Starch is a
complex carbohydrate and the principal storage
polysaccharide in plants, composed mainly of
glucose units and stored in organs such as seeds,
roots, stems, and
tubers.
Chemically, starch is made primarily of
glucose units linked together as amylose and amylopectin.
It is significantly more difficult for humans to digest starchy fruits and vegetables in their raw state, so starchy foods don't tend to be featured in a
fruit-based raw vegan diet.
Cooking
gelatinizes starch, making it more accessible to
enzymatic breakdown into simpler
sugars. Unfortunately however cooking brings with it an array of unhealthy and undesirable consequences of
heat damage.
Examples of high starch crops are potato, rice, wheat, and maize/corn.