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Starches on a plant based diet: what the doctors say
Starches on a plant based diet: what McDougall, Esselstyn, Barnard, Novick and other doctors say about potatoes, rice, grains and beans, with sources.
Updated . For education only, not medical advice.
Our view
Starches are the filling foods such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, corn, oats and other grains, and beans, peas and lentils; John McDougall builds his whole program on them, with fruit and vegetables on the side1. His case is historical: in a 2013 lecture he said the large and lasting populations of the past drew most of their calories from these foods and dropped them only once they could afford meat and dairy2.
We side with that view because the doctors who have fed patients this way for decades agree on it, from McDougall and Nathan Pritikin to Caldwell Esselstyn and Neal Barnard3456. The fear that starch makes people fat is the main myth they push back on: Denis Burkitt denied it outright, and Barnard and Jeff Novick blame the butter, cheese and fries that come with potatoes, not the potato789.
Where they differ is on how much starch, in what form, and how fast someone who wants to lose weight should lean on it, and we take those points as matters of degree, not doubts about the base of the diet101112.
Where they agree
Every doctor here puts whole starches at the center of the plate: Esselstyn lists grains for cereal, bread and pasta, many beans and lentils, and white and sweet potatoes5, Pritikin named brown rice, pasta, corn tortillas and millet in 19824, and Barnard’s 2005 study had women eating rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes and pasta13.
They agree that the potato in particular has been wrongly blamed: Barnard notes that a big potato beats a big egg on protein and that the trouble lies in what people pile on it148. Hana Kahleova says studies that rank potatoes as unhealthy mostly catch fries eaten beside burgers15, and Novick answered a 2011 Harvard analysis by noting that a plain potato has few calories for its bulk and topped a ranking of foods by fullness9.
They also agree that more starch need not mean more weight or worse blood sugar: in Barnard’s 2005 study women ate more carbohydrate and still lost about a pound a week for two years13, and in Kahleova’s type 1 diabetes trial the vegan group raised carbohydrate and cut insulin by about 12 units a day16. Burkitt called peas and beans excellent for their soluble fiber, and potatoes nutritious and slimming when no fat touches them1718.
Where they differ
The doctors part ways on how large a share of calories starch should take, on flour products against intact grains, on the glycemic index, and on whether total carbohydrate matters as much as its quality10192021.
How much starch
Peter Rogers says McDougall told patients to get about 90 percent of calories from starch, advice Rogers sees as meant for older, sick people, while he eats about 60 percent starch, 35 percent fruit and 5 percent vegetables himself2210. Chef AJ put her own share at roughly three quarters of calories in 202123, and Novick put carbohydrate at about 85 percent of calories in the old Okinawan diet, mostly from sweet potatoes24. At the far end, Walter Kempner’s rice diet drew 90 to 95 percent of calories from carbohydrate, as rice and fruit, in its first phase25.
Starch and weight loss
Chef AJ does not rely on starch alone for weight loss: in 2021 her advice to clients was a pound or more of vegetables with each meal, followed by whatever starch they still want11. She ranks starches by calories per pound, from about 200 for winter squash to some 365 for potatoes, 500 for grains and 600 for beans, against about 67 to 125 for other vegetables26. Rogers also tells people trying to lose weight to eat more vegetables10.
Intact grains or flour
Novick counts only intact kernels, like brown rice, oats, barley or buckwheat, as whole grains, which come to about 500 calories per pound once cooked, while breads, crackers and cereals made from whole grain flour reach some 1,200 to 1,90019. In 2013 Novick reported that Esselstyn keeps intact grains and potatoes on the menu for people losing weight too, and advises less bread, bagels and crackers only for those whose weight will not come down12. Burkitt, interviewed by McDougall, wanted far more bread, brown or homemade, and recalled that ancestors ate over a pound of it a day27.
The glycemic index
David Jenkins, whose group devised the glycemic index, said in a 2006 interview that it grew from seeing foods with equal carbohydrate raise blood sugar by different amounts2829. He saw a lower glycemic diet helping people with wide sugar swings, insulin resistance or belly fat30, and the vegan diet in Kahleova’s type 1 diabetes trial leaned on low glycemic choices like pumpernickel bread and brown rice31. Jenkins himself warned that fat slows the stomach, so a fatty candy bar can score lower than carrots, and said the index should never be the only guide20.
