Some months ago I got interested in the fact that people were toying with the idea of eating mostly just potatoes for a period of time for weight loss. So I tried it, blogged about it, entertained it for a few weeks, dropped about 13 pounds to verify it works (probably because it’s hard to eat enough potatoes to maintain weight). But I just quickly got tired of potatoes. Not so at all with my milk & kefir deal that’s into its seventh week, stronger than ever, and now I’m really doing a lot of tweaking of the essential magic of the thing. But details on that are for a different day and newsletter issue.
One thing that cropped up and that’s been a new tweak in my milk & kefir escapades: resistant starch. It was a commenter, “Tatertot,” who’d done all the yeoman’s work on the deal, so I asked him to put it all together for us.
So here’s Tatertot.
~~~
Last fall, I was toying around with the Potato Hack and mentioned it on Paul Jaminet’s Perfect Health Diet blog. Paul mentioned that part of the effectiveness of the Potato Hack undoubtedly was due to the butyric acid and short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) from the resistant starch in the potatoes.
This got me thinking about resistant starch (RS). I had heard of RS before, but didn’t know much about it. I did a few Google searches, and the more I read, the more I liked. There were well-studied correlations between RS intake and colon health, improved cholesterol, better glucose control, weight loss, hunger abatement, and increased vitamin and mineral absorption.
I learned that scientists first ‘discovered’ RS in the 80’s. Since then, numerous studies have been done on the effect of RS in animals and humans. One of the first articles I read on RS was written in 2008. Please read for a quick primer on RS. Done? OK, moving on.
At first, people told me I was wasting my time with RS. Afterall, they said, “RS is nothing more than Type III fiber, right after soluble and insoluble. We got over our obsession about fiber when we got over eating Kashi…It’s not that it’s bad for you, just not necessary; and, If it’s butyrate you want, just eat butter—or put it in your coffee!—it’s loaded with the stuff.” I almost gave up my quest when I came across Dr. Eades’ article bashing RS: He concludes in the article, “This brief discourse should put you off of resistant starch even without knowing what anti-nutrients are (resistant starch is an anti-nutrient), why they’re there and what they do. We’ll save that for a later post.” Then there was this great back-and-forth on Mark’s Daily Apple.
Luckily, I found tons to support the intake of RS from a number of other sources, so I kept looking.
Most scientists used 20-50 grams RS per day in their human studies. Most recommendations are for the ingestion of 20-40g/day for maximum benefit, and there seems to be an upper limit of about 60g where it stops being effective, and a lower limit of about 20g where it has little effect.
My next step was to target RS in the 20-60g/day range from common foods…this proved difficult.
I learned there was a bit of RS in cooked and cooled rice, like sushi rice, but only a small amount, like 5g per cup.
An average-sized raw potato contains about 50g RS. When cooked it contains between zero and 5g, depending on cooking methods. The RS found in raw potatoes swells and bursts as temperatures approach 160 degrees F, turning the RS into rapidly digestible starch. The highest RS in cooked potatoes is in potato chips and french-fries—foods most paleo eaters wisely avoid because of the oils used.
When cooked potatoes are cooled, the starch undergoes a process called ‘retrogradation’ where the rapidly digestible starch is converted back into RS. The amount of RS in a cooked and cooled potato is approximately 8g.
Another source I found for easily accessible RS was green bananas. A medium-sized, very green banana contains 15g RS. As it ripens, the RS goes to zero. A big problem is that very green bananas taste like crap! They can be eaten, but not really enjoyed.
Legumes such as kidney beans contain a fair amount of RS, nearly 10g per cup. Once again, most paleo eaters wisely avoid legume consumption due to possible anti-nutrients and harmful compounds. Still, I don’t hide from the occasional serving of beans—I just don’t make them a staple food.
Unripe plantains are about 75% RS by weight. Unripe plantains are worse than green bananas and completely inedible. I did, however, find that when dehydrated and salted, they are very palatable. They taste just like a Saltine cracker and provide about 100g of RS per plantain.
Another source of RS I looked into was Hi-Maize Corn Starch. This product is made from specially bred corn with a high RS content. It’s widely added to baked products to increase the RS content. My paleo leanings kept me from trying this out.
