I’m still riding high on the gut health wave! It’s just so fascinating to discover all the little things that influence it and how it helps us in return. Read the following posts here and here to catch up on the basics of gut health and why it’s so important. After that, come back here as we dive into the topic of Resistant Starch which, by the way, is surprisingly good for those of us eating low carb or keto! Are you ready? Then let’s get to it!

Resistant Starch 101

Quick recap: good bacteria in the gut feed on prebiotics and stick around to keep us healthy. Awesome. Prebiotics are found in colorful foods like blueberries and red cabbage, asparagus, garlic, onions, and anything with fiber. But surprise! There’s another type of fiber that’s often ignored or underused. It’s mainly found in foods that are typically seen as high carb, and only forms when these foods are properly cooked and stored.

Resistance Starch, as it’s called, is a type of starch that “resists” digestion. It helps to improve insulin sensitivity, balance blood sugar, reduce appetite, and of course, feed our beneficial bacteria. And in some instances, it may boost weight loss.

Resistant starch comes in two forms: cooked and uncooked. Cooked resistance starch can be found in potatoes, white rice, beans and lentils, sweet potatoes, plantains (as well as the chips), whole grains (oats, barley), and squash. Non-cooked sources include unripe or green bananas, cashews, pistachios, peanuts, and tiger nuts.

Let’s take a step back and talk about those cooked sources. You can’t just boil a potato and then eat it expecting to get resistant starch. That’s not how it works. In order for it to have resistant starch, you need to cool it for at least a couple of hours in the refrigerator. This creates resistant starch by way of a process known as retrogradation. Do not “re-heat”these foods if you want to take in as much resistant starch as possible!

[1] [2] [3]

Benefits of Resistant Starch

When good bacteria digest (or ferment) prebiotics like resistant starch, they release short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). One of these SCFAs is called butyrate, and it’s essential to gut health. Butyrate is the preferred source of fuel for the cells that line and protect the gut. So, you get the double whammy effect here of resistant starch feeding the good bacteria and indirectly fueling protective gut cells. [4]

Inflammation, Disease, and Minerals

Resistant starch doesn’t only feed; it heals, too. Down in the colon (large intestine), it reduces pH, which lowers inflammation and prevents the onset of diseases like inflammatory bowel disorder (IBD), Crohn’s, and ulcerative colitis. Further research suggests it may help to relieve digestive issues, from constipation and diarrhea to diverticulitis. The low pH isn’t only great for managing inflammation. It also helps to keep bad, opportunistic yeast and bacteria from growing in the gut, since they cannot survive in that kind of environment. Outside of lowering inflammation and giving bad guys the boot, the low pH increases our ability to absorb minerals from food. What a triple threat! [5] [6] [7] [8]

Metabolism

Here’s what else is cool about resistant starch: it’s great for your metabolism. How so? First, there’s its ability to improve insulin sensitivity. Whenever we become resistant to insulin, we develop conditions like metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. So, we want the opposite to occur and be sensitive to it. A few studies demonstrate resistant starch’s ability to improve both insulin sensitivity and blood sugar after eating. It also has the rare ability to cause a “second meal effect” where it reduces blood sugar in the meal after it. So, in other words, if you ate resistant starch for lunch, you’ll also be having lower blood sugar after dinner. Pretty neat, huh? If you want specific numbers, one study showed that it caused a 33-50%improvement in sensitivity after four weeks of supplementation. [9] [10]

Weight Loss

Resistant starch is also good for weight loss. First is that it increases satiety (aka, fullness). Human studies have proven just that, with healthy subjects experiencing better insulin response and staying nice and full after meals. And because they’re satiated, they’re less likely to overeat and consume more calories. Something worth noting is that resistant starch has fewer calories than starch. While starch contains 4 calories per gram, resistant starch has only two. I’m not one to count calories, but it’s useful information to have at hand when it comes to portion control. You can slightly get away with more resistant starch foods!
In animals, resistant starch was shown to increase weight loss, and while this sounds great, we have yet to see this in humans. Maybe one day! [11] [12]

Cancer

Now, before I cover this next benefit, I have to remind you that I am not a doctor or qualified expert. I’m just sharing information. None of this is meant to replace treatment or medical advice. Here is some interesting research you might want to know about resistant starch and its ability to prevent colorectal cancer. Very early studies have shown that it increases pre-cancer-cell death, which is probably the best form of prevention you can get. It’s also been shown to protect our DNA from oxidative damage caused by unstable free radicals, which are also highly inflammatory. And as we covered before, resistant starch is very anti-inflammatory, so it combats damage at both a cellular and genetic level. [13]

Resistant Starch- The Friendly Carb?

Oh! And don’t worry if you’re low carb or keto. Remember, resistant starch resists digestion, which means that it doesn’t get broken down like regular starches (or high carbs) do. You don’t want to go overboard with them and eat a ton (at least when eating low carb or keto). But you can get away with having, say, a small portion of cooled white rice or potatoes now and then since they don’t spike blood sugar. (They do the opposite.) Of course, everyone responds differently to foods. Measure your blood sugar or ketones after eating resistant starch foods and see how it works for you! [14] [15]

By the way, if you wanted to enhance the effects of resistant starch, be sure to combine them with fermented foods. This could be sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt, miso, etc. The bacteria in the fermented food will go nuts on the prebiotic resistant starch and become what is called a symbiotic down in the gut. Symbiotics are the ultimate power couple since they both feed the current bacteria down in the gut while also temporarily improving digestion. [16] [17]

Over to You
I hope you learned a thing or two with this post, guys! It was really fun to research. If there’s anything more you’d like to know about gut health, ask away in the comments, and I’ll be sure to write something up!

Sources:

[1] http://hopkinsdiabetesinfo.org/what-is-resistant-starch/
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3296917/
[3] http://hopkinsdiabetesinfo.org/what-is-resistant-starch/
[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4939913/
[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11709851
[6] http://www.valemaisalimentos.com.br/material/2.pdf
[7] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22517765
[8] http://www.valemaisalimentos.com.br/material/2.pdf
[9] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24228189
[10] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16600933
[11] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18031592
[12] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19857367
[13] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3070119/
[14] https://www.bulletproof.com/diet/bulletproof-diet/resistant-starch/
[15] https://www.dietdoctor.com/potato-starch-lchf-resistant-starch
[16] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12749342
[17] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4676381/