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Tips on Making the Most of Your Starches
Whether you are preventing or reversing heart disease, the following tips will prove useful in healthfully lowering your fat and sodium intake and increase your fiber:
• As most commercially prepared starches -such as biscuits, muffins, cookies, pancakes, and croissants- are not made with the recommended fats, it is smartest to enjoy such baked goods primarily at home, where you can modify the recipes to use preferred oils, and less fat and sodium. Homemade versions could be prepared with egg whites or egg substitutes instead of whole eggs and you can substitute fat-free moist ingredients like skim milk, yogurt, pureed fruit, fruit juices, or wonderslim for the fat.
• Bread can have more cholesterol-lowering potential if you use oats, oat bran, or barley flour for some, if not all, of the wheat flour called for in a recipe. Cholesterol-lowering beans, such as limas, can be cooked and mashed and substituted for a third of the flour in many recipes without imparting a beany taste! Try the Pumpkin Bean Bread (in Heal Your Heart) and see what you think.
• Since most low-sodium canned soups still contain more than our 500 milligram sodium recommendation per day in just a single cup, it is smartest to enjoy only homemade soups in which you can control the sodium and fat (or no-salt-added soups). Although soups vary widely in ingredients, most 1-cup servings of soup contain at least 1 starch allowance, or approximately ½ cup of cooked grain or starchy vegetable. You can guestimate how many (starch) allowances are in a serving by comparing the nutritional analysis on the label to the nutritional information given in the first sentence defining each food group.
• If you add significant amounts of any kind of bran to your diet you should also drink more water to prevent constipation. You can add bran to cooked cereal and casseroles, or to moist items, such as applesauce.
• Drink 4 to 8 cups of water or beverages daily to assure proper fluid intake with your high-fiber, complex carbohydrate-rich, starch-based diet. Respect your thirst mechanism, as fluid needs vary with sodium intake and perspiration losses (influenced by exercise, temperature, and humidity). For example, someone who is eating a salt-free vegetarian diet and exercising moderately will likely desire only 32 ounces of water, while someone eating an additional 500 milligrams of sodium and running a summer marathon may need twice this fluid intake. When you are eating a no-salt-added vegetarian diet it is important not to force fluids, as is often recommended with higher-salt diets. Drinking a lot of water for "dieting" reasons can cause electrolyte imbalances if you are truly eating a no-salt-added vegetarian diet. Unless you are taking medication that alters your thirst mechanism, or are running marathon distances, then relax, tune into your body, and trust your thirst mechanism.
• Try eating breads and starchy foods with no salt added. You may want to request your favorite salt-free bread at the nearest bakery. If they do not want to stock a salt-free bread, they will often make you a batch upon request. You may have to buy a large batch at once, but bread freezes beautifully. Also become friendly with the grocery store managers who will often stock your favorite no-fat/no-salt snacks if you let your desires be known. Diplomacy and tenacity with these requests usually produces healthful results.
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