The latest and probably most promising product I’ve found is unmodified (raw) potato starch (RPS). RPS is widely noted as containing 78% RS by weight. Bob’s Red Mill sells potato starch for under 15 bucks for 5 pounds. There may be other suppliers, if so, make sure you are buying ‘unmodified’ potato starch. Potato Starch is often modified for industrial purposes—you don’t want that!
Edibility-wise, potato starch is not bad. It mixes well with any liquid and has no real taste and is not gritty, mealy, or pastey. I’ve eaten up to 4TBS (48g), which is 30-35g of RS, on an empty stomach with no digestive problems. I think it is a very good addition to your arsenal of RS foods.
So, after months of research, it’s come down to this: I eat potatoes almost every day, cooked in a variety of ways, a few raw slices, and lots of cold potatoes. I eat sushi when I can, beans on rare occasion, and I keep a baggy full of dried plantains on the counter to snack on. When I buy bananas, I get the greenest ones I can find. Sushi is eaten guilt free, especialy with raw fish and seaweed. I will eat legumes from time to time if thoughtfully prepared to remove toxins. I also keep a container of potato starch on the counter and am finding all kinds of ways to use it–in smoothies, milk, kefir, mixed with water and eaten with berries and mashed bananas, or just mixed with water and drank.
In the several months I’ve been trying to get 20-60g/day RS, I have witnessed a lowering of fasting blood glucose from the 110-120 range to the 90’s, hdl cholesterol increased from 35 (in Nov 12) to 59 last week, ldl lowered from 150 to 130, and triglycerides went from 60 to 50. Whether these improvements are soley from the RS is hard to say, but at least they didn’t go in the other direction! It’s hard to pin down the contributions of a healthy gut, but I think it’s a worthwhile endeavor to target an increase in RS, especially for people who are pre-diabetic or have high cholesterol.
An experiment I did recently with potato starch told me all I need to know. I have been tracking my fasting blood glucose and post-prandial resonse to carbs with a OneTouch
glucose monitor. I know that a potato with 40g carbs will cause a PP glucose spike of over 175 at 1 hour and return to normal at 3 hours. I drank 44g of potato starch mixed with water on an empty stomach and checked my glucose level every 15 minutes…I never saw a rise in BG more than 5 points above my fasting level. This proved to me that potato starch causes absolutely no glycemic load. Furthermore, 4 hours later, I ate a large, plain potato and found that my 1 hour PP glucose level was under 140 and returned to normal in less than 2 hours! Thus proving to me that RS has a powerful ‘Second Meal Effect” as described here. I think it will turn out that as far as Low Glycemic Index foods are concerned—raw potato starch is the lowest!
I’m hoping that Richard can get the word out and explore RS on his blog and get some interest going. Here are a few studies to look at concerning RS, but a quick Google, Google Scholar, or PubMed search for Resistant Starch + terms like obesity, diabetes, potato starch, or gut health will turn up hundreds of studies.
- A compilation and overview of numerous studies
- Starches, Resistant Starches, the Gut Microflora and Human Health
- A look at RS in the Chinese diet, lots of food charts and comparisons with other diets
- Search for RS on Perfect Health Diet website
~~~
It’s been two weeks or so since, at Tatertot’s suggestion, I’ve usually been taking 4 tablespoons of Bob’s Red Mill Potato Starch
per day, stirred into milk or kefir (actually quite pleasant taste & texture, for me). The most prominent effects I’ve noticed (I don’t prick my fingers, sorry):
- Increased satiation. I go quite longer before wanting more milk, depending on whether the last time was with the potato starch or not.
- TMI aspects are very, very good.
- Prolonged sleep. Even though I’m a pretty good sleeper, I’m used to a few short stirs and wake-ups per night; but if I take 2T of the PS in a glass of milk before bed I have bouts of going 5-6 hours without a single wakeup.
- Weirdest of all: I have these long-ass, complex narrative dreams about current stuff in my life, instead of the more common, crazy-assed, out-of-nowhere dreams that seem anxious and go on and on in a continuous loop, if you know what I mean. I suspect this is a consequence of #3, and not a direct link to whatever the PS/RS is doing to colonic gut flora, though I don’t rule it out.
