Mr Bean and Mr Potato Head might have a mash - up!
All starches are broken down into MONOsaccharides... sooooo
That is why people on low carb diets tend to avoid them!
But the diet doesn't need to be devoid of starches, either!
Not for those who can handle some of them.
The trick, as always, is to find what works for each person's body.
How to read a chart:
Take the Total Carbs.
Minus Fiber (it is not digested, so it does not count as calories)
Minus Total Sugars.
That will leave you with a general idea about
how much starch is left.
Testing for Carbs is not really an accurate science anyways.
They can determine the amino acids... proteins.
They can determine the fatty acids... fats.
Unless you are these guys from Fantastic Voyage,
No one can get inside the body and count the carbs.
And each person is different, besides.
AND to make things much more complex,
Starch digestion even depends on how much you CHEW!
For Starches begin to digest in the mouth.
Also, the amount of acid in the diet can greatly change
how much (or how little) starch will be broken down.
That would account for some of the variances!
In Nursing, the tilde - that wiggly line (~)
is used to show an approximation.
~ about that much!
Here's some common veggies -
All in 100 gram units
Some have more starch than others.
Broccoli
So 5.4 is the total carbs.
Minus 3.0 for the fiber.
NET carbs is now 2.4
And of that, 1.5 grams is sugar....
So about 1 gram of starch.
Broccoli is a low-starch lo-carb veggie
We knew that!
It has low sugar, too.
Brussels's Sprouts sugar is 2.2
And Implied Starch is about ~ 3 grams.
Or, about 12 calories from starch.
Sucrose, Glucose, Fructose, etc
are all part of the total Sugar count.
Cauliflower.... an ever popular LoCarb treat
Green Beans from a can
Summer Squash - yellow crookneck or zucchini
NO starch!
But look - some Glucose, and Fructose.
750 mg is not quite a gram.
So this is a very small amount.
Tomato
Not too starchy...
You can see why they taste so sweet!
"THEY" say to limit the Fructose to 50 grams a day.
So Tomatoes get two thumbs up!
Winter Squash - Acorn
Pumpkins, here's Pumpkins!
Sweet Potatoes!
An interesting and yummy plant.
Compare the starches in a Sweet Potato
Looks like about 12 of starch
and just 1 sugar.
13 for the combined total of sugar/starch.
Kidney Beans for the "Slow Starch" crowd
Lima Beans are 20 total carb.... 7 fiber... 10 starch.... 3 sugar....
No Fructose - as they are a legume!
The Red Potato and the Russet Potato
The REDS are "waxy" and hold up better when sliced.
The RUSSET is the king for baking - so nice a fluffy starchy!
Some differences - some worth noting!
Thanks for the info, Anne. As always you are a fount of knowledge.
ReplyDeleteCauliflower, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and zucchini...all of my favourites!
ReplyDeleteThanks for doing all this work and getting this info out there!