Is starch the number one enemy of weight loss? Wu Yingrong: Eating good starch is the best way

There are hundreds of ways to lose weight, but many people have failed. Among them, quitting sugar and starch is the most common. Many female celebrities also claim that they have successfully lost weight by quitting their diet in this way. However, it is actually impossible to completely avoid sugar and starch for a long time, so this method is difficult to sustain. Is it necessary to completely give up starches such as white rice, bread, and noodles to lose weight?

Giving up starch to lose weight may lead to falling into a weight loss trap

The best way to lose weight is to implement a weight loss method that you can do for a lifetime. Therefore, for example, quitting sugar and starch, or taking the protein weight loss method, or the banana weight loss method, although your weight may drop for a short period of time, after a period of time, you will gain weight again and fall into the weight loss trap.

Wu Yingrong, a doctor of nutrition, who is also the CEO of the Taiwan Nutrition Foundation and a director of the Obesity Research Society of the Republic of China, debunked the common myths of using starch to lose weight from the perspective of food nutrition in the Financial Biweekly "86 Questions to Debunk Medical Myths".

Starch is the number one enemy of weight loss. To lose weight, just stay away from starch, otherwise it will be difficult to succeed?

Dr. Wu Yingrong said that the result of a picky diet that causes nutritional imbalance is that you lose weight quickly at first, but the unbalanced nutrition causes problems with your body's metabolism, causing you to gain weight again faster. Starch mainly contains a large amount of carbohydrates (Carbohydrates), which are sugars. They are essential nutrients for the body and can be converted into glucose in the body to provide a source of energy for the body.

If you don't eat starch for a long time to lose weight, your body will not be able to obtain the energy it needs, thus activating the stress hormone "cortisol", which will cause depression or irritability. It is worth noting that this may subsequently lead to a strong compensatory desire to eat sweets, which may even cause hormonal imbalance.

To lose weight, you not only need to eat starch, but also eat good starch. Highly refined, processed, and easily digestible bad starch will produce a large amount of waste and toxins that accumulate in the intestines and cannot be excreted, which is like "fake fat". Over time, it will accumulate in the body, causing you to weigh several kilograms more.

Eat good starch in its original form and avoid refined processed starch

Dr. Wu Yingrong explained that so-called good starches are whole grains and root vegetables in their "original state", such as brown rice, boiled corn, steamed sweet potatoes, pumpkin and other fiber-rich foods; try not to eat refined processed starches, such as processed wheat foods, bread, cakes, muffins, pizza and other foods with high GI (Glycemic Index).

For example, bread and brown rice, both with 300 calories, have different meanings when digested by the body. The former is a high GI food, which can easily cause a rapid rise in blood sugar after digestion, promote insulin secretion, and cause body fat production; the latter has a low GI value, which can keep blood sugar in the body under stable control. When insulin secretion in the blood is low, there will be less hunger.

Therefore, the key to choosing high-quality starch is to eat starchy foods that are "rich in dietary fiber." Eating the right high-quality starches can prevent the production of fat. In addition, you should also pay attention to the GI value to stabilize your blood sugar and avoid rapid weight gain.

※For more information, please see "Financial News Biweekly"