OK, dat’s all folks. Giver ‘er a shot and oh, BTW, RS yields only 2-3 calories per gram, not 4.
Rob 
Phocion Timon
I’d tend to respect Michael Eades over a potato farmer hiding behind the handle “tatertot.”
Guess I’m wacky that way.
Yeah Eades has never been wrong on anything. Ever. Anywhere.
That was very informative. Thank you for your hard work Tatertot.
I don’t have any motivation to spread the word about RS other than my interest in seeing other people’s N=1’s. RS isn’t really on anybody’s radar at the moment, there are no RS Diets or RS supplements to buy. Somebody will cash in on this soon, I’d bet. Dr. Oz talked about ‘resistant carbs’ last week and spread a lot of misinformation (boiled green bananas are a great source! Wrong).
RS was discovered in the 80’s, lots of studies and articles appeared in the 2005-2008 timeframe, but were all summarily dismissed by Sisson, Eades, and many others. I think the word ‘Starch’ threw them due to the low-carb party that was going on at the time. Paul Jaminet has known about RS and talks about it a lot. Unfortunately, I don’t think you can eat enough safe starch to get the 30-50g/day used in all the studies.
All I can say is ‘read the studies and papers, do a google search, with a focus on 30-50g/day of raw potato starch’–lots and lots of research done on that. I’ve also recently learned that green banana flour and plantain flour are readily available, fairly cheap, and 50-65% RS.
Maybe eating potato starch doesn’t seem ‘paleo’, but neither does a diet which completely neglects a nutrient we seemed to have evolved on, comes from easily accessible raw tubers, and in all studies improves gut function.
Boiled green bananas have been used with rice in studies to produce short chain fatty acids and feed microbes in colon. Why is Dr. Oz wrong? Do they have to be cooled obviously?
Hi all! This subject is fascinating to me, as it is to most people who first discover the information. I have recently starting working with the Paleo potato chip company called Jackson’s Honest. It got me thinking, are potato chips resistant starch since they are enjoyed room temp? They must be! I see in this article a quick mention of chips and fries. Thoughts on this? Jackson’s Honedt uses low temperature frying methods and virgin coconut oil to make their chips, along with heirloom and organic potato varieties. I’d love to hear your responses! Thanks.
Tatertot, really great overview, thank you. I’d been following your comments on this recently and it’s a lot of material to assimilate that way. I can see the effect of specifically RS on gut biome and therefore as a form of insurance for gut function (or even a corrective action for guts that already suffer eg.IBS).
As to it’s other effects, a couple of questions :
1. it’s called resistant because it passes through the upper GI and into the large intestine and colon where it is thought to be digested. O.k. but if it doesn’t raise BG (the usual marker for starch digestion), do you know if there’s some other marker that shows that it really is digested and absorbed into the body?
The reason I’m asking is :
2. could it be that the results on satiety, or on BG, triglycerides and cholesterol etc. are due to it acting like indigestible fiber? In other words, would eating cellulose have the same physiological effects? – of course not counting the direct effect of RS on gut biome (which I know they have, um, ‘tmi’ ways of measuring ;))
Thanks for considering the questions.
That’s right Rob.
Dismiss the like 300 studies, dismiss everyone’s experience and by all means, don’t try it. You might upset Mike Eades and apparently that’s very, very important to you.
Personally, I think Mike gets most stuff right and in this case I think he simply dismissed it out of hand without thoroughly looking into it; and especially, noting that in ALL studies it creates no glucose spike and in most if not all test subjects, both humans and animals, tends to lower fasting BG over time (something I would find hard for an LC doc to dismiss if he dug into it).
Enough. I’ve had enough. Non-fucking stop chatter about fucking food for fucks sake. Fuck it. Cunts. You’re all cunts.
You couldn’t be more wrong, particularly in my case.
I smell. Cunts are useful, and smell. So I guess cunts have one up on me.
We tend to do that around here quite often. What would you prefer?
Yeah, Richard, it’s just about not hurting Mike Eades feelings. Not the fact that Eades went to medical school. Nor that he was a bariatric physician before the term had been coined. Not even the fact that Eades has read a study or two himself. Not the fact that he’s written tons of books on the subject and dedicated his life to it.
