Hello everyone! After a short hiatus of taking a long winter’s rest, (I blame COVID) I am now bumping up my wellness journey that includes a dietary change that I believe is worth checking into: High Starch Diet.
Recently, I was talking to my cousin in Hawaii. We were basically comparing our health charts, if you will, and she brought up something that piqued my interest and got me to thinking. We were discussing being post menopausal, high cholesterol, high blood triglycerides, and being pre-diabetic. She was able to get her A1c down and is no longer pre-diabetic. She got her triglycerides down by going starch based, whole food, plant based diet.
I quote my cousin, Jolene, on this:
“My doctor is still coming to terms with the fact that my triglycerides dropped while eating so much rice and potatoes. I don’t eat fats often. If I do, it’s in very low amounts. I’ve found that keto wasn’t working for me as well as it does for everyone else because my body LOVES fat. It keeps it, holds on to it, pets it, hugs it, and calls it George. When I was doing Weight Watchers (which is basically low fat), that’s the best I’ve ever done on an eating plan. Lost 40 lbs of which I’ve kept off 20. More or less…
So I don’t eat animals. Much. I do eat meats and fats but only if my body is craving it. I eat it once then stop. Outside of that, I eat a lot of rice which is what I’m used to, having been raised on it. Most people on the Starch Solution Plan eat potatoes. Try looking on You Tube for Starch Solution, Dr. McDougall, or potato diet. As it turns out, starches don’t raise blood levels of a lot of things.
Most people eat non-fried (baked or air-fried) potatoes in any form – fries, hashed, full baked stuffed with veggies and low fat fake cheese sauce (made with nutritional yeast which delivers a lot of vitamin B12).
It’s an interesting way to eat. It feels A LOT like ancestral eating. I eat white rice, kimchi, seaweed spinkles (furikake), veggies, and a dollop of gochujang. That’s my usual meal and my favorite. Hawaiians eat a lot of poi which is taro, so l sometimes I eat the ancestral Hawaiian food: poi, steamed taro leaves (sort of tastes like collard greens), and if in craving animal protein, I eat salmon or dried fish. Chinese food is hardest to eat because of all the oil, but I can eat Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Hawaiian foods until the cows come home”
In addition she said this:
“His studies got all the right buttons with me. For eons, I watched my old Okinawan grandfather and even more ancient Japanese grandfather eat rice and beans and veggies. They hardly had any health problems. Asians eat A LOT of white rice. Polynesians used to eat a lot of taro/poi. In the 80s, a doctor here named Terry Shintani had Hawaiians eat like their ancestors – poi and vegetables (only royalty ate meats and fish). The big Hawaiians lost a lot of weight and got their blood numbers down. That got me thinking that our ability to digest and utilize foods might be genetic. So when Dr McDougall talked about every culture having a staple starch, lights went on in my head.”
This conversation triggered a memory of my weight loss after my youngest daughter was born. I went to Weight Watchers and one of the things that helped was it was very low fat.
After researching this in the link I have provided below, I decided that I was all in. I’ve only been on this just a few days, but I can tell you this: My mood has changed, I have my energy back, and I feel a lot better. It is too soon to tell if I have lost weight, I anticipate the weight loss will come. Carbs give us energy. The protein in this diet is plant based. I have always craved animal protein when I work out, so I am allowing myself small amounts of animal protein, if needed.
So far, this is what I have discovered: My sugar cravings have stopped. My hunger is better controlled, I am still intermittently fasting, It my energy levels have returned to the point of I am actively engaged in painting bathroom, cleaning out clutter which I no longer need, my mind is more clear, and my focus is better.
Special thanks to my awesome cousin Jolene for sharing her experience with me. She has graciously given me permission to share her experience with you, my dear readers.
By the way, Jolene HATES exercise… and she is doing well. A couple of her friends have both lost 60 and 50 lbs this
Start Learning More
- Image Credit: Baby Potatoes Baked in a Salt Crust by Diplomatic Kitchen Staff
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The Starch Solution by John A. McDougall, M.D. by Dr. McDougall Health & Medical Center Staff
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The Starch Solution (Eat the Foods You Love, Regain Your Health, and Lose the Weight for Good!) by John McDougall as found on Amazon
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Nancy Cho-Auvil is the author of From the Heart column for Wellness Works NW. Nancy is also a contributing author of Mixed Korean: Our Stories. Native to the Pacific Northwest, Nancy lives in Cowlitz County with her life partner and their cat, Keekers. Nancy enjoys working out with Karen G Clemenson. She also enjoys knitting. Check out Nancy’s personal blog at CrazyCozyChick.Blogspot.com. You can also find Nancy on Facebook. Nancy is a mom, a grandmother and a heart attack survivor so we know what she writes comes straight From the Heart…
