Have you ever thought about the fact that white flour and corn starch look remarkably similar? Potato starch, too. A big pile of fluffy white powder. Why might that be? What each of these examples has in common is that we have processed away its unique original character until all that remains, in each case, is dry starch. You can’t see corn kernels in corn starch because there are none. There are no grains in white flour. And there are no potatoes in potato starch.
You could say that the essential “wheat-ness” of the product has been removed, that the “corn-ness” is no longer in evidence, or that the “potato-ness” is gone. The starch no longer bears any visible reminder of its origins, and its essential identity has been irreversibly obscured by the processes through which it passed on its way to being converted into a pile of white powder.
No, I am not a Luddite. Many kinds of processing are perfectly acceptable. Making yogurt from milk or peanut butter from peanuts, pressing grapes into wine or olives into olive oil, for example. I’ve heard of folks who won’t eat olive oil, only olives. I am not one of them. I guess everybody has their limits. My limit is health. Maintaining your good health means avoiding items and patterns that make you sick. What if your entire society is designed to make it significantly more difficult to do that? That’s a conversation for another day. Olive oil does not make people sick. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.
Starch (no matter its origin), on the other hand, spikes your blood sugar just like a bowl of sugar. It’s a stripped carbohydrate, a stripped grain in the cases of corn and wheat. And it’s not just the fact that “white flour starch” spikes your blood sugar that bothers me. Stripping removes many nutrients. In fact, early efforts to strip rice in southeast Asia in the 19th century precipitated an epidemic of beri-beri, which is caused by a deficiency of thiamine, Vitamin B1. The thiamine was in the husks that had been discarded. In case you’re wondering, “enrichment” and “fortification” do not replace them all.
While it’s true that human beings have figured out how to convert white flour into all kinds of tasty items, white flour is not food in the same way as wheat berries, bulgur wheat or whole-grain flour. Eating corn starch is not the same as that graceful dance we do with our lips, teeth and tongue when we pop corn kernels directly from the cob into our mouths. I’ve heard that certain kinds of poison have a mildly sweet, pleasant taste, too. But we certainly don’t eat those. We feed them to rats.
What?!, you’re asking. She’s comparing corn starch to rat poison? Not exactly. I’m trying to make a point. Just because something tastes good doesn’t mean it nourishes you. Any time you eat something made with white flour or corn starch, any time you pick something off a dessert menu on a random night for no particular reason, remember that it’s okay to eat treats sometimes. But they’re not nutritious. They’re entertainment.