Staple foods are the foods that provide the bulk of the calories in your diet. They are the foods in the region where you live that are both readily available and also a dense source of complex carbohydrates. Though carbohydrates have gotten a bad rap in recent years for their relatively high calorie content, it's exactly this feature that makes carbohydrate staple foods good for us. In fact, without staple foods, we would starve. Of course, not all carbohydrates are the same; and, presented with a wide array of modern convenience foods, you need to be careful to choose the staple foods that provide the most nutrition.
Significance
Consuming a balanced and varied diet is the only way to ensure that your body gets all the nutrients it needs to function properly. But while depriving your body of vitamins, minerals, fat and protein will eventually lead to malnutrition and wasting, depriving yourself of carbohydrate staples can more quickly lead to loss of body mass. This is because carbohydrates comprise the largest percentage of calories in a healthy diet, and without a steady supply of calories, the body will burn its own tissues, including muscle as well as fat. According to the Food and Drug Administration, roughly 60 percent of your daily calories should come from carbohydrates.
Function
Carbohydrate molecules are made up of simpler sugar molecules called glucose. The more glucose molecules in the carbohydrate, the more complex we say it is. More complex carbohydrates are more difficult to digest, and so they're absorbed into the blood stream slowly, thus providing long lasting energy. Simpler carbohydrates like table sugar and fruit sugars, are digested very easily and provide quick energy. Very large carbohydrates, like cellulose, that cannot be digested by humans, are called dietary fiber. The most nutritious staple foods will contain relatively complex digestible carbohydrates, along with some dietary fiber.
Types
Staple foods including grains, root vegetables like potatoes, legumes and some fruits such as plantains and bread fruit, are all rich sources of carbohydrate energy. However, the staple foods in your diet will be determined largely by the region in which you live, since this will determine cost and availability of certain staple foods. Plantains and bread fruit are staple foods in many tropical areas, but not elsewhere because they are relatively perishable. Grains can be stored for longer periods, so staple foods like bread and pasta and rice are common throughout the world. Potatoes will grow in almost all environments, so they too are a common staple in Europe and the Americas.
Identification
While availability somewhat limits your choice of staple foods, modern technology brings you more choices in prepackaged staples. However, identifying high quality packaged staple foods can be a little tricky. Generally, products containing 100% whole grains are a good source of staple carbohydrates. White rice is not as high in fiber as other whole grains, but it is a good source of quicker carbohydrate energy. Potatoes, like white rice, don't have a whole lot of fiber, but they are high in certain nutrients like potassium.
Considerations
Food labels are a valuable resource for nutrition information. Usually, a staple food product cannot be labeled as "100% whole grain" if it contains any refined flour or starch. On the other hand, labels that say "with whole grain" do not guarantee any particular percentage of whole grain, and these are not as beneficial as a healthy staple food. More accurate nutritional information is on the back of the product where specific ingredients, and the percentages of recommended daily allowance for each nutrient are listed.
