Macro partitioning
High starch intake (top quartile, >28.8 E%) is associated with a significantly higher risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality compared to moderate intake (22.8-25.3 E%), creating a U-shaped risk curve.
Aim for moderate starch intake, roughly 20-30% of your total daily energy, rather than very low or very high levels. This range is associated with the lowest risk of cardiovascular disease and death in this population. Focus on the source of starch (e.g., bread, potatoes) as the study notes specific protein associations.
a U-shape association between starch intake and risk of CVD (P-nonlinearity 0.001) and all-cause mortality (P-nonlinearity 0.03) was observed... those in the second to the third quartile had a 9–11% lower risk of CVD, while there was no statistically reduced risk in the highest quartile
Why this rating
Large prospective cohort (n=21,268), long follow-up (median 23 years), rigorous adjustment for confounders, but observational design limits causal inference.
Source
Starch intake, amylase gene copy number variation, plasma proteins, and risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality
Huiping Li et al. · BMC Medicine · 2023
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