No, an anonymous farmer hiding behind “tatertot” outranks Eades in Richard’s latest nutty diet outing. So much so that anyone siding with Eades MUST be doing so out of NOT WANTING TO HURT EADES’ FEELINGS. THERE COULDN’T BE ANY OTHER POSSIBLE REASON.
And the sheep bleat their support! All hail Mr. Potatohead!
Rob, this is simply an argument from authority. I would be surprised if Eades has read any of the studies.
Btw, you don’t want to trust him, don’t. Go ask Paul Jaminet, a recognized expert on starches. Paul tweeted this post to his twitter, Facebook and Google followers. Also got an email from him about it.
Just go read the studies yourself, as I have done– some anyway. Everyone I’ve read is right down the line with what tatertot has said. Also right down the line with my own experience.
Incidentlly, tater is anonymous to neither Paul Jaminet, or I.
@Rob
1st paragraph is just an appeal to authority, how is it supposed to prove what you say, especially considering the studies quoted? Also I would note that Eades compared RS to statins, where statins are proven to be dangerous and ineffective, while RS at worst will act like a bit of fiber (remember that the optimum is to be below 60g with it), so I wouldn’t exactly trust an article starting like that.
Next to note is that from what I know Eades was touting the “metabolic advantage” of high fat diet as the thing making the difference between staying fat or losing fat for quite some time, but then said after a while that the advantage is so small, that it can NOT be measured with the tools usually used to measure weight loss (aka scale). You know, I would rather measure weight loss with a scale showing kg, not mg.
I think that’s enough to say that Eades isn’t always correct.
2nd paragraph we have an ad hominem, nice!
So how about you search for some studies and if you actually find any proving how dangerous RS is, then you will talk about it? Or at least tell me how a theoretical anonymous farmer will get rich if some people from here will, let’s say just buy even 1kg of potatoes per day, considering their price (in Poland it’s like 1,2 dollars per 2kg).
“NOT WANTING TO HURT EADES’ FEELINGS” ?
Hmmm, Mike would only have hurt feelings in these circumstances –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQBDN5s8IB0 🙂 🙂
(I know this does not apply to Marie.)
Sorry if this has been answered before, but what about arrowroot or tapioca starch? (I use them as a sauce thickener instead of corn starch).
SO, no gas? No symptoms of maniacal gut flora overgrowing everywhere?
Great write up tatertot! I’m glad to see the full story and I understand why I should start taking some in the morning instead of all at night.
I started with 2 T of Bobs unmodified mixed with a little water and kefir at night before bed and didn’t see much so I upped it to 4 T the same way before bed and didn’t see much either but this was only over the course of a week. I’ll keep at it and start with 2-3T in the morning along with at night now.
I agree with you on the simply way of mixing with water and kefir, no biggie drinking and causes no gas or other issues. It does seem to fill the stomach up nicely so I might play with drinking it earlier in the night to try and help ignore cravings for a dessert.
Thanks again!
I’m considering trying the raw potato starch, but I’ve heard that raw potatoes contain a neurotoxin. I haven’t actually done any research, but thought maybe someone here could provide a good place for me to start looking.
Marie – At first, RS was treated and thought to be like any dietary fiber, but later studies show it is nothing like typical digestible or indigestible fiber. One of the big problems with RS is how to classify it and how to label it on nutrition labels. Another problem is actually measuring it in foods. RS changes as food goes from raw to cooked and back to cooled, so it’s impossible to say a certain food has X amount of RS. Raw potato starch, however, has been well studied and is universally accepted as 78% by weight. Much of this was figured out with ileostomy patients and pigs, who were dissected to see where the starch granules dissappeared.
This paper has a picture of what RS looks like after it passes through the small intestine and again in the large intestine covered with gut microflora.
Many studies also measure RS in fecal output and find it decreases over a period of about 28 days as the gut bacteria grows to accomodate the most welcome food source. It’s also how they determined the upper limit of about 50g/day–more than that would show up in feces as undigested starch granules.
