Are Americans eating too much starch?

[Occamstazer]

Anyone else waiting for Wifezilla to stomp in here?

And yeah, we totally eat too much carbage.

 

[journey11]

Journey, I typed my post and thought I hit send, then I left to go do something, when I got back and checked the forum I realized the post never got sent so I hit send.
Then I saw your post, which I also agree with but didn't want it to appear that I disagreed with what you wrote.
So this is just for clarity, I was responding to the original post when I typed my response.

No worries, I never even thought that.

 

[Whitewater]

Well, I've always thought the bottom two tiers of the food pyramid ought to be reversed! And I think we all ought to eat a whole lot more 'whole' food (apples instead of apple juice, *all* the kernel instead of extracting the bran, etc) and a lot more veggies and fruit anyway.

And of course, there's the whole exercise thing . . . my endo recently told me that the whole 'based on a 2000 calorie diet' thing is really an unuseable standard now, because that guideline was developed in the 1930's, when the US was very much more agricultural and there weren't nearly so many technological innovations. To put it bluntly, people did a ton more manual labor back then. He said that no matter what, Americans live a lifestyle that can only be called 'sedentary' when compared to the lifestyle of a typical person of the 1930's, unless you happen to be a farmer of the old school.

So I think that we press a lot more buttons now, and I'm sure a lack of exercise (just because of modern life) has also contributed. I mean, I see this in my own life. I participate in living history for a hobby, and we try to re-create what life was like back in the year 1630, we go to schools and History Faires and so on and educate the public. Usually, an event lasts a weekend. During that weekend, I work my rump off -- literally! I can lose and have lost in the past 6 pounds in one weekend, even though I am constantly eating, and eating fatty foods (because that has to be historically accurate too!). Historic food doesn't have additives or preservatives, it's not low-fat or fat-free, and it's typically still whole. And the amount of work we have to do as 17th century individuals is not to be believed.

We don't live like that anymore, though. And I think that's a cause too.

That said, I don't automatically cry 'Eek!' when I see a starch. Whole grains and complex carbs are actually pretty good for you and have a decent nutrient value, besides providing things like fiber. And even the vilified potato has potassium and trace elements and other vitamins (that I'm forgetting right now!) . . . but when we get a potato that's served to us in a restaurant and A) it's actually as big as 3 servings worth of potato and B) it's so smothered in fats (like sour cream, butter, cheese, bacon, etc) that you can't see or taste the actual *potato*, well, that's not the poor potato's fault!

(Interesting side note, I've really reduced my portion sizes and this past Christmas, my MIL served us all HUGE potatoes, that were even bigger than restaurant potatoes, and was offended and sad when I didn't even manage to eat half of it. I explained that I was just full, that she was a great cook and that it wasn't her fault and that I didn't have anything against her, but she was still upset. Who told the American public that a potato size was LITERALLY the same size as the length and breadth of my size 7.5 feet!?)

I love long grain/wild rice. I am learning to like brown rice. I have learned to enjoy whole wheat bread with whole grains and fiber. I don't eat a whole lot of white bread anymore.

But portion size and what we eat with our food (sure, you can proudly tell me that you ate a whole cup of strawberries for dessert . . . but if you had the equivalent amount of fat and sugar-filled ice cream *with* those strawberries . . . ) are just as important as what we eat to begin with.

To sum up: I don't think starches are solely responsible for the 'obesity epidemic'. I think that portion sizes and our own food choices (choosing Bleu Cheese salad dressing over lemon and vinigar dressing, etc) have as much or more to do with it. And exercise, or lack thereof.

Whitewater, who apparently has a lot to say about this!

