Nutrition 101: Starches & Grains + Fiber
Whole grains and starches round out a balanced meal, but it's important to know which foods are best and provide the most nutritional benefit. Increasing your knowledge around these foods can elevate your meal planning and recipes to include key vitamins and minerals, as well as understanding how various starches and grains impact your body.
Important Education Takeaways
Starches and fibers are found in complex carbohydrate foods, such as whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, roots and tubers, fruits, and vegetables. Grains and starches act as a valuable source of energy for our bodies while also providing healthy fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
For a review on carbohydrates, please visit our Sugars and Carbohydrates highlights from our previous nutrition education.
Incorporate healthy starches, grains, and fibers into your everyday diet. Find creative ways to optimize your intake of these complex carbohydrate foods.
For optimal meal balance, aim to fill a quarter of your plate with quality carbohydrate foods such as whole grains, starchy vegetables, and/or fruits.
You can learn more about the Healthy Plate method by watching this video.
All fruits, as well as starchy vegetables (potatoes, corn, peas, and winter squash), can be a healthy source of vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Since these foods contain a significant amount of carbohydrates, we treat them as a “carb” food, as they get broken down into sugar when digested by the body.
Choose whole grains over refined grains.
Whole grains have three component parts, the bran, the germ, and the endosperm. These parts of the grain work together to give us a nutrient-dense food that contains beneficial vitamins, minerals, and fiber in addition to carbohydrates for sustained energy. In contrast, refined grains have undergone varying degrees of processing. This results in lower nutrient and fiber contents, as well as faster absorbing carbohydrates, which can cause blood sugar spikes.
Make at least half of your grain choices from whole grains. Oatmeal, barley, bulgar, millet, farro, quinoa, corn and brown rice are all great options.
Food labeling claims can often be confusing and misleading. Ensure you are choosing a whole grain product by checking the ingredient list. Look for the “whole” grain component at the top of the ingredient list.
Limit highly processed grain products that are made of refined carbohydrates such as white bread, white rice, crackers, chips, and baked goods.
Replace refined grain products with their whole grain equivalent.
Oatmeal instead of a sugary breakfast cereal.
Whole grain bread, pasta, or crackers instead of white.
Brown rice or quinoa instead of white rice.
Corn tortillas instead of flour.
Whole grain flour instead of white flour for your baking.
Ideas to incorporate healthy grains, starches, and fibers:
Cook a new-to-you whole grain such as bulgar, farro, Kamut, millet, steel-cut oats, or wild rice.
Include colorful produce at each meal and snack.
Enjoy potatoes, corn, peas, and winter squash as healthy carb options.
Add beans, peas, or lentils to your soups, salads, and side dishes.
Fiber should be part of your daily nutrition routine. Fiber offers a number of health benefits for our bodies.
Fiber is an undigestible form of a carbohydrate coming from plants such as whole grains, fruits, veggies, beans and legumes, nuts, and seeds.
There are two forms of fiber:
Soluble: Absorbs water and forms a viscous substance within the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. It works to slow digestion in the stomach and small intestine and is fermented by bacteria in the large intestine. Soluble fiber promotes satiety (the feeling of fullness), lowers blood cholesterol, and aids in blood sugar control.
Insoluble: The undigested form of fiber that adds bulk and locks in moisture to the stool passing through the colon. It helps to strengthen the bowel walls and promote regular bowel movements.
Fiber assists with satiety and supports glycemic control, which has been linked to lowered risk for cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cancers (especially those of the GI tract), and overweight/obesity.
Aim to maximize dietary fiber intake. Challenge yourself to meet your fiber goal of 28-35 grams or more per day.
Recipes
Recipe of the month: Sweet Potato Pizza Crust
As always, this recipe is the showcase of our live taught, virtual cooking class. Our chef and registered dietitian bring the recipe to life as they walk you through food prep, swaps to meet dietary or taste preferences, plus tips and tools to support you being your own healthy chef at home.
Bonus recipe: Esquites
From Jamie’s kitchen to yours, our monthly bonus recipes are published on our website and social media the 4th Wednesday of each month. We invite you to browse our recipe collection and come back often to find more flavorful and heart-healthy recipes.
We invite you to join us for the live taught, virtual nutrition classes each month to gather more information on our nutrition topics. This is also an opportunity to ask topic-related questions of our experts as well as connect socially with attendees for idea sharing. As a registered participant for our In the Kitchen program, you receive a few reminders ahead of each scheduled monthly classes, but here’s an easy to remember schedule: Nutrition Education (30-minutes, 2nd Wednesday, 12pm), Cooking Class (up to 60-minutes, 3rd Monday, 12pm).
Contributing authors: Jamie Libera, RD, LD, CCTD, registered dietitian, Providence.