Better To Avoid Starch In Potato?

[Rolan]

Guys, stop talking about cokes - I have none left in the house!

I also digest potato's really well SINCE I started cooking them properly. They're a good source of calories and carbs for me, especially considering the dire state of fruit in UK. I do tend to eat less though compared to before. However it does freak me out a little with all the endotoxin talk. I feel pretty healthy though, so...

I actually find Beef liver tastes really good. My source couldn't get lamb liver so gave me beef instead...I was very surprised how much I liked it. Pig liver is disgusting though

 

[jyb]

I actually find Beef liver tastes really good. My source couldn't get lamb liver so gave me beef instead...I was very surprised how much I liked it. Pig liver is disgusting though

I'm also in the UK. Lamb liver is pretty common here, and cheaper. However, I find the taste of calves liver a lot easier than lamb. Lamb is very very strong. Also, I believe that calves liver is better nutritionally anyway - more copper.

 

[Swandattur]

I think RP says potatoes are good if you don't have better options. So, if you can't get ahold of good fruit, potatoes should be okay.

 

[Rolan]

I actually find Beef liver tastes really good. My source couldn't get lamb liver so gave me beef instead...I was very surprised how much I liked it. Pig liver is disgusting though

I'm also in the UK. Lamb liver is pretty common here, and cheaper. However, I find the taste of calves liver a lot easier than lamb. Lamb is very very strong. Also, I believe that calves liver is better nutritionally anyway - more copper.

Lamb and Beef liver is as cheap as chips! Thank god the mainstream hasn't clocked it yet, because when people realised it's a 'super-food' prices will go sky high. I got mind from a grass-fed farm, The amount I got for £12 will last me a month. I've never tasted lamb liver, will soon. The beef is quite mild.

 

[Rolan]

I think RP says potatoes are good if you don't have better options. So, if you can't get ahold of good fruit, potatoes should be okay.

Yeah, he says they're OK for a healthy-ish person. I actually quite appreciate the nutrients in them. I've yet to be convinced that I should give up starch. Though I could eat watermelon allllll day.

 

[j.]

Better to avoid them, if you're really healthy it might not matter. Consuming the starch with fat reduces the likelihood of problems.

 

[Rolan]

I never eat starch without fat(CO/butter). I'll just reduce the amount I eat but not entirely. Only white potato at the moment, given up the parsnips, yams and so on.

I think squashes are advocated by Peat in the same way a white potato is.

 

[4peatssake]

I think squashes are advocated by Peat in the same way a white potato is.

He has good things to say about small summer squash but I'm not so sure about winter squash.

"People refer to them as vegetables, but small summer squash are actually fruits. But because they end up more starchy, they're usually thought of as vegetables. But if you eat a tender summer squash with some butter, the small amount of starch--if it is well-cooked and eaten with butter--it's very similar to eating fruit. High potassium content and high magnesium."

Ray Peat in an interview, Glycemia, Starch and SUGAR in context!
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/eastwe...ray-peat-glycemia-starch-and-sugar-in-context

Go to approximately the 44 minute mark

From this Thread

 

[charlie]

The potato protein soup does have a weird, unique taste to it. I like to associate it with the taste of extreme healing.

I strain my juice through a muslin bag, then I let it sit in the fridge so that the starch settles to the bottom. There is always going to be some starch let no matter what you do, just try to get out as much as you can. The cooking should help deactivate it I would assume.

 

[Swandattur]

I had some in the refrigerator to see if all the starch would settle out. I ended up leaving it in the fridge for two days, and all or almost all had settled out. I don't see why it couldn't be cooked into other dishes like mashed yellow squash. It might actually taste good when diluted in another food. It might be good in kale broth. Eating vanilla extract is not very good undiluted, but it tastes great in ice cream. Maybe the same thing applies to potato juice. Maybe the muslin you mentioned would work better than a coffee filter.
Thanks for your answer.

 

[Swandattur]

Here's a quote from a Ray Peat article on the subject of starch: "Avoiding the starches such as cereals and beans, and using fruits as a major part of the diet helps to minimize the effects of the polyunsaturated fats." http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/gl ... etes.shtml

 

[Jenn]

I, for one, am very PRO potato. Peeled, COOKED PROPERLY and chewed well. Nutrient dense, affordable, high quality and balanced protein, glucose, fructose and starch, minimal pufas, yummy.

There is no 100% perfect food. Any food can have "issues" associated with it. PUFAS, lectins, starches, additives, pesticides, herbicides, radiation, antibiotics, processing, excess tryptophan....this list goes on and on.

UNripe fruit (which is almost ALL commercial fruit sold fresh) contain starches too. Some fruits are also estrogenic, some contain high levels of pectin which cause digestive issues, some have small seeds that are hard to avoid and cause serious issues for some or contain chitinase which is connected with latex allergies and implicated in celiac's disease.

So it goes back to what your body needs and how it responds to ANY food. Your needs are not necessarily going to be my needs.

 

[Swandattur]

Jenn, I expect it is all about what your own health issues are and which foods work for you. I am not eating starch if I can help it right now, because of blood sugar and, I guess, endotoxin problems. So far eating fruit has been working better than eating starchy things. If a person feels good eating starches and doesn't have mood, weight gain, or hunger issues while eating it, then they must be doing okay with it. If it worked that way for me, I would probably eat starches, in moderation at least. As you say, available fruits are often not the best quality. So, that makes potatoes, for some, a better option, or as good a food at any rate.

