A low-sugar diet starts with reducing refined starch! 4 tips to avoid refined starch, learn them now

Being fat seems to be the most feared thing in everyone's mind, so you can see all kinds of strange weight loss tricks on the Internet. In recent years, there has been a craze for ketogenic diets and sugar-free diets. People think that as long as they don't eat starchy foods, they can lose a lot of weight. In fact, this is not entirely true. Not eating starch can indeed quickly reduce weight in a short period of time, but the chance of gaining weight again is 100%.

"Refined starch" refers to foods made from starch that has undergone multiple levels of processing to remove the bran and seed coat, such as white toast, white bread, white noodles, baked goods, breakfast corn flakes, taro balls or tapioca pearls, etc.

When there is no starch in the diet that can be broken down into sugars to supply the body's needs, the body will start to break down muscles. At first, you may think you have lost weight, but that is just an illusion caused by dehydration. Therefore, people who do not eat starch to lose weight may easily lose muscle before fat, which is a true case of losing muscle and gaining fat. Let us understand what refined starch is!

What is refined starch?

Perhaps many people are wondering what refined starch is, and how many times it is mistakenly considered refined starch. In fact, "refined starch" refers to foods made from starch that has undergone multiple levels of processing to remove the bran and seed coat, such as white toast, white bread, white noodles, baked goods, breakfast corn flakes, taro balls or tapioca balls, etc. If you want to lose weight healthily, the first step of the correct weight loss diet should be to avoid refined starches and refined sugars, but not all starches. Don't let all starches take the blame for refined starch!

What are the dangers of refined starch?

1. High glycemic index, large fluctuations in blood sugar

Carbohydrates are the only source of calories for the brain. Only when you consume enough sugar in your diet will your body secrete leptin and bring a sense of fullness. Otherwise, you will feel like you haven't eaten enough and your mouth will always itch to eat. So if you can avoid refined starches, such as biscuits, white toast, white noodles, cakes, and even desserts, eat a bowl of whole-grain rice for your main meal, and pair it with an appropriate amount of vegetables and enough protein. In fact, this will make you feel full and satisfied, and most importantly, you can avoid the problem of excessive calorie intake.

2. Lack of dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals

Because refined starch has been processed and refined, removing natural dietary fiber, B vitamins and minerals, it may cause constipation, fatigue or weakness. Long-term lack of nutrients is harmful to health.

3. Cardiovascular and blood lipids are prone to fat accumulation, and the risk of cardiovascular events is high

A paper published in the British Medical Journal in February 2021 covered 21 countries and more than 130,000 subjects, tracking the subjects' intake of three types of grains: refined starch (bread, white noodles, biscuits, baked goods, instant corn flakes, etc.), whole grains (whole grains such as oats and rye and their products such as whole wheat flour) and white rice, and the effects of the three groups on cardiovascular disease, mortality, blood lipids and blood pressure. The results showed that the higher the intake of refined starch, the higher the risk of total mortality and cardiovascular events.

Dingdang nutritionist. (Photo provided by Dingdang Nutritionist)

Learn these 4 tips to avoid refined starch!

The more refined the food is, the higher its glycemic index tends to be. Refined starchy foods are the culprit that causes your glycemic index to be too high. Therefore, you can choose foods with a low glycemic index to avoid the harm caused by refined starch.

Tip 1: Choose raw foods, which are usually unrefined, such as sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and oats.

The second tip: choose foods that contain more dietary fiber. The more dietary fiber, the more unprocessed it is. For example, for the same ingredient, boiled potatoes are definitely less refined than French fries and have a higher dietary fiber content.

The third trick: choose starch with a low degree of gelatinization. The lower the degree of gelatinization, the lower the glycemic index. For example, for the same meal, the glycemic index of dry rice is lower than that of porridge.

Tip 4: Choose foods that require a lot of chewing. The chewier the food is, the more times you need to chew it, the slower it will be digested, and the glycemic index will often be lower. For example, when it comes to noodles, spaghetti requires more chewing than fried noodles, and its blood sugar rises more slowly.

A sugar-reducing diet starts with reducing "refined sugars", which does not mean rejecting or not eating all starches.

Choosing a diet that suits you and can be integrated into your life is the most suitable and best weight loss diet for you.

Dingdang Nutritionist FB