@Rob – The Eades blog on RS was written in 2008 in response to an ABC News video someone had sent him. The video is no longer available, but it was probably filled with misinformation just like the recent Dr. Oz segment on “resistant carbs” http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/resistant-carbs-fight-cancer
Mark Sisson also did a mocking review of an article (http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/8-reasons-carbs-help-you-lose-weight-2442968.html ) on RS at http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/resistant-carbs-fight-cancer Mark Sisson says this in 2011 of RS:
“It’s silly and not worth a lot of typing, so I’ll make it short. The thing that jumps out at me is the author’s obsession with “Resistant Starch.” First of all, I’m not sure why it deserves repeated capitalization (maybe it’s some sort of deity?), and second, resistant starch is just another type of prebiotic whose fermentation by microbiota releases beneficial short chain fatty acids. You can get the same kind of reaction by eating other sources of soluble fiber, many of them decidedly low-carb. Think leafy greens, broccoli, berries, apples, jicama, onions, garlic, leeks, Jerusalem artichokes. And yes, if your activity levels and metabolic health permit, Primal starches are good sources of resistant starch and soluble fiber alike, but it’s not the carbs doing it. It’s the “carbs” that you literally cannot digest without your little microscopic friends’ assistance.”
I think if Eades or Sisson would dig into it deeper, they would find there is way more to it than what they have written.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/is-central-heating-related-to-obesity/#axzz2RUNlRgai
Whoops, wrong link above…
@uey111 – If I was a smart potato farmer, I’d be marketing my potatoes as health food and working a completely different angle on the RS. People who buy potatoes want to know one thing: Do these make good French Fries? Talking about RS and gut microflora to potato buyers only gets you a glazed over look and a lost sale.
Potatoes are cheap, nutritious, and tasty. Unfortunately it is almost impossible to get enough RS to make a difference, that’s why I turned to potato starch. Zero money in it for me. My interest is only in spreading the word about RS and getting some attention on the more paleo form of RS. The Hi-Maize people, who were formerly getting rich off of High Fructose Corn Syrup, are positioning themselves to be the world’s supplier of RS–in the form of GMO corn.
@Natalie – I’m just not sure about the other starches available like Arrowroot and Tapioca. At first glance I would say they are not good sources because they are advertised as ‘easily digestible’. I can’t find anything that gives an RS content for these. However, banana and plantain flour is often cited as being 50-65% RS by weight and is used in many of the studies.
Yesterday, I mixed 2TBS of potato starch with about 1/2 cup of plain yogurt, and it reminded me exactly of the poi you get in Hawaii. I did some reading on poi and found this http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1482315/ I know it’s a lot to take in, but back in 1917, resistant starch was not known. Maybe the reason the polynesian cultures thrived was the diet high in RS.
“Poi is easily digested, and this may benefit certain health conditions involving the gastrointestinal tract … In 1928, Barret15 observed that the Kanakan language of the Polynesians did not even have a word for indigestion. MacCaughey recognized how easily poi was digested in 1917, and explained that this was due to the small size of the taro starch granule. This was confirmed by the studies of Langworthy and Deuel, who found that the raw starches of rice and taro root were notably more digestible; they also determined that this was the result of the smaller size of the starch granules. Early human studies with poi ingestion showed no undigested starch in feces, even if large quantities of poi were consumed. In 1952, Derstine and Rada reported that the fermentation process seems to be affiliated with the easy digestibility of poi and the high absorbability of its minerals, such as calcium and phosphorus. The nutrient composition of poi is very similar to the values shown for taro (Table 2). Poi is also hypoallergenic because of its very low protein content, and as such has been used as a food substitute for people with food allergies…Dr. Jerome Glaser, a pediatrician and allergist visiting the Hawaiian Islands in 1961, reported that many infants in Hawaii were practically raised on poi. In addition to the extensive use of poi for normal infants, Glaser noted the high use of poi for allergic infants and those with gastrointestinal disorders, and theorized that infants allergic to cereal could eat poi as a substitute.”
You are right on about poi. Taro highly digestable. We make a certified gluten-free Taro Powder that you could use in your morning kefir. http://www.voyagingfoods.com. Aloha!
@August – Absolutely NO distress whatsoever. The first time I tried the potato starch, I had 4TBS on an empty stomach. No problem. I have noticed a change in stool from 5/6 to 3/4 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Stool_Scale) which is considered ideal. Also, and I know this is way into the TMI territory, but there is now a completely different smell. I’m not even going to try to describe it, but it is way better now.
