The Starch that Makes You Lean and Healthy

While potatoes are very tasty, they are not the perfect food for shedding weight. At least experts don’t think so. That goes double for fries which are considered very unhealthy fast food. Fries have been linked to several serious diseases and conditions, with doctors urging everyone to skip them. But, what can we all do when they’re so tasty?

The good news is that you can turn at least some foods to a weight loss remedy. Potatoes are one example. Thanks to the starch they contain, potatoes can improve your metabolism and improve your digestion to help you shed weight. Let’s see how resistant starch works in our bodies.

What is Resistant Starch?

First things first. Resistant starch is a type of starch that our bodies don’t process in the small intestine. That’s why it’s called resistant. Instead of being process in the intestine, resistant starch is processed by the gut bacteria. They use it to create molecules that can balance our blood sugar levels and improve our digestion. These molecules also keep the gut flora healthy.

According to experts, resistant starch is a prebiotic. It can be found in potatoes, bananas, and plantain. It acts like a great ‘fertilizer’ for our gut flora, and a healthy gut means great overall wellbeing. Imbalanced gut flora has been linked to several serious health problems, including obesity, diabetes, and more.

Luckily for you, resistant starch can prevent it all. How can you add it to your diet? By consuming potatoes, of course.

Balancing Your Gut

In recent times, more and more studies have shown that balancing and improving our gut health is the key to great overall wellbeing. And it makes sense – by tending to your inner ‘garden’, you will feel much better. You’ll also improve your digestion and start losing weight pretty fast. In a healthy way, of course.

By giving your gut flora resistant starch to enjoy, you will effectively destroy the harmful bacteria. The good ‘guys’ in our guts can produce short-chain fatty acids such as butyrate that acts as a fuel for our colon cells. Butyrate can speed up your metabolism and prevent inflammation, effectively preventing a slew of diseases and conditions, especially those linked to the digestive tract.

With a healthy gut, your body can easily digest food and absorb nutrients. To make things simple for you, eating resistant starch will optimize your gut health and keep it running perfectly. At the same time, resistant starch will also improve the insulin sensitivity in your cells, preventing blood sugar spikes after meals.

According to studies, it can also protect our cardiovascular health. Prebiotic foods can reduce the levels of LDL cholesterol in your blood and the fat mass too. As you can see, prebiotics such as resistant starch have numerous benefits for your health.

How to Get More Resistant Starch in Your Diet

There are a few simple tricks that can help you get more resistant starch into your diet.

• Cook and cool your starch: by cooking and then cooling resistant starch-rich foods, your body will digest and process them easier.
• Add some complex carbs into your diet: complex carbs can be found in nutrient-dense and fiber-rich foods. Those include whole greens, leafy greens, eggplants, zucchinis, asparagus, and more. These foods can be prepared in an endless number of ways and are quite delicious too while providing you with complex carbs.
• Mix a bit of starch in cold water or almond milk: you can buy starch and mix it in a glass of water or almond milk. It has a pleasant taste and is the easiest way to add resistant starch to your diet.
• Consume prebiotic foods: add some prebiotics in your daily diet such as bananas, artichokes, garlic, onion, and leeks.