# Starch

Category: Foods & Substances

Also known as: safe starch, potato, potatoes

Starch is a complex carbohydrate that Peat considered safe only when well cooked and consumed with fat, though he consistently warned it is more lipogenic than sugar and less effective for mineral balance. The primary danger of starch lies in the phenomenon of persorption…

10 passages · 2 authors · 2013–2022 · Most-cited: [Ray Peat](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/voices/ray-peat/index.md)

Canonical page: https://bioenergeticoracle.com/concepts/starch

## Synthesis

**Starch** is a complex carbohydrate that Peat considered safe only when *well cooked* and consumed with fat, though he consistently warned it is more lipogenic than sugar and less effective for mineral balance. [Source 1, 10] The primary danger of starch lies in the phenomenon of **persorption**, where intact starch granules cross the intestinal wall and enter the bloodstream, potentially clogging arterioles and causing tiny areas of tissue death throughout the body. [Source 4, 8] Potato starch granules are particularly large—several times the size of a red blood cell—yet even these can be squeezed into the lymphatics and circulation within 30 minutes of ingestion if eaten without fat. [Source 8, 9]

The potato occupies a unique and privileged position among starches in Peat's framework. He described it as *almost a complete food*, noting that New Guineans living on a diet of nearly pure potatoes for 51 weeks a year showed no heart disease or significant degenerative illness. [Source 2, 3] Unlike cereal grains, which are dormant, dehydrated storage forms containing **phytic acid** that binds minerals, the potato is always in a metabolically active, moist physiological state, giving it a superior balance of intracellular minerals like phosphorus and calcium. [Source 3] Peat also highlighted the potato's high-quality protein and its content of keto acids, which allow the body to combine them with ammonia from normal muscle breakdown to synthesize amino acids, making it theoretically possible to survive entirely on butter and potatoes. [Source 5, 7] Potato juice or soup, with the fibrous starch discarded, has been used as a potent sedative; Peat recounted a case of a man who had not slept in three months falling asleep mid-bowl after consuming it. [Source 2]

Despite its virtues, starch consumption requires specific preparation to mitigate harm. Peat insisted that starch must be *thoroughly cooked*, specifying that a potato needs about an hour of baking to reach roughly 211°F, which chemically softens the granules for safer digestion. [Source 4] Adding **butter or cream** is critical, as fat slows the rapid digestion of pure glucose, blunts the strong insulin stimulation that promotes fat synthesis, and physically reduces the persorption of intact granules. [Source 8, 9] Without these precautions, starch that passes undigested into the intestine can fuel bacterial or fungal growth and endotoxin production. [Source 5, 6] Peat also noted that the whole nightshade family—potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant—is inherently allergenic, and that green potato skins contain the toxic alkaloid **solanine**. [Source 5, 9] He recommended eliminating them for a week to test for sensitivity. [Source 3, 9]

Georgi Dinkov, extending Peat's perspective, has argued that the only "safe starches" are white rice and potatoes, and even these should be used sparingly. [Source 7] His reasoning is that their high digestibility allows absorption to occur higher in the digestive tract, ideally in the stomach, minimizing the chance of starch reaching the colon or the bloodstream. [Source 7] Dinkov cautioned against underestimating the inflammatory potential of starch, its insulin response, and the eventual insulin resistance it can promote. [Source 7] Peat himself observed that elevated triglycerides from starch intake are common but typically benign, often reflecting a stressed individual self-medicating with comfort foods; cutting back on starch promptly lowers triglycerides. [Source 2] For those who do consume starch, maintaining rapid intestinal transit through thyroid function, fibrous foods like raw carrots, and antiseptic agents such as cooked mushrooms helps keep the small intestine free of bacteria and reduces endotoxin absorption. [Source 6]

## People also ask

### Why did Ray Peat consider starch more fattening than sugar?

Peat argued that starch triggers a stronger insulin response than sugar, which promotes fat synthesis, and that its digestion can lead to elevated triglycerides, making it more lipogenic overall.

