Resistant Starch 101 — Everything You Need to Know


(Bob M) #41

I spent 5-6 months trying a wide variety of resistant starch sources (potato starch, plantain flour, etc.) and even heated and cooled varieties (eg, potatoes) and even raw potatoes. I added various probiotics to that, including the so-called “soil based” probiotics.

I could not find a benefit. If anything, I had horrible gas if I took too much starch, plantain flour caused an allergic reaction, and this seemed to make IBS symptoms worse. If there was a decrease in blood sugar, I couldn’t find it using pin-prick style blood sugar meters (didn’t have my CGM back then).

I’ve now gone to the other side, eating a near carnivore diet, though I do eat some vegetables. I feel much better. I also think that one should be eating real food, and one shouldn’t have to buy Bob’s Redmill potato starch or any other processed product to be healthy.

And heating and cooling potatoes (or white rice), for instance, does not seem reasonable for people on a keto diet. There’s still a ton of carbs left over. And I know from subsequently using a CGM that potatoes cause my blood sugar to fly through the roof, whether heated and cooled and reheated or not. (I will eat potatoes once in a while, but as a treat, not because I think they’re some magical food.)


(Karen) #42

But once you chil it after you cook it do you not get resistant starch?


#43

@atomicspacebunny :exploding_head:

Just when I start getting comfortable with my lazy keto, eggs and sausage, sardines and pickles, routine you have to go and post something that literally makes my brain hurt. :weary:

I’m with @Baytowvin, I need the science “dumbed down” so I can understand better what it is I need to do. Actually, I want simpler than that. I want someone to tell me, “buy this on Amazon (with appropriate link), and take it three times a week.” That’s all I want. :wink:

For instance, I just learned about non-fortified, nutritional yeast. I watched a video by Dr. Berg and he said buy this, take a teaspoon everyday. I can buy a package of nutritional yeast and take a teaspoon everyday. Now if you told me, “take 4 grams everyday” I might be lost again, but I have a teaspoon in my kitchen, and I can do that. :grin:

Keep posting your very informative research, but I’m just warning you, it’s gonna take my slow brain a little while to “digest”. :grinning:


(Brian) #44

Thank you for sharing your own personal, real-world experience!

I’ve been rather skeptical of the resistant starch thing anyway and your experience reinforces my skepticism.

That said, I do eat a few beans here and there and the occasional bit of potato or sweet potato or carrots without really much worry at all. Then again, I’m not a 20g of carbs or less type, I stick more like 50g of carbs or less. Sometimes I’m lower, not that often too much higher. So I would guess that I’m on the higher end of what many here get as far as both starches and fiber. Life is good and my body is pretty happy with it’s intake. I feel good and things are going well.

As much as the N=1 thing gets dragged out around here, I think everyone does kinda have to find their own path.


(Bunny) #45

For me, an occasional green banana, I would agree extreme amounts or more than a moderate amount of natural resistant high starch could do that! Just want to make sure the micrbiota eat a little bit and get nourishment if I’m not eating frequently enough to nourish the microbiome at the distal ends of the intestinal tract (colon).

Just as with eating too much any one thing will throw the entire physio-chemistry of the human body into dysregulation; like eating too much sugar and hydrogenated trans fats from plants and animals being two of the most prominent in today’s common dietary intake (main staple)!


(Bunny) #46

This looks interesting and may answer your question:

Cooling Some Foods After Cooking Increases Their Resistant Starch

Personally I proceed with caution when something is cooked, heated or processed!

When humans play with fire and chemicals, I tend to get nervous!


(bulkbiker) #47

I have read quite a few reports on resistant starch both pro and anti… all I can say is if it comes in a packet of some kind then I’ll avoid it and an allergy to bananas means I can’t have those either.
Cooking pasta then cooling then reheating sounds like a real pita to me so I’ll just not have it…so much simpler.
If carbs are not essential then why would this be?


(TJ Borden) #48

I dont want to talk about it :unamused:


#49

Very interesting post…

I heard about RS before…Mark Sisson mentions it in his book and Dr. Will Cole has mentioned it on his podcast several times, but not until this post do I see the real potential of RS and now motivated to learn more about it.

Thanks again for your great research, Bunny!


(Bunny) #50

Interesting point, I often wondered that too?

When all else fails we must really look at the science:

Currently what this information (below) tells me is that the gut flora microbiota requires different types of nutrition separate from the human host and if the human host is eating too much of it (carbohydrates), it spills over into the human host?