 

[Jenn]

I guess I don't consider a potato a "starch" for me, as it does not behave the same blood sugar wise or digestion wise as rice, for example.

A potato serving has approximately 500-600 mg of potassium, rice has 90 mg. Sugar and potassium go hand in hand in a ripe piece of fruit, like an orange picked for juicing. OJ has 400-450 mg of potassium in a serving. Sugar and potassium go hand in hand for blood sugar issues.

I guess I should clarify, If you can handle milk and OJ forever, go for it. If you are looking for something else, then my second choice is potato over fruit for what's available locally quality wise. If it comes off MY tree, forget the potatoes and let me suck down those perfect, ripe peaches.

Rice and corn masa are in a different category and I do keep them to a minimum and chew as well as possible.

 

[Rolan]

Most fruit in my neck of the woods is truly appalling. If it's not from far off continents then it's unripe junk. If not that then it's way overpriced. Thank god I tolerate potato otherwise I'd be pretty stuck.

 

[Swandattur]

Finding good fruit can be a problem, unless you pick it off the tree. That's true here in Florida, too. I do find some pretty good apples and some good peaches and cherries. I get only certain varieties of apple. Some always seem to be bad.
Jenn, that's interesting about the potato behaving differently than other starches for you. I guess it must be the potassium and the fructose in it as you said. I might try some really good potatoes sometime. My hope was that I could occasionally splurge on a starch, maybe even a not so good one. I might try potatoes sometime and see how they do for me. Maybe potatoes would be possible on a more regular basis, like once or twice a week. I think you could probably easily grow a some potatoes by just sticking one out on some good ground. I have done that several times, although, I never dug down for any, but I guess they had to be there, if the plant on top looked good. Not far from here, in a place called Hastings, they grow lots of potatoes. I should try it.

 

[Rolan]

Just liver on it's own, with a drink on the side? Do you just fry it, & does it taste OK?

It helps to soak liver in milk overnight or for a few hours.
Incredible how this helps with the taste.
I fry up my onions first in butter til nearly crispy and then fry the liver.
Calves liver is better for taste but this method works even with beef liver.

It's actually quite good and Mexican cokes makes everything go down good.

Apart from taste, is their any other benefit to soaking liver in Milk? I defrosted beef liver yesterday, ate some today. Still another 250g left so I need to eat it tomorrow...Do I have to get rid of the milk it's soaked in or can I drink that

 

[4peatssake]

Apart from taste, is their any other benefit to soaking liver in Milk? I defrosted beef liver yesterday, ate some today. Still another 250g left so I need to eat it tomorrow...Do I have to get rid of the milk it's soaked in or can I drink that

I have some calves liver marinating in milk now for dinner tonight! I've only done it for taste and have never drunk the milk! That's a little more adventurous than I've gone with that! :?

I do know that some people are eating liver raw but I'd be concerned about bacteria on both fronts - milk and raw liver. I do not cook my liver long, though. I pan fry each side (turn only once) but serve it up pink inside.

 

[dukez07]

Per calorie, sugar is less fattening than starch, partly because it stimulates less insulin.

This quote, which I've heard Ray Peat say, again and again, really confuses me. Ray Peat drinks many quarts of skimmed milk each day. One of the most insulinogenic foods that you can get (far more insulinogenic than whole milk). I guess he drinks many quarts of OJ each day too, so this lessens the insulinogenic response? After all, doesn't fructose reduce insulin/increase appetite, etc?

However, I a bit miffed as to RPs views on insulin. In that, he thinks it's this fat storage hormone. Insulin is anabolic, according to Matt Stone. Perhaps it has many functions, and, with differing variables at any one moment, can be a good thing for you, or it can turn on you? I don't know.

I once tried the 'McDougall diet', and like him, I turned into a skinny dweeb. My skin looked horrendous (just like McDougall), but did I gain any weight on this insulin enhancing diet (low fat, and lots of starch)? No I did not. I appreciate that the McDougall diet is a lousy diet. The worst diet I've ever been on for well-being (my gut felt awful). But, in terms of weight management, it was faultless.

Ray Peat can say that insulin is a fat storage hormone, but aren't there other things to consider when making such a statement?

Please correct me anyone, if I have got anything wrong here.

 

[pboy]

I think he could clear that up a bit too. Insulin is necessary for a lot of conversions and to synthesize a lot of proteins and stuff...so I think you need some. I guess the question is how much. It would be nice if he should clear it up a bit. From my point of view, starch is only more likely than sugar to cause fat synthesis because you can cram a lot more in than sugar usually, but even then...its very hard to ever overflow glycogen unless you are making an effort against comfort. I really think excess dietary fat, like over 70 grams, or a bit more if your bigger, more muscular, eventually leads to some fat gain. It might even be more than that...I don't actually know from experience on this...and im not gonna try to get fat on purpose to test it! Another thing about starch is you have to consider the source. If the food is abundant in potassium and other electryolytes like root vegetables, youll be able to store all the sugar as glycogen, because some amount is required to do so...but if its an empty source like grains or sweetener, its more likely to become fat because the body has to get it out of the blood stream, and if not able to use elecs to store it as glycogen, it is more likely to become fat. All in all though, I think its literally just too much fat that makes people obese, especially vegetable fats...and potentially grains and sweeteners if you pounded them in

perhaps when people are full of environmental and industrial toxins, food toxins, even bacteria...or deficient in nutrients, their metabolism would slow down, but appetite follows metabolism...so naturally they should eat less. I think a lot of people eat for other reasons than appetite, and maybe against comfort so maybe that's whats happening also, and its not good food