of the worst enemies of people with fatty liver disease. They are what put the organ in difficulty and lead it to become engorged with fat, if they are consumed in excess. However, eliminating them from your diet is difficult. You must therefore choose them carefully. Angélique Houlbert, dietician-nutritionist and author of the book “The NASH diet against fatty liver disease“ (Thierry Souccar Éditions) helps us select the best starchy foods to put on our plate.
Starchy foods: favor those with a low glycemic index
“Excessive consumption of quickly digested carbohydrates and sugar(s) can lead to infiltration of the liver by fats, especially in sedentary people. By reducing these carbohydrates and choosing them better, we interrupt this process, and we help the liver to free yourself from fat, explains Angélique Houlbert.
But what are the best starchy foods for the liver? “Each family of starchy foods contains interesting foods to favor and others to ban. The key to selecting them is to favor those with a low Glycemic Index (GI less than 55).”, specifies the specialist. In total, there are 3 families of starchy foods:
- Tubers: it is better to cook a sweet potato (GI less than 55), rather than a mashed potato, one of the starchy foods with the highest GI (over 90). Among the root vegetables which are also part of the tubers, we can safely prepare parsnips, salsify or Jerusalem artichokes. They have similar carbohydrate contents to sweet potato. “You can easily include them in your vegetable stir-fries or unblended soups”adds the expert.
- Legumes: there is no room for error with these foods. “Lentils, chickpeas, split peas, red beans, white beans, mogettes… overall, everything is fine with legumes, they are all good”, indicates Angélique Houlbert. In addition to a low GI, they also have the advantage of offering very interesting contributions in proteins, fibers, B group vitamins, minerals and trace elements.
- Cereals: with these, you have to be careful. They are numerous and have very different nutritional profiles. “Buckwheat, used in Breton pancakes, is the best. Quinoa too”, recommends the dietician-nutritionist. With rice also being part of this family, fans must be careful about the variety chosen. “To be good for the liver, rice must be firm. Basmati rice is very good, for example. On the other hand, sushi or risotto rice, which has a very high GI, must be absolutely avoided”. Otherwise, you should favor complete or semi-complete products, especially for pasta. “The idea is to limit cereals, especially wheat, and to consume other starchy foods.” To reduce wheat consumption, it is possible to turn to rye, spelled, millet or even oats (oat flakes, oat-based muesli without added sugar, etc.).
Starchy foods: how much to put on the plate?
Beyond the nutritional quality and the glycemic index of the starchy food, we must also be vigilant about the quantity consumed. “One of the biggest nutritional mistakes is eating starchy foods at every meal. It depends on physical activity, age, professional activity or even whether you need to lose weight or not”warns Angélique Houlbert.
When composing your menu, it is only one type of starch per meal and no more than a quarter of the plate. So, you should avoid having tabbouleh as a starter, spaghetti bolognese as a main course, rice pudding for dessert, all with a piece of bread and cheese. Your liver will thank you.
Glycemic index and starchy foods: be careful when cooking
The method of cooking starchy foods is also another element to take into account when preparing the meal, because this affects their glycemic index. The longer it boils, the higher it will be. This is why it is recommended to eat pasta al dente rather than well cooked.
Steaming or stewing (i.e. with very little water) is also the most recommended for starchy foods. In addition, also favor whole products: foods that are mixed, pureed or made into soups have, in fact, a higher GI.
Tip for reducing the glycemic index of starchy foods, taken from Angélique Houlbert’s book: “when you place your starchy foods in the refrigerator after cooking, the GI lowers. So much so that cooled pasta or even rice in salads will always have a lower GI.”