 

[old fashioned]

I agree with Whitewater, it's not so much the foods we eat, but more of what we add to them and how much we eat. Even with the so called antiquidated food guide pyramid the serving sizes listed are much smaller than the amounts we actually eat. One meat serving is 2 - 3 oz (deck of cards size) or 1/2 cup of rice or one small apple or banana. Restruants surely give larger servings than this (or they'll be laughed out of business), and most people at home eat more than this too. Even grocery stores seem to pump larger sized foods.
Most people don't measure or weigh their food. American society has the bigger, better, best mentality and are now suffering for it. One average sized New York cut steak is about 3 servings, but usually only 1 person eats all of it. Not to mention the loaded colossal baked potato, and whatever else they cram on a plate. Then promptly plop in front of the tv for a snooze.
Has anyone seen the cartoon movie Wall-E? The people in it, so reminded me of what our society has become.
I admit my family is just as guilty of the over-indulgence and it's something we are working on. My thought is this...it's all good for you in moderation, but nothing in excess. That includes sugar, fats, salt (sodium), etc.
All basic foods (including starches) have been around since the beginning of time as nourishment for our bodies. But what science has done to those foods and advertising has done to promote "more, more, more" that has messed up our view of such foods.
"Eat to live, not live to eat"

 

[wifezilla]

Here I am! I was in Kansas visiting son #1. He goes to Iraq in a couple of weeks.

I don't think bread itself is so bad, in moderation, and particularly if it's whole grain (complex carbohydrates are digested more slowly and whole grain provides valuable nutrients and fiber). I think Americans are overweight primarily because of sugar.

10 years ago I would have agreed with this. I cut out sugars, switched to whole grains and GOT FATTER.

It isn't just the sugar. It is the sugar, corn, soy, rice, wheat and potatoes, etc... It is also the 30 year push to reduce fat consumption and replacing healthy natural fats with high omega 6 vegetable oils.

Total carbohydrate consumption per day has gone up every year. Fat intake has gone down and now 40% of people are obese. Whole grain consumption has gone up and so has fiber intake. People are still getting fatter and sicker.

As for fruit, fruit can also be a problem. The fruit of today is NOT the fruit our grandparents ate. The apples are sweeter, the pineapples are sweeter, the oranges are sweeter.... all that fructose plays havoc with your liver. Juice is even worse yet many people think it is healthy. I eat fruit, but I only eat it a few times a week and when I do I tend to stick to berries. In summer I do eat melon, but in moderation. In fall, I try to find an old fashioned type of apple...one that is crisp and tart and not overly sweet and mushy.

 

[vfem]

Have you guys seen all those commercials touting high fructose corn syrup?
They made commercials with the fake moms telling another fake mom that "there is nothing wrong with corn syrup, its no worse than sugar".
I couldn't believe what they are saying.
The thing is alot of people will believe it.

Yes that blows my mind!

Whats even worse, is I finally sat down to read the Omnivore's Dilemma. After the first chapter I was in shock and awe. Just the simple idea of 'processing' corn. I imagined a large food mill and separators. I NEVER thought about a chemical bath, and then each separated part of the corn either going as is, or being processed further with more chemical changes.

Corn syrup is by NO means better for you then sugar, or even close to being the same. Calorie wise, maybe... but that would be it.

Why are we putting so many chemicals in our body? People are worried about starch?! Oh please! Starch is natural, and probably wouldn't affect us the way we think it is, but with all the other stablizers, chemicals, man-made proteins, sugars and unknowns mixed in with the starchy base... THAT is what the problem is. Make your own pasta and bread from scratch for awhile, don't eat 11 shares a day and I bet you will be better then fine.

I just want to say, I understand we as people try to preserve our food... we need it to last. But we over preserve, and we have gone too far. When things have a shelf life of 2 years.... Ewwwwwwww

 

[lesa]

Our motto shouldn't be "read the label", it should be if it has a label don't buy it!! That old adage that you should shop around the outside of the supermarket and not the aisles, is a good one. Fruit, veggies, meat, fish, dairy. Forget the rest of it! I opened my Mom's freezer (who is on a perpetual diet) to find low-carb ice cream... Are you kidding me???

 

[wifezilla]

Why are we putting so many chemicals in our body? People are worried about starch?! Oh please! Starch is natural, and probably wouldn't affect us the way we think it is, but with all the other stablizers, chemicals, man-made proteins, sugars and unknowns mixed in with the starchy base... THAT is what the problem is.

When I ate vegetarian, NO chemicals, whole grains, very little if any processed foods is when I gained the most weight. It IS the starch, and the sugars and the lack of healthy, natural saturated fats. It also is a lot of how we prepare out grains, legumes, nuts, etc...

The industrial processes do no remove phytic acid and other anti-nutrients. This isn't just for pre-packaged foods, but for bags of wheat flour and oats too.

