Starches make up the majority of the carbohydrates in our diet.
They are long chains of glucose that are found in grains, potatoes, slightly underripe bananas and other different foods.
However, not all of the starch we consume is broken down (digested).
Occasionally, a small portion of it moves through our digestive system unchanged.
To put it another way, it is difficult or resist to digest. This is the resistant starch.
Resistant starch is a type of starch that performs somewhat similarly to soluble fiber.
Resistant starch has been shown in numerous human studies to have significant health advantages and no major known negative side effects.
- enhance digestion,
- decrease hunger,
- lower blood sugar levels,
- and increase insulin sensitivity.
These days, there is a lot of interest in resistant starch. Many people have tried it out and noticed significant changes after including it in their diet.
Resistant Starch Types
- Type 1: Occurs in grains, seeds, and legumes and is bonded within the fibrous cell walls of these plants, making it resistant to digestion.
- Type 2: Can be found in various starchy foods, such as unripe green bananas and uncooked potatoes.
- Type 3: Occurs when some starchy foods, such as rice and potatoes, are cooked and subsequently cooled. Some of the digestible starches retrograde with cooling, becoming resistant starches.
- Type 4: Created by humans via a chemical method.
This classification is not straightforward, though, because several resistant starch types can coexist in the same food, and the proportion of resistant starch varies depending on how foods are prepared.
For instance, resistant starches are broken down and transformed into ordinary starches when a banana is allowed to ripe (become yellow).
The Function of Resistant Starch
Resistant starch behaves like soluble, fermentable fiber.
It passes undigested through our stomach and small intestine before arriving at our colon, where it nourishes the good bacteria in our gut.
We are just 10% human since the bacteria in our colon (our gut flora) outnumber your body's cells 10 to 1.
Fermentable fibers and resistant starches feed the other 90% of your cells, but most of foods only nourish 10% of them.
In our intestine, there are hundreds of different species of bacteria. Scientists have learned in recent years that the quantity and type of bacteria in our body can significantly affect our health.
The friendly bacteria in our colon are fed by resistant starch, which has a good impact on both the type and quantity of bacteria there.
The bacteria produce a variety of substances as they break down resistant starches, including gases and short-chain fatty acids, most notably butyrate.
For Our Digestive System, Resistant starch is a Superfood
When we consume resistant starch, it eventually makes its way to our large intestine, where it is broken down by bacteria and converted to short-chain fatty acids.
Butyrate is the most significant of these short-chain fatty acids as the cells that line our colon prefer butyrate as a fuel source.
As a result, resistant starch nourishes both the good bacteria and indirectly feeds the colon's cells by raising butyrate levels.
Multiple positive effects of resistant starch also on our colon.
Since colon cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer-related death worldwide, lowering the pH level should minimize our risk of developing the disease. It also effectively reduces inflammation and causes various positive benefits.
The short-chain fatty acids that aren’t utilized by the cells in the colon travel to the bloodstream, liver and the rest of your body, where they may have many beneficial effects.
The therapeutic properties of resistant starch on the colon may help treat a variety of digestive issues. This includes inflammatory bowel conditions like Crohn's disease, diverticulitis, and ulcerative colitis.
Resistant starch has also been demonstrated to improve mineral absorption in experiments on animals.
Benefits of Resistant Starch for Health
There are several advantages of resistant starch for metabolic health.
Resistant starch can enhance insulin sensitivity, or the capacity of our body's cells to respond to insulin, according to numerous studies.
After meals, resistant starch is also particularly good at reducing blood sugar levels.
Additionally, resistant starch has a second meal effect, which means that if we eat it with breakfast, it will also lessen the blood sugar increase that occurs at lunch.
The impact on insulin and glucose metabolism is outstanding. In other trials, ingesting 15–30 grams per day for four weeks led to an improvement in insulin sensitivity of 33-50%.
It is impossible to overstate the significance of insulin sensitivity.
Low insulin sensitivity, also known as insulin resistance, is thought to be a significant contributor to the likelihood of developing a number of serious illnesses, including as metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and Alzheimer's.
Resistant starch may help us prevent chronic disease and enhance our quality of life by enhancing insulin sensitivity and reducing blood sugar.
Resistant starch has these advantageous effects, however not all investigations have found this to be the case. According to the person, the dosage, and the kind of resistant starch.
Resistant Starch May Promote Satiety, Which May Facilitate Weight Loss
Two calories per gram of resistant starch as opposed to four for ordinary starch.
Foods with higher resistant starch contents have less calories overall.
According to numerous research, soluble fiber supplements can aid in weight loss by primarily boosting feelings of fullness and decreasing hunger.
The similar result seems to be achieved with resistant starch. When resistant starch is added to meals, people feel more satisfied and consume fewer calories.
Resistant starch has been linked to weight loss in a few animal studies, but no comprehensive research has been done on this impact in humans.
How to Boost Your Diet Using Resistant Starches
We can either add resistant starches to our diet by eating them or by taking a supplement.
A number of frequently consumed foods contain a lot of resistant starch.
This includes raw potatoes, cooked potatoes that have been cooled, green bananas, several types of legumes, cashews, and uncooked oats.
As you can see, they are all high-carb items, therefore if you're currently following a very low-carb diet, you can't eat any of them.
If you're following a low-carb diet with carbs between 50 and 150 grams, you can still have some.
Thus, you can increase your intake of resistant starch without increasing your intake of digestible carbohydrates. Many people have suggested supplements for this purpose, like raw potato starch.
A tablespoon of raw potato starch provides essentially no useable carbohydrates and around 8 grams of resistant starch.
Additionally, it is fairly affordable.
It has a somewhat bland flavor and can be included into your diet in a number of ways, including by sprinkling it on meals, blending it with water, or adding it to smoothies.
32 grams of resistant starch are available from four tablespoons of raw potato starch.
Starting gently and increasing is crucial because consuming too much food quickly can result in pain and flatulence.
There's no use in consuming much more than that because, once you get to 50–60 grams per day, extra amounts seem to pass through your body.
Be patient; it can take 2-4 weeks for the production of short-chain fatty acids to rise and for you to experience all the advantages.
Best food sources for resistant starch
3.5 ounces (100 grams) of cooked oatmeal flakes from oats contain about 3.6 grams of resistant starch, making them a decent source of this substance.
The amount of resistant starch in your cooked oats can further increase if you let them cool for several hours or overnight.
When rice is allowed to cool after cooking, it becomes a particularly good source of resistant starch.
Due to its higher fiber content, brown rice could be preferred to white rice. Additionally, brown rice has higher micronutrients like phosphorus and magnesium.
Briefly
Trying resistant starch sounds like a smart option if you're currently trying to break a weight loss plateau, have high blood sugars, digestive issues, or if you're just in the mood for some self-experimentation.
