Do starches make you fat? Nope ! As long as you don’t overcook them and don’t choose them refined. This received idea is still very present in everyone’s mind and for fifty years, our consumption of bread and potatoes has even been halved. However, consumed in reasonable quantities, starchy foods do not make you fat, on the contrary, they help to regulate your appetite by avoiding cravings between meals.
Bread: it is naturally low in fat (less than 2%). These are the butter, the rillettes or the spread that we put on it which promotes overweight. With a caveat, however: 40 g of bread provide as many carbohydrates as 100 g of cooked starch, for a much smaller volume, therefore less satiation. So, if you are very hungry or have trouble filling yourself up, prefer starchy foods other than bread.
Potatoes: boiled, steamed, baked… they only provide 80 cal/100 g. Which is not the case if you consume them in the form of fries (508 cal/100 g) or crisps (558 cal/100 g).
The pasta: it is the butter, the sauce, the parmesan that you put on it that can increase the caloric addition. If a plate of pasta with tomato sauce represents 250 cal, the same with carbonara borders on 500 cal.
The French don’t eat enough starches…
This is the recent result delivered by the ongoing Nutrinet* study which shows that, out of more than 80,000 participants, 35% of men and 66% of women have starch intakes lower than the nutritional advice. If the messages “eat 3 dairy products a day” or “eat at least 5 fruits and vegetables a day” now seem well anchored in the minds of the French, it appears in fact that only 22% of Nutrinautes are aware of the recommendation of the National Health Nutrition Program (PNNS): eat 3 6 servings of starch per day. The study carried out reveals that bread is the first contributor of starch intake (45%), whereas potatoes (20%), pasta (17%) and rice (8.5%), often appreciated of all and easy to cook, come far behind.
* www.etude-nutrinet-sante.fr