The Irresistible Charm Of The Resistant Starch
Starch is a carbohydrate which consists of multiple glucose units. The starch digestion process begins in the mouth with the help of an enzyme known as salivary amylase and ends in the gut with the release of glucose. This glucose is the source of energy for all the cells in your body. In contradiction, the resistant starch is fermented by the good bacteria residing inside your gut. Resistant starch (RS) is a prebiotic that supports the good bacteria to grow, reduces inflammation, and boosts gut health.
There are several types of RS depending on the source of food you consume.
Type 1: Physically trapped within the food, becomes available after milling or grinding them.
Type 2: The starch granule is naturally resistant, available in raw potato, green banana, some legumes which don’t gelatinize and high amylose corn starch.
Type 3: The starch when cooked and cooled in foods like potato, bread, and cornflakes.
Type 4: The starch modified chemically into resistant starch in processed foods.
Normal starches break down into glucose units when cooked which gets digested in the stomach. When the starchy foods are cooled the amylose and amylopectin polysaccharides in the starch realign themselves to form RS. The process is known as starch retrogradation.
Tip: Consume cooked white rice cooled preferably in the fridge for 16-20 hours and mildly re-heating which retains the RS and drops in the glycemic index spike!
On the RS landing in the gut, the good bacteria feed on it and release short-chain fatty acids (SCFA). Butyrate is one of the SCFA that fuels the cells that line your gut. Other SCFAs are produced to enter the bloodstream and may benefit the rest of the body. RS improves digestive disorders like Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) like Ulcerative Colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease, constipation, diverticulitis, and diarrhoea. It also lowers the risk of colon cancer.
Superfood-like resistant starch both feeds the friendly bacteria and indirectly feeds the cells in your colon and keeps your gut healthy.
Reference
Health benefits of resistant starch: A review of the literature
