bread, rice, potatoes & pasta

What counts?
This food group, sometimes referred to as ‘starchy carbohydrates’, includes bread, potatoes (including low fat oven chips), yams, breakfast cereals, pasta, rice, oats, noodles, maize, millet and cornmeal. 

How much should you eat?

Most of us should EAT MORE!
Base a third of your food intake on foods from this group, aiming to include at least one food from this group at each meal, e.g. potatoes with fish and vegetables, a chicken salad sandwich, stir-fried vegetables with rice, or porridge oats for breakfast.

Potatoes, yams, plantains and sweet potato fall into this group, rather than fruit and vegetables, because they contain starchy carbohydrates.

Why eat these foods?

These foods provide:

• Carbohydrate: a source of energy
• Fibre: keeps the gut healthy and helps prevent constipation
• Some calcium: required for the development and maintenance of healthy bones
• Some iron: needed for healthy red blood cells
• B vitamins: e.g. thiamin and niacin – which help the body use energy
• Folate*: needed for red blood cells

Healthy eating tips

• Base your meals around foods from this group
• Eat wholegrain or wholemeal breads, pastas and cereals as well as white choices
• Choose low fat oven chips rather than fried chips (oven chips fall into this food group but fried chips don’t) 
• Eating more foods from this group will help to reduce the proportion of fat and increase the amount of fibre in the diet 
• Avoid frying or adding too much fat to these foods 

* Folic acid (400µg/day) supplements (a form of Folate) are recommended for women of childbearing age, up until the 12th week of pregnancy.

 © British Nutrition Foundation