Amount or quality of carbohydrate
On a 2020 panel Walter Willett said a large body of data finds the fat percentage of a diet unimportant, whereas the kind of fat and carbohydrate counts for much, and he drew a sharp line between intact whole grains and refined starches21. He added that many diets around the world, including in South India, lean too heavily on carbohydrate, a growing part of it refined21. McDougall answered critics of potatoes and rice in 2021 by saying people should not fret over single nutrients, because humans are starch eaters32.
What each expert says
JMJohn McDougall
McDougall’s program rests on corn, rice, potatoes, beans, peas and lentils, with fruit and vegetables added1. He dates his conviction to the mid 1970s, when, working for a sugar plantation, he looked after about 5,000 workers of Asian origin who lived on rice and were lean and free of the diseases he had trained to treat3. In 2021 he called the human being a starch eater, even a starchivore32.
In a 2023 talk Esselstyn said his patients live on whole grains, beans, lentils, green and colored vegetables, both white and sweet potatoes, and a little fruit5. According to Novick in 2013, Esselstyn is in favor of intact grains and potatoes, weight loss included, and tells only people who struggle to slim down to limit flour products12.
In 2024 Barnard recalled a 2005 study of 64 women past menopause whose vegan diet of rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes and pasta raised carbohydrate intake6. They lost about a pound a week and kept it off over two years13. He also defends the potato, which he says carries more protein than an egg and takes the blame for butter, sour cream, cheese and bacon added to it148.
In 2026 Rogers said the most important lesson of his three decades in medicine, learned from McDougall, is that humans should eat starch22. His own split is about 60 percent starch, 35 percent fruit and 5 percent vegetables by calories, and he tells people who want to lose weight to eat more vegetables10.
In 2011 Novick argued that plain potatoes do not cause weight gain, blaming toppings and the Western pattern around them9. He limits the term whole grain to intact kernels and wrote that most people can fit in at least six half cup portions of them daily1933. In a 2016 talk he described sweet potatoes as some 70 percent of calories in the traditional Okinawan diet24.
Chef AJ says starches should be the base of the diet and put her own intake at about 75 percent starch by calories in 20212623. For weight loss she puts vegetables first, at least a pound per meal, before any starch11.
Willett said in 2020 that the quality of carbohydrate matters far more than the share of calories from fat, with intact whole grains acting very differently from refined starches21. He sees many of the world’s diets as too heavy in carbohydrate, increasingly refined21.
After his heart disease diagnosis Pritikin switched to whole grains, beans and peas, fruit, vegetables and potatoes, at first with no animal protein or dairy at all34. In 1982 he described his program’s meals as pasta dishes, brown rice, corn tortillas and grains like millet, and agreed that starches, vegetables and fruit make the healthiest diet4.
Commenting in 2020 on two PCRM case reports in type 1 diabetes, Kahleova said the results go against the idea that carbohydrates are the enemy in diabetes35. In her trial the vegan group kept fat near 30 grams a day, ate low glycemic starches such as pumpernickel and brown rice, and needed less insulin3116. She says potatoes look bad in studies mainly because they arrive as fries beside a burger15.
Jenkins, whose team created the glycemic index, explained at a McDougall weekend in 2006 how fiber and food structure change the blood sugar rise from the same carbohydrate29. He called the index useful for some people but only one trait of a food among many3020.
Asked by McDougall what people should eat, Burkitt ranked extra fiber as the top change and a big rise in starch as the next, naming bread, potatoes and pasta and insisting starch never fattens7. He wanted much more brown or homemade bread, praised peas and beans for soluble fiber, and called potatoes slimming as long as they are kept away from fat271718.
Kempner’s rice diet, which he began using in the 1940s for failing kidneys and dangerous blood pressure, appears in a 1975 paper in a lower calorie form for massive obesity, with rice and fruit supplying 90 to 95 percent of calories at first25. The 106 patients lost 63.9 kilograms on average, and their blood pressure, glucose, triglycerides and uric acid dropped while cholesterol did not change significantly25.
We build meals on whole starches such as potatoes, rice, oats, corn and beans, as these doctors do154. We keep them plain, without butter, cheese or oil, since that is where these doctors place the blame for the weight gain89. How much starch, how many vegetables and how much flour suit a person are the points where they differ, so those are questions for your own doctor. This page is education, not medical advice.
Each small number links to its reference below: the video at the exact second, or the page where it was said.