What Can Resistant Starch Do For You?
Lose weight, feel more energized, balance your Glycemic Index, promote colon health, and more!
According to Health magazine, Resistant Starch (RS) will help you lose weight and according to hundreds of studies, resistant starch helps us stay healthy in more ways than one. Health magazine said RS will help us "eat less, burn more calories, feel more energized and less stressed, and lower cholesterol," according to research from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center for Human Nutrition. The Center's research also purports that RS foods will increase muscle mass, shrink fat cells, minimize cravings, and keep us feeling satisfied for longer. RS has also been supported by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) as an important contributor to overall human health. The WHO has published that RS will promote satiation and decreases subsequent hunger.
Naturally, the next question for most people is what is RS and where can one find it? The discovery of RS is recent one. According to Ayten Aylin Alsaffar in a his peer-reviewed article, "Effect of food processing on the resistant starch content of cereals and cereal products," Englyst & Cummings pioneered the research of RS is 1985. They discovered that some starches due to their physical properties, are not completely digest it in our small intestines. Englyst & Cummings classified starch as rapidly digestible (RDS), slowly digestible (SDS) and resistant starch (RS). RDS and SDS are defined as 'glycaemic' or 'available' carbohydrates. RS is regarded as a 'non-glycaemic' carbohydrate, meaning that this starch does not contribute to glucose spikes or alter our glycemic index. As more research was conducted, RS has emerged as an important dietary component for its "potential to reduce the incidence of bowel health disorders" (Alsaffar, 2011). It contains Butyrate, which is believed to suppress tumor cells and decrease the growth of problematic colonic mucosal cells. Additionally, RS is a prebiotic as it has shown to support and protect our digestive tracks much needed probiotic bacteria. When RS is present in foods it has been shown to lower the energy content. Finally, it appears that RS can help manage and prevent conditions associated with the metabolic syndrome and be a satiety agent (Alsaffar, 2011).
One needs to have about 20 grams of RS a day to enjoy its multiple health benefits (Alsaffar, 2011). Currently, most Americans consume far less. RS occurs naturally in many foods. Beans are by far the best. How food is papered and processed makes considerable difference to the amount of RS it contains. According to Foodprocessing.com, a cold boiled potato contains about 13.5% of resistant starch while the same boiled potato served hot contains only about 6.7%.
We hope that RS becomes better understood and more well known to the public at-large so that its health properties will become increasingly enjoyed. To learn more about RS, look at the resources included below. Continue to read Kay's blog to learn more about emerging health and wellness information! Feel free to sign up for our Newsletter to receive promotions on our gluten-free and protein rich snacks and cereals.
Alsaffar , A. A. (2011) Effect of food processing on the resistant starch content of cereals and cereal products- A Review. International Journal of Food Science and Technology, 46, 455-462.