Heard of this resistance starch? Much rather like resistant starch… This said to be miracle food that helps you to lose weight and sleep better. In this article, I’m going to tell you why you should start taking resistant starch for gut health.
Make Sure You Eat Your Fiber!A lot of doctors and nutritionists talk about the importance of getting enough fiber in your diet. It’s going to make you lose weight, feel less hungry, lower cholesterol, and so on.
Truth be told, the state of your gut directly influences your health, cognition, and what mood you’re in.
There are trillions of live bacteria living inside your stomach and their population is constantly adjusting themselves to what you eat and how you feel.
- Probiotics are strands of beneficial bacteria living in your gut that help to absorb nutrients and support the immune system. Probiotic foods include fermented foods, pickles, and sauerkraut.
- Prebiotics are the indigestible particles that travel through your gastrointestinal tract and feed the probiotics. Such foods are garlic, asparagus, onions, and artichokes.
To have a well-functioning microbiome, you want to feed the good bacteria with enough prebiotics and digestive enzymes. However, eating too much garlic or onions can have some unwanted side-effects on your breath and most people don’t come across many artichokes or asparagus.
Viva La Resistant StarchPrebiotics are categorized into 3 different types:
- Non-starchy polysaccharides such as inulin and fructooligosaccharides
- Soluble fiber like psyllium husk and vegetables
- Resistant Starch (RS)
What is Resistant Starch?
Starches are long-chain carbohydrates found in grains, potatoes, rice, and other similar foods.
Resistant Starch is a type of starch that doesn’t get fully digested and it travels through the digestive tract intact. It’s resistant to digestion…See what I did there?
There are many studies showing how resistant starch improves insulin sensitivity, lowers blood sugar, reduces appetite and helps digestion[ii]. Some studies found it had a 33-50% improvement in insulin sensitivity after 4 weeks of consuming 15-30 grams of RS a day[iii], which makes it pretty good for pre-and post-meal consumption. Resistant starch also stimulates the bacteria in your gut to produce short-chain fatty acids like acetic acid, propionic acid, and butyric acid[iv]. The SCFA-s can feed the cells that line the colon and help nutrient absorption[v]. Taking resistant starch before bed can also feed these SCFA-s to your gut bacteria, which will make you sleep better, have lower blood sugar in the morning, and maybe even experience more vivid dreams. Types of Resistant StarchThere are also different types of resistant starch.
- Type 1 Resistant Starch is bound to the fibrous cell walls of plants and thus resistant to digestion. It’s found in grains, seeds, and legumes.
- Type 2 Resistant Starch contains a lot of amylose, which is indigestible when raw. It’s found in potatoes, rice, plantains, and green bananas. Cooking this starch will change its composition and removes the resistant starch.
- Type 3 Resistant Starch is called retrograde resistant starch because it forms after you cook and cool type 1 or type 2 RS, like potatoes or rice[vi].
- Type 4 Resistant Starch is artificial and man-made like hi-maize resistant starch
Most resistant starch foods contain all these types in different amounts.
How Much Resistant Starch Should You Consume a DaySounds like something you’d want to add to your diet, right? Well, you’re probably getting some resistant starch every day without even knowing it.
One study found that an average American consumes about 3-8 grams of resistant starch a day[viii]. Most of the resistant starch was obtained from cereals, bread, and vegetables. Looking at the pattern of modern diets, those carbs are probably coming from inflammatory foods and processed grains, which you’d definitely want to avoid. Instead, there are many other better resistant starch options. Viva La Resistance! Resistant Starch Foods ListStudies on the health benefits of resistant starch are based on taking around 30 grams of resistant starch a day.
- 100g bread 0.5-5 grams of RS
- 100g of cereal, muesli 1.3-4.3 grams of RS
- 100g of black beans, cooked 10 grams of RS
- 100g of canned beans 0.8-5 grams of RS
- 1 small ripe banana 0.3-6.2 grams and an unripe banana 4.7-34 grams of RS[ix]. That’s a huge difference
- 100g of plantain or green banana flour 35-68 grams of RS[x]
- 100g of potato starch 66-80 grams of RS
- 100g of cooked and cooled rice about 5 grams of RS
- 1 medium cooked and cooled potatoes about 3 grams of RS
- 100g of lesser yam 23 grams of RS
Unless you’re planning on eating a bunch of raw bananas, then probably the most effective way of getting your resistant starch is to take raw potato starch and mix it with water or put it into smoothies.
Raw potato starch has about 8 grams of resistant starch and virtually no usable carbohydrates. Plus, it’s dirt cheap and easy to consume.
Resistant Starch DosageBefore you start gulping down potato starch, you have to remember to take it slow at first. Otherwise, you may experience an abrupt disruption in the microbiome and can feel bloated, tired, and lethargic.
Start off with about ½ tbsp twice a day and then try to aim for about 1-3 tbsp a day. Any more than that will probably be too much and you should still try to get as much of your resistant starch from real foods.
Your overall daily fiber intake is recommended to be around 20-38 grams but on average people get about 15 grams. Too much fiber can cause constipation and nutritional deficiencies but getting too much is quite rare.
After a while, as your microbiome adapts to this intake of fuel, you can adjust your intake based on how you feel.
How to Cook and Cool Potatoes for Resistant StarchLet’s talk about how long to cook and cool potatoes for them to build up that resistant starch.
- To form this retrograded resistant starch, you have to first boil some potatoes or rice. This isn’t a tutorial on cooking potatoes, but usually, it takes about 15-20 minutes. You don’t want to boil them too soft or until mushy because it’ll completely destroy the fiber. Keep them slightly sturdy and intact.
- After you’ve cooked the potatoes, you rinse the water and allow them to cool off at room temperature. Once they’re cool, put them in the refrigerator overnight. Over the course of the night, the potatoes or the rice should form some resistant starch.
To keep the resistant starch intact, you can reheat the food at low temperatures under less than 130 degrees[vii]. You don’t have to eat them cold but too high heat will convert it into regular starch. Resistant Starch and KetoWhat about if you’re eating a low carb ketogenic diet? How much resistant starch can you consume on keto?
Honestly, I don’t think it matters. Unless you’re taking 100 grams of resistant starch, you’ll be fine.
The health benefits of resistant starch on insulin sensitivity, blood glucose levels, and the gut are much more worth it than trying to restrict your carbs. Most of RS is resistant to digestion so you shouldn’t be afraid of them that much. In fact, the blood sugar blunting effect can actually be helpful for ketosis.
Of course, eating cooked and cooled potatoes will give you some digestible carbs and glucose which in too high amounts will kick you out of ketosis, but taking a tbsp of potato starch a day is nothing to worry about.
If you’re a healthy person who isn’t doing keto because of diabetes or epilepsy, then you’d be better off getting the resistant starch.
I personally take 1 tbsp mixed in smoothies and sometimes I take ½ tbsp in the evening.
But don’t go betting all your chips on resistant starch. It’s just a very small addition you can make and try. If you want to optimize yourself holistically, then check out the Body Mind Empowerment Handbook Free E-book. 
BODY MIND EMPOWERMENT HANDBOOK Siim LandClick Here to Get Your Body Mind Empowerment Handbook!Stay Empowered
Siim
狗仔卡
发表于 2022-10-15 12:30 PM
提升卡
置顶卡
沉默卡
喧嚣卡
变色卡