Just a different word for carbohydrates, the stuff you find in bread and potatoes and pasta, which your body converts to glucose for energy. The words 'carbs' and 'carbohydr
…ates' are very popular now, so everybody knows what they are. But until a few years ago they were seen as very scientific terms, and the layman's term was starch. You will therefore find it a lot in older books and texts. starch can be used in making foods, yeah it is basically a carbohydrates and has the 3 elements Carbon Hydrogen Oxygen. a.k.a hydrate of carbon. it is also an organic compound. == Answer -- Foods are made up of mainly three major ingredients -- fats, proteins and carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are sort of like the family name for fiber, starches and sugars -- each one of these has its own unique characteristic. Sugars are simple in structure and can get into the blood stream quickly. Starches are more complex and the body has to break them down before they get into the blood stream. Fiber is even more complex and some of them cannot be broken down by the body. ANSWER The macro nutrients for a healthy diet are fats (lipids), starches (carbs), and proteins. Each gram of fat is 9 calories, each gram of carbohydrates is 4 calories, and each gram of protein is 4 calories. Carbs can be fiber, sugar, or starches. Fiber is indigestible to humans. To find the net carbs, you subtract the fiber from the total carbs to find net carbs. Sugar is the carbohydrate for quick energy and is also known as a simple carb. Starches are complex carbs meaning that they are long complex chains of simple sugars. These are broken down when digested into sugar or quick energy but take longer so you may not have a sugar spike and then crash. In the diabetic exchange system, one starch equals 80 calories and 0-3 crams of protein. This could be a piece of bread, a third cup of beans, or 3/4 cup of some cold cereals (depending on the amount of added sugar). Although the amount of starches you eat should be regulated, you should never take them completely out of your diet. Take this from a recovering anorexic, you will feel tired and drained. However do not eat to many starches that are refined, processed, have too much added sugar, or do not have fiber because these are also unhealthy and will lead to the same side affects. ANSWER Starch is (C6H10O5)n) is a polysaccharide carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined together by glycosidic bonds. (Definiton) From: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_starches (MORE) 