 

[Rosalind]

It depends on your body type and your personal genetics. And there is no way, repeat, NO WAY to tell if you have won the genetic lotto or lost it. However, given the huge array of possible causes, it seems highly unlikely that any one food type or one environmental cause is the source. But scientists, the business people running our food industry, and the general American public are all guilty of over-simplifying a problem to make it easier to think about, as if by dealing with one little string of a cat's cradle we can deal with the whole thing. Which is probably not the case.

Wifezilla, I had exactly the opposite experience you did: When I eat protein and meat, even grass fed pastured organic proteins and meats, I gain weight, get tired, joints hurt. When I eat pasta, pizza, potatoes etc. as a main course, with beans and minimal amounts of fish for protein, I can't even keep any weight on to stay healthy, even when my dinner routinely included hot fudge sundaes. Different people have different metabolisms; I could eat sugar all day like a hummingbird and not gain an ounce. So I don't like to make generalizations from my experience, because it's just not true for many many other people.

Sugar, in the form of tax-subsidized HFCS added to every darn thing (in sour cream is probably the one that annoys me most: it's supposed to be SOUR! cream, cheese cultures, let sit overnight till sour! why do they add jello and sugar and salt and shortening to it?) increases the calorie counts above what you would expect for each item. One baguette, in France, has relatively few calories compared to the same size baguette bought in the US, because theirs consists of water, flour, salt and yeast, whereas ours has flour, HFCS, dough conditioner, salt, glutamate, yeast, caramel coloring, and a few dozen other things. It's not that those things aren't found in nature, it's that they are there at all, driving up the calorie count.

Portion sizes are absurd nowadays. Yet how many of us were taught to clean our plates? A glass of soda used to be 8 oz.--one cup, that's it. What was a "small" when I was a child doesn't exist anymore, even the kid-size cups are the size of a medium adult's drink.

Lack of exercise is another biggie. Most recent study from the American Heart Association showed that people tend to over-estimate how much exercise they have done and how much they need to do to stay healthy. Really, you need 30-60 minutes per day, five days per week, just to maintain current weight--if you have a sedentary job, which most people do. To lose weight, you need 60-90 minutes. Most of the city slickers I know whose jobs really are sitting in front of a computer all day, figure that a leisurely stroll for 15 minutes after lunch should be enough to burn off the 1500 calories they just ate in a single sitting.

And then there's the endocrine disruptors: Lotsa industrial chemicals (atrazine, bisphenol A, many many others) are known to be estrogen analogs. Estrogen makes your body add fat, which in turn acts as a reservoir for more fat-soluble estrogen, and estrogen also can increase the growth rates of many cancer types. Most toxicology focuses on mutation rate accumulation or gross pathology; endocrine disruption isn't required to be known for regulatory purposes. So we end up with lots of estrogen analogs and endocrine disruptors in wide use that get into the water table, air and food.

Honestly, I don't know that it is even possible to tease out any one thing for why there is so much metabolic disease now vs. 20-30 years ago. There are a lot of things, and it seems to me, as a scientist, that picking just one thing and focusing on that alone will inevitably yield mixed results. But people like simplistic answers.

 

[beavis]

I want to add my 2 cents.

I have made a commitment over the last few years to really look at everything I eat.

I really strive to put nothing but things in my body that are healthy, fresh and natural.

But I am a hypocrite, because I do love my wine and/ or beer.

But as far as food, I try to buy organically grown fruits and veggies whenever possible and to make that the focus of my meal. And of course incorporate what I grow organically as well.

Its whole-grain or the highway.

I gave up almost all meat and really do not miss it at all, instead a black bean burrito is my ally nowadays.

I have recently embraced sardines, spread on a slice of whole-grain wasa bread with a side of apple as my main lunch and/or snack.

I try to shop only the grocery store perimeter.

I have not been to a fast food restaurant in over a year and a half and do not miss it at all.

I have found a new passion in going to the "trouble" of preparing meals with fresh, simple ingredients, with no labels, chemicals and such. And I struggle at times because I am quite busy, but it is much more satisfying and flavorful.

And the kicker is, my two lovely daughters 7 and 11 see me cooking from scratch, taste the food and know it comes from simple sources, not chef boy-ar-dee or kraft.