Name: The starch solution
ISBN: 9781623360276

The starch solution

Fear of carbs has taken over the diet industry for the past few decades--the mere mention of a starch-heavy food is enough to trigger an avalanche of shame and longing. Here, diet doctor and board-certified internist John A. McDougall, MD, and his kitchen-savvy wife, Mary, show that a starch-rich diet can actually help you lose weight and prevent a variety of ills. By fueling your body primarily with carbohydrates rather than proteins and fats, you'll feel satisfied, boost energy, and look and feel better.--From publisher description.

What Hacker News says

BorkdudeJun 2022

Take a look at The Starch Solution by John McDougall.

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dario_insaneAug 2017

Consider reading Whole by Campbell and Starch Solution by McDougall. Add How Not To Die by Greger and if you want some more add End of all Diets by Fuhrman.

The gist: Limit the fats. If your exercising and/or are at least moderately active, you can have some more nuts and seeds etc. But if you're sitting at the computer all day, limit fats to the absolute minimum. Eat lots of carbs. The body will not turn them into fat. Lot's of studies (100 years+) on this. Just open your eyes and read online and the books I mentioned.

Funny example: Oven chips vs french fries. Prefer oven chips with <= 2% fat and your "OK". Steamed potatoes with zero fat are, of course, better in this context.

Not saying keto diets (meat based or not, but protein+fat instead of starchy/sugary carbs based) don't work. Just really bad karma with the cruelty against animals in meat farms etc. Not cool. Not cool. Anyway, long term data isn't there yet on keto diets. And generally speaking: The world is getting sicker. And Campbell & Co seem to hint at food - mainly animal products - are the cause. McDougall etc show that the human race survived and thrived on starch. (Low fat! Actually.)

Consider this..

Vegetarian or vegan means little. WFPB (whole food plant based) is a better term. And find your sugars and starches under this WFPB umbrella and your good. These foods have only little amount of natural fat. Look at WFPB / 80/10/10 athletes for examples..

Just my two cents..

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dario_insaneAug 2017

Consider reading Whole by Campbell, How Not To Die by Greger, Starch Solution by McDougall, End of all Diets by Fuhrman.

Promoting animal products seems to be somewhat en vogue.

But please open your eyes and look at the data, the history of the human race (starch based!), and for the love of "god" (ie the universe with all that it contains, not the religious kind), look at the cruelty against animals. Bad karma. Really bad karma.

And considering that the human population nowadays with meat, dairy and eggs in their diet is getting sicker and sicker (studies, numbers, all there for you - just have to look), maybe animal products aren't exactly on the safe side..

:-/

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dario_insaneAug 2017

Please consider reading the Starch Solution by McDougall. Or watch some of his youtube videos. It's the easiest way to look at nutrition.

If interested, add How Not To Die by Greger. Nice youtube video of him at Google online. But a lot of information. Don't get confused by this. Go back to McDougall after watching this! :-)

Add Campbell's Whole or one of his recent youtube videos. If you want to be blown away by what the meat and dairy industries are doing to humans (and animals of course). It's like with the tobacco industry 50-something years ago! It's a shame that money is allowed to kill people in the millions with the governments knowing about it. And oh my the cruelty against animals.. Bad karma.. :-(

Anyway, avoid processed foods, yes. Processed sugar. Don't say "avoid sugar". Don't fear natural sugar! Fruits are good for you. But don't combine with fat! In a gist: The fat will be in your blood stream, blocking absorption of the sugars when you really want the sugar to be available for your muscles. Studies and data online. Known for many decades.

Somewhat more extreme: Read Graham's 80/10/10.

I'm on his high fruit 80/10/10 raw diet as much as possible - living in Germany where there isn't that much good fruits. I compensate with McDougall based starchy foods when i run out of fruits. I sometimes eat two to four pounds of oven baked potatoes.. :-) Eating between 3000 and 6000 calories a day. Exercising moderately for 30 to 60 minutes 3 to 5 days a week. Spending rest of time mostly sitting and standing(!) at my computer. Keeping my weight and body fat around 10% easily. The body isn't stupid. It will not turn carbs into body fat easily.

Note that I'm not saying keto diets etc don't work. High carb diets just seem to have a much better karma. Environmental factors, animal cruelty, and looking back at history, the human race survived and thrived and starches. Studies and data all there online. The gist: We could easily feed 10 billion people on this planet with carbs. But doing this on the back of helpless creates like cows, pigs and chickens, will f* up our environment and cost far too much of our resources.

Consider karma in all you do.. ^^

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jtwebmanJun 2017

I have been on a whole food no oil starch based vegan diet eating mostly potatoes and some other veggies with no fat for 5 months. I have lost 43 pounds eating as much as I wanted. I have done only a little exercise walking a little more but nothing crazy. I feel like I am 21 again though I turned 41 this weekend.

The Starch Solution by John A. McDougall is a great book. Also this video that just came out has a bunch of studies that I read before going on the diet. He does a good job at explaining them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHfbqodBXdw

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regnumApr 2017

The amazing results coming out of a low carb diet? Just look at the recent news of The Biggest Loser trainer Bob Harper's heart attack. That's what low-carb will get you. Watch Forks Over Knives. Read The Starch Solution by Dr. McDougall. Look at any data not funded by the meat, dairy, and egg industries. It all points to the opposite of the popularized myth that starches are bad. I wish you the best of health!

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