What Is the Purpose of the Starch Solution Diet?
The starch solution is a whole-food, plant-based diet that has been developed by John A. McDougall, MD, a physician, author, and founder of the McDougall Programs and Dr. McDougall’s Right Foods, in an attempt to dietarily consume the right amount of nutrients through starch-based foods. According to Dr. McDougall, the starch solution diet is designed to be a long-term answer by taking resistant, nutrient-dense starches that can help in sustainable weight loss and improved systemic health outcomes. The starch solution is rather similar to a whole foods diet which emphasizes focusing on a diet based on whole, unprocessed foods, fruits, vegetables, and legumes while avoiding animal-based food sources such as fish, meat, and dairy. While the majority of compliant foods on the starch solution diet are recommended complex carbohydrates only, these foods are quite high in starch with their pros and cons equally.
What Are the Cons of the Starch Solution Diet?
It is important to know that the fiber in potatoes, grains, and legumes is higher; however, the restrictive nature of this diet is because animal protein or animal foods, all refined foods and even vegetable oils, simple sugars are also excluded from the diet, meaning that one cannot consume them while on this diet. This diet plan claims to promote weight loss and support overall health. Furthermore, dietary fats like those yielded from essential nuts, seeds, and avocados that are recommended as part of a balanced diet by the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) are also omitted from this diet. Though restricting these foods would potentially accelerate weight loss, according to nutrition experts, if one cut out on these foods that are part of a balanced diet with proven health benefits, for instance like dietary fats, systemic health would certainly be impacted in the long run.
What Is the Nature and Advantages of This Diet?
The positive side of Dr. McDougall's starch solution diet as per published research is that it promotes the health effects of a vegan diet in improving various health conditions, be it arthritis (tenderness and swelling of one or more joints), cholesterol, blood pressure, cancer, and other chronic diseases. Even if one follows a vegan diet along with starch solution, it should be free from the cons of the conventional American diet that may be high on processed foods, saturated fat, or refined carbohydrate sources that may be counterproductive. The starch solution diet emphasizes consumption of whole foods, mainly taking in the percentage or portions of 70 percent starch, 20 percent vegetables, and 10 percent fruits. This means the starch solution eliminates processed and prepackaged foods while restricting healthy fat intake for example olive oil, avocados, nuts, seeds, and nut butter.
The starch solution plan instead includes plenty of plant-based proteins like legumes, quinoa, brown rice, and sweet potatoes all of which can benefit systemic immunity with plant protein. Soy protein on the other hand, as found in tofu and tempeh, for example is restricted to a minimum though not eliminated from the diet.
Advantages:
-
The starch solution diet mainly has the advantage that it is free of all the food allergens otherwise typically related to animal products like fish, dairy, and eggs (common allergies in susceptible individuals). However, it still contains other common allergens for example gluten, soy, wheat, and nuts that would also be potential allergens for individuals with these food allergies. People with food allergies hence need to make appropriate substitutions after consulting with the nutritionist to make this diet completely safe for consumption.
-
For maximum weight loss, according to Dr. McDougall, a person does not need to worry about the number of calories consumed, but rather consume the right amount of vegetables, containing at least around 45 percent starch from vegetables and 10 percent from fruit to promote weight loss. The rationale of this concept is that most colorful vegetables are naturally low in calories, hence even if nearly half of the food intake comprises vegetables, it creates a calorie deficit in turn.
What Are the Rules of Starch Solution Diet?
Some important rules of the starch solution are listed as follows:
-
Eat Only When a Person Is Hungry: As this is not a calorie-restricted diet, one can still consume compliant foods only when they are hungry so that they feel full and satiated with their meals.
-
Avoiding the Consumption of Non-Compliant Foods: The starch solution diet, which is primarily designed to be a lifestyle plan promotes non consumption of any animal-based foods, vegetable oils, or diary sources and instead focuses on plant proteins more. The drawback certainly is that this is very difficult to maintain or implement in a regular day diet.
-
Using Only Low-Fat Condiments and Seasonings: Low-fat condiments, seasonings, and sauces would ensure a low-calorie and satiating diet.
-
Avoiding the Use of Dried Fruit as Well as Fruit Juices High on Calories: This means that one chooses whole fruits instead, that can give a person whole fiber. Also, fruits are excellent sources of vitamins and minerals, they are associated with good immunity and systemic health benefit.
-
Opt For Whole Grains Instead of Refined Foods: For instance, one can choose whole grain wheat bread instead of white bread or brown rice, preferably over white rice according to this rule. Complete vegan plant-based protein can be obtained this way when one wants to have refined or processed foods.
-
Purchasing or Stocking Legumes: Legumes like beans and lentils, which are excellent sources of plant proteins are also rich in resistant starches that can be capable of promoting healthy weight loss. Since this diet itself is based on consuming starches like potatoes, rice, beans, and lentils, followers of the diet can easily purchase or stock up on these foods in bulk, which would be more budget-friendly.
Conclusion:
Though the starch solution diet is a good example of a plant-based protein diet, it would work well in combination with regular exercise and healthy habits like hydration, and enough sleep. It would also help individuals select a diet plan suited to their weight loss goals. However, it is important to remember that the best diet is one that is balanced, fits the lifestyle, and is very restrictive. Hence it may pose a threat of vitamin deficiencies, just like any other restrictive diet plan which eliminates crucial vitamins. Hence, it would be wiser for a person to consult the registered dietitian to help create a game plan that is best suited for maintaining their systemic health instead of adopting a diet plan without knowing if it suits a person or not.