### How does eating fat with starch prevent harm?

The entry explains that fat, especially butter or cream, slows glucose digestion, blunts insulin spikes, and physically reduces the persorption of intact starch granules into the bloodstream.

### What makes potatoes uniquely acceptable among starches?

Peat described the potato as a metabolically active food with superior mineral balance and high-quality protein, noting populations eating mostly potatoes showed no degenerative illness, unlike with cereal grains.

## Related concepts

- [Acne](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/acne/index.md)
- [Arthritis](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/arthritis/index.md)
- [Beta oxidation](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/beta-oxidation/index.md)
- [Calcium-to-Phosphorus Ratio](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/calcium-to-phosphorus-ratio/index.md)
- [Diabetes](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/diabetes/index.md)
- [Eggs](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/eggs/index.md)

## Cited passages

Passage numbers match the `[Source N]` markers in the synthesis above.

### Source 1 — Ray Peat Email Advice Depository — Post 22

Ray Peat · Email · Jan 27, 2013

> **Ray Peat:** When starch is well cooked, and eaten with some fat and the essential nutrients, it's safe, except that it's more likely than sugar to produce fat, and isn't as effective for mineral balance.

### Source 2 — One Radio Network — Peat (August 2022)

Ray Peat · Interview · Aug 15, 2022

> **Ray Peat:** Too much starch can cause elevated triglycerides.
>
> **Patrick Timpone:** Starch, potatoes.
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yeah, but stress does too. And so high triglycerides are seldom anything to worry about because usually it's just a person who's feeling stressed and so they're eating some extra starch. Cut back on your starch immediately, the triglycerides will come down.
>
> **Patrick Timpone:** Isn't it pretty prolific that stress or needing comfort, then we go to the pasta or the potato?
>
> **Ray Peat:** To which?
>
> **Patrick Timpone:** In other words, folks get stressed or nervous or just not feeling well, right? They go right for the potato or the pasta, right? Or the bread.
>
> **Ray Peat:** Oh, yeah. Potato is a good choice because It's almost a complete food.
>
> **Patrick Timpone:** Ah. And that can help straighten you out a little bit if you're all stressed out, can't it?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yeah.
>
> **Patrick Timpone:** Yeah. Good old potatoes. Years ago, we interviewed a lady. She wrote a book, Dr. Peat, called Potatoes, Not Prozac. I always remember that. And that's what she said. So potatoes will help put you to sleep?

### Source 3 — One Radio Network: Health & Diet

Ray Peat · Interview · Dec 4, 2013 · http://l-i-g-h-t.com/files/one-radio-network-patrick-timpone-dr-peat-answers-questions-regarding-health-diet-and-nutrition-part-1.mp4

> **Caller:** the same thing happens to folks who don’t move it through in quick transit time?
>
> **Ray Peat:** yes, and the great interest in fibre that developed in the USA, partly there was a trend in 1900, but it came back with the oat bran publicity in the 1970s. But the person who had studied the role of fibre in preventing bowel cancer in Africa, came to the US and asked why everyone was eating oat bran? He was talking about cooked potatoes in the diet, which are a great and pretty safe fibre. Australian studies found in particular that oat bran promoted bowel cancer in rats
>
> **Caller:** Are cooked potatoes good? Sweet potatoes?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Very good. New Guineans live on basically the traditional diet of almost pure potatoes for 51 weeks per year, and one week of pork feasts. They did not have any heart disease, not a high rate of cancer or any degenerative disease.
>
> **Caller:** I have always though of potatoes turning to sugar, would there be issues with the heart?
>
> **Ray Peat:** All the starches do turn to sugar, but the other ingredients in potatoes are very different to cereals. The cereals are a storage form that has to be dormant for several months until the next season. The potato is always moist and metabolizing, and so it’s always in a physiological state, not concentrated and dehydrated. This means that it has a good balance of all of the intracellular minerals associated with the starch, so you have a better balance of phosphorous and calcium than in the seeds. The phosphorous in the seed is in the form of phytic acid, or a similar thing that binds minerals, which means the minerals are concentrated in this Phytic acid, this means when it sprouts, it becomes relatively good nutrition. But a potato is always in that living state, with granules of starch within a function themselves.