  1. “… not all of the starch you eat gets digested. …” “… This type of starch is called resistant starch, which functions kind of like soluble fiber. …” …More
  1. ”…excess simple carbohydrates are stored in the body as fat. …Other carbohydrates, such as the fiber found in whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, move slowly through the digestive system, and much of it isn’t digested at all (insoluble fiber). …” …More
  1. “…carbohydrates are not necessary building blocks for other molecules, and the body can obtain all its energy from protein and fat. Thus you could leave out carbohydrate from your diet provided you get enough protein, fat including essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals and water. …More
  1. ”… Microbial fermentation of complex non-digestible dietary carbohydrates and host–derived glycans in the human intestine has important consequences for health. Certain dominant species, notably among the Bacteroidetes, are known to possess very large numbers of genes that encode carbohydrate active enzymes and can switch readily between different energy sources in the gut depending on availability. …” **…More
  1. “… Fructooligosaccharide (FOS), a prebiotic compound that can be digested by the microbiota but is indigestible by human enzymes due to the configuration of its glycosidic linkages …” …More

(CharleyD) #51

So you’re saying there’s a chance… I don’t need to feel bad about maki sushi rice?

I’ve been really missing the C+C roll, crabmeat and cream cheese. And the Sushi Village that makes the Sashimi Dinner whose picture you’ve appreciated, also make a simple Salmon/Avocado and Tuna/Avocado rolls on the cheap.


(bulkbiker) #52

Except that I can guess that none of these studies has ever been conducted on people who eat virtually zero fibre? I have skimmed through them only I will admit. There is no certain knowledge about this so as always it is pure speculation.
I would imagine that our bodies are far to smart to need some parts of non essential foodstuffs so if we don’t need carbs… we could possibly say we probably don’t need fibre. I guess with the explosion of carnivory we’ll start finding out over the next 10 years or so whether we do although in the interim I’d guess probably non-essential.


#53

I would think with people who are eating this way, we would also see a decrease in antibiotics, and therefore better gut flora all around.


(bulkbiker) #54

Good point and one I hadn’t really thought of although I guess better health all round would be a major benefit…


(Bunny) #55

Not entirely “speculation” and a very very far stretch from “pure,” just consistent deaths from colon cancers and “no certain knowledge about this” would be perhaps a coincidental glitch in the randomness, possibilities and associations with those that eat only meat with-out a particular soluble dietary fiber called resistant starch being dead?

Not a chance or risk I’m willing to take thinking eating only meat and absolutely nothing else and then ignoring the cause of death in people who did the same-thing is kind of like a death wish or a Jonestown suicide, no poison kool-aid for me thank you!

Pure Speculation:

  1. ”…Colorectal cancer may be initiated by mutations in key proto-oncogenes or tumor suppressors that occur somatically or are inherited,1 or induced by unresolved chronic intestinal inflammation such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).2 The pathogenesis of inflammation-associated cancer is less well understood relative to sporadic colorectal cancer, although components of the innate immune system and microbiota are regarded as pivotal players.3,4 The colonic mucus layer constitutes an innate defense barrier necessary for homeostasis of the host with the microbiota.5,6 Mucin 2 forms the major structural basis of the mucus layer in human beings and mice.6 Mucin 2 is composed primarily of O-glycans, which have 2 main sub-types known as core 1– and core 3–derived O-glycans. …” …More
  1. “…Fermentation of resistant starch in rodent studies results in what appears to be a healthier gut, demonstrated by increased amounts of short-chain fatty acids, an apparent positive change in the microbiota, and increased gene expression for gene products involved in normal healthy proliferation and apoptosis of potential cancer cells. …” …More
  1. Gastrointestinal Cancers in Optimal Dieters:

You most definitively do need dietary soluble fiber or you would not be alive, how you get their is another thing?


(CharleyD) #56

Now, not to sound like a Devils’ Advocate, but why wouldn’t the strict carnivore’s gut flora select for just different bugs who like the byproduct of meat digestion? Part of me wonders if enough products of digestion makes it to the large intestine, considering the longer poop intervals they experience. But if carnivory was bad and the starving bugs eat away at the mucus lining, why wouldn’t the carnivore’s automatically as a group show more autoimmune or general inflammatory markers?


(Bunny) #57

Time being the significant factor? Neither did the research participants show any signs of this in the Pilis’ study… They all died of various forms of colon cancers… Maybe cycling sources of protein from land to marine sources like the Inuits and eating perhaps bone broth would make contradictions? The Eskimo seem resistant to getting cancer despite the all meat diet; more fermented meats, organ meats, raw vs. cooked?

That’s enough proof for me!


(CharleyD) #58

But wasn’t this why everyone was interested in Shawn Baker’s blood test results since he was longish term carnivore?
Maybe we should ask how his colonoscopy looks?:poop::ghost:

I agree, there’s going to be confounders. I’m in sunny Alabama, where the vitamin D is plentiful. Tuesday’s meal is a pound of the fattiest brisket that my fave BBQ place Jim&Nick’s can provide. Wednesday is usually a pound of various sashimi.

I think I can manage it and it not be boring :sunglasses:


(bulkbiker) #59

The Polish guys have 2 examples of people dying from cancer… hardly an RCT…? As i say there is no certain knowledge just more anecdotal stuff… we shall soon start seeing if people really do get more cancers eating little to no carb (and looking at Prof Seyfried’s work I find that hard to believe). Anecdotally I hear of far more vegan dieters dying from various cancers… check out Phil Escott’s reports.


(bulkbiker) #60

Seems to completely contradict what you say in the post beofrehand?