What is Resistant Starch?

You may have heard about resistant starches - as of late, they’ve been a hot topic. And while many carbohydrates are made up of starches, there is a particular kind that aren’t digested as easily as the others. These are known as resistant starch. Today we’ll go over what resistant starch is, the benefits of it, and how to get them in your diet. Plus read my tips at the very end about how I personally fit them into my week!

What is a Resistant Starch?

Let’s start off with the basics: a starch is a long chain of sugars (or glucose)that are found in foods high in carbohydrate such as potatoes, grains, pasta, etc. Certain starches are not able to be completely digested by the body and therefore are resistant to digestion. They are similar to soluble fiber in that way, where it enters your small intestine undigested and eventually passes into your colon where it feeds the good bacteria in your gut. By digesting these resistant starches, the bacteria produce short-chain fatty acids like butyrate.

While resistant starches are present in other carbohydrates such as beans, legumes, some nuts, raw oats, etc., they are often destroyed during cooking.

Benefits of Resistant Starch:

These poorly digested starches provide numerous benefits, including promoting a healthy gut. The benefits are likely due to the production of butyrate (mentioned above) and the fact that resistant starches help to feed the good bacteria in your digestive tract. In particular, butyrate helps to improve the integrity of the intestinal barrier and has anti-inflammatory properties. Short-chain fatty acids are also the preferred energy source for the cells in the gut. So not only is it helping structurally and feeding the good bacteria, but it’s also providing energy to your cells. Therefore, this type of carbohydrate may be beneficial for those who suffer from digestive upset and IBD symptoms.

Resistant starches have also been shown to improve insulin sensitivity and lower blood sugar levels. It can have what’s known as a “second meal” effect where it maintains lower levels of blood sugar even after your next meal. Additionally, it has been shown to increase satiety and reduce appetite.

How to get resistant starch in your diet?

There are a variety of foods that already have resistant starch such as green bananas, legumes/beans such as pinto beans, black beans, and soybeans; cashews, raw potato starch, barley, and sorghum. However, some of this resistant starch naturally found in these foods are often destroyed during the cooking process.

Luckily, there’s another way to get it in your diet: by cooking and cooling potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, and pasta. Through a process known as retrogradation, the digestible starch turns into resistant starch during the cooling process. The more you put it through that heating and cooling process, the more resistant starches will develop.

Resistant starches can be helpful when you are trying to improve your gut health or balance blood sugars. I will usually make a batch of rice, pasta, or potatoes earlier in the week and reheat/cool them when I’m ready to eat them with a meal. OR I will sprinkle potato starch (I use the Bob’s Red Mill brand) over savory foods, in smoothies, even in my oatmeal. It doesn’t have much of a taste and I’ve noticed an improvement in my gut health because of it!