### Source 4 — One Radio Network: Ray Peat with Patrick Timpone — January 17, 2022

Ray Peat · Interview · Jan 17, 2022

> There have been a series going back about a hundred years of studies showing that if you put in especially raw starch, you can purify the starch. Corn starch, potato starch, each has a characteristic granule size ranging from five microns in diameter to a hundred microns in diameter. And if you give a good feeding maybe a stomach tube to put a lot of starch in at once and then sample the animal's bloodstream, its liver fluids, its cerebrospinal fluids, the urine, all of the body fluids, every 15 minutes you find first going into the bloodstream and from there to the brain and from the blood into the urine finally. So even though they are large particles approaching and even much bigger than a red blood cell, these particles unchanged as far as can be seen will go from the intestine right into the... circulating body fluids. And that's not good. So, when they reach a capillary or a small arterial, they're too big to go ahead. And so when they slice up the mice, for example, after they've been fed that way, they find that... their bodies and brains are full of little areas of dead tissue. Everyplace a grain particle clogs an arteriole, the surrounding tissue dies for lack of oxygen and nutrients. And the same... procedure has been tested in medical students. They're giving them a glass, a swurry of cornstarch or potato starch, and then every 15 minutes they're drawing blood or checking their urine. And you can centrifuge the blood or urine and find the characteristic size. and form of the starch granules that they were fed, and you can decrease the effect if you take the fat in a well-cooked form and with butter or cream to slow the absorption. And if your peristalsis is very active, for example, if you take it with coffee, more of them go through into your bloodstream, so something is always happening to some extent, but the more the starch is cooked and eaten with a balanced diet, including milk, milk or butter, so that would be why, would you say then, a well-cooked potato with butter is pretty good? Better than, it's okay? Yeah. Really well-cooked, right? Really well-cooked. Yeah, meaning that the starch reaches about Fahrenheit 211 degrees. completely cooked, takes about an hour of baking a potato.

### Source 5 — Ask the Herb Doctor: California SB 277 / Degradation of the Food Supply

Ray Peat · Interview · May 15, 2015

> ## Caller Questions: Potato Varieties and Acid
>
> **Caller:** Does it matter which kind of potato we eat? I like Yukon Golds.
>
> **Ray Peat:** Each variety varies in the quantity of starch relative to protein, but the whole family has high-quality protein. The digestibility is the main difference. High carotene content (yellow color) can make them hard to digest for some people.
>
> **Sarah Murray:** And if the skins turn green, that is a toxin?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yes, solanine. It's a nightshade poison.
>
> **Caller (Honeydew):** Doesn't too much starch cause acid in your stomach?
>
> **Ray Peat:** The main function of acid in the stomach is digesting proteins. The stomach judges how much acid to secrete in proportion to the amount of protein it senses. Starch doesn't necessarily stimulate acid production, but it might be irritating if it is hard to digest. If it passes through the intestine without breaking down, it can support bacterial or fungal growth.

### Source 6 — Ray Peat Email Advice Depository — Post 274

Ray Peat · Email · Sep 14, 2016

> **Question:** "Let’s say I want to eat starch (rice, potatoes and even wheat), what can I do at the same time or right after to reduce the effect of endotoxin? I think vitamin D and vitamin B2 help along with coconut oil, what do you think?"
>
> **Ray Peat:** Keeping a fairly quick transit time usually goes with an abundance of digestive secretions, keeping the small intestine free of bacteria. Fiber, good thyroid function, and antiseptic foods such as cooked mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and raw carrots help.

### Source 7 — Q&A: Weight Loss, Dating, Red Light, Authorities, Starch Diets [Generative Energy #23]

Danny Roddy · Interview · Mar 3, 2016 · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcU2Mt98nxQ

> **Georgi Dinkov:** And I would say that the only safe starches, if there are such, that I would limit myself to, if possible, would be potatoes and rice, white rice. And basically, the reason is not that these starches are safe, but they're very easily digestible. So there isn't much of a chance, that much of a chance of the starch getting into your bloodstream. So the higher up the digestive tract that absorption happens, the better for your health. So things like sugar, like glucose, fructose, they get absorbed directly from the gut, I'm sorry, from the stomach. So white rice and potatoes, if they're very well cooked, they can probably achieve the same, mostly up in the stomach, a little bit in the small intestine, and hopefully nothing reaches the colon. And potatoes also are very high in the keto acids. Ray has talked about that. So you can basically live entirely. Even New York Times had this article, maybe it was like less than a year ago, it said the best... diet for you and the cheapest is butter and potatoes. So you can survive entirely on butter and potatoes. You'll get all of the protein because of the ammonia that you generate consistently from the muscle breakdown will combine with the keto acids and reform the amino acids which you need to build muscle. Eating potatoes will basically give you the starch and the ability to even detoxify ammonia. So I would say that's a good food to have. But again, don't underestimate the power of starch, what inflammation it can trigger, And the insulin response and eventually even the insulin resistance that it can lead to. So in my opinion, starches are even the safe ones, quote unquote, like white rice and potatoes should be used sparingly.

### Source 8 — One Radio Network: Health & Diet

Ray Peat · Interview · Dec 4, 2013 · http://l-i-g-h-t.com/files/one-radio-network-patrick-timpone-dr-peat-answers-questions-regarding-health-diet-and-nutrition-part-1.mp4

> **Ray Peat:** A starch granule... A potato starch granule happens to be very big. Other starches are more the size of a red blood cell, but a potato starch granule is several times fatter than that. But even these huge granules bigger than cells can get squeezed right through the wall of the intestine, enter the lymphatics and the blood system. So within 30 minutes after you eat starch without fat, you see these starch grains circulating through your blood.

### Source 9 — One Radio Network: Health & Diet

Ray Peat · Interview · Dec 4, 2013 · http://l-i-g-h-t.com/files/one-radio-network-patrick-timpone-dr-peat-answers-questions-regarding-health-diet-and-nutrition-part-1.mp4

> **Caller:** It’s OK to put butter on?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Especially with butter on, because pure starch digests quickly, it turns into pure glucose rather than half fructose, and the pure glucose is a strong stimulant to insulin creation and fat production. Adding butter or cream slows digestion, isn’t such a powerful insulin stimulant, it also reduces the chance of “persorption” of starch granules. A starch granule is a potato happens to be very big, other starch granules are the size of a red blood cell, but even the large potato starch granules bigger than cells can get squeezed right through the wall of the intestine, and enters the lymphatic system, so 30 minutes after ingestion you can see starch grains circulating through the blood and if they are big they will plug up your arterials. Studies in mice showed that a raw starch diet accelerated their aging, demonstrates areas of every organ that were being killed by plugging up the arteries,
>
> **Caller:** so the fat is key to have with starches?
>
> **Ray Peat:** yes, good thorough cooking plus some fat

### Source 10 — Ray Peat Email Advice Depository — Post 22

Ray Peat · Email · Jan 27, 2013

> **Question:** a) Sugar high I mixed lots of sugar and some salt in my milk and felt a burst of energy for quite a while.When this rush subsides and sugar falls, would adrenaline not kick in to raise blood sugar again? I was worried about this idea of spiking blood sugar constantly. It does get me feeling nice and warm though. is this safe ?
>
> **Ray Peat:** If the rest of your diet is good, the energy bursts from sugar should level off, and become a steady increased metabolic rate.
>
> **Question:** c) Calories/Low fat I was wondering how many calories you recommend per day ? I noticed you recommend low fat milk which means that even with 2 quarts, it would only be around 800 calories. Is it ok to have the full fat version which would take one to 1200 cal on 2 quarts?
>
> **Ray Peat:** I used to drink at least a gallon of 2% or 3% milk daily, and often ate more than 5000 calories, but when I'm completely sedentary for more than ten hours daily, my energy requirement is much lower. The calorie intake should be balanced to your heat production and activity.
>
> **Question:** d) How much starch is ok? You have mentioned "a moderate or low starch consumption" as part of an optimal diet. In general how much of rice/corn/potatoes etc is ok to have per day ?

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