This paper: http://journalofanimalscience.org/content/87/3/984.full goes in depth on the changes of gut microflora in pigs fed different amounts of raw potato starch and shows that a certain percentage of potato starch in the diet can be used to replace the antibiotics normally given to young pigs due to the increase of beneficial bacteria from the starch feedings.
@Austin Pitts – I can’t say for sure what is best in terms of timing. Some days I take 4TBS after dinner, some days with dinner, some days at lunch and sometimes in the morning. It doesn’t really seem to make a difference. i think the key is 20-50g/day. It spreads out through the large intestine and gets assimilated as your gut flora allows.
At first, you may only be digesting a fraction of it, but supposedly within about 4 weeks, the good bacteria have spread throughout the entire colon and it is fully digested.
Some studies suggest that the incidence of colon cancer moves more distally as RS increases in the diet of the population studied.
In countries with little to no RS (SAD), colon cancer is seen in all parts of the large intestine. In countries with moderate amounts (China), colon cancer is seen mostly in the descending colon, or the last third.
In countries with high RS intakes (Africa), colon cancer is rare or unheard of.
This makes sense to me. If you are getting only a fraction of RS, it is digested in proximal, or beginning part of the large intestine, leaving the rest at danger of cancer. The more RS, the more of the colon is protected.
@Steven Richards – Eating raw potatoes can be hazardous as there are somewhat poisonous chemicals in the eyes, leaves, and green spots. If a potato is peeled and examined for green spots, it can be safely eaten raw.
When potatoes are made into starch, all the skin is removed and the pulp is filtered in extremely fine mesh sieves to remove any fiber, leaving only the starch. There is no known hazard associated with eating potato starch, raw or cooked, in fact it is many times safer than eating regular potatoes.
Here is a description I got from Bob’s Red Mill on their potato starch production method:
” I have provided some information below that we received from our Supplier:
The process is as follows:
Washing
Grinding
Wet Screening
Purification
Drying
Pre-sieving
Magnet
Sieving
Packing paperbags
storage”
Cool. This blog is usually entertaining but this post really hit the mark.
I have tried the potato route but weight gain got ahead of me. I’ve known for a while potatoes have nutritional benefits but they send my weight scale into hissy fits. I’ll give the tater starch a try though.
Thanks.
@tatertot – Great guest article. I’ve been scouring the internet (when I have some time) ever since one of Richard’s Potato Hack posts from months ago. All the research I can find to date is either positive or non-conclusive. If half of what I have read is true, then this is a great tweak to the diet. I have been using it for the last couple of months. One great takeaway for me about your article is I’m now convinced I have not been eating enough and will up my consumption by two or three times (I was eating about 15 g per day which is three times the level obtained by the typical American diet.) However, you refer to Hi-Maize 260 as being GMO. Everything I have read states quite clearly it was developed though natural plant breeding over thirty years. In fact, one company fact sheet mentioned specifically that it was not GMO. Could you reference a GMO citation or citations? Thanks
Shit I didn’t know Mike Eades went to medical school. Maybe I should start listening to all the people that went to medical school. I should never have told that doctor that went to medical school to shove those statins up his ass. Thanks Rob I see the error of my ways and will start eating less fat and have 5 heaping helpings of grains a day.
I have found that excess education does not always correlate with intelligence. It is weird.
I think I am going to try the RS though. My TC dropped from 298 to 232 and BP from 125/80 to 100/70 since I started taking 3tbsp of VCO per day and 2tbsp of ACV. It is time to start another experiment.
Tatertot, thanks again, that’s just what I was looking for.
Also, fwiw, you have a great way of explaining some pretty complex stuff, making it easily digestible 😉
Phocion Timon, ‘the good’+in the wilderness, or ‘the good’+satirist? Curiosity piqued…
Also, do you mean by ‘potato route’ that you tried a potato-only hack for weight loss and it didn’t work, or just tried adding potatoes to your diet for RS?
I’m asking because if it’s the second, well, you could try the first and get both weight loss and RS (because you’d be eating a heck of a lot of potatoes and so recooled/reconstituted may get you up to useful quantities for RS, I think – tatertot had some numbers back when this was being discussed here).
@Kyle – Hi-Maize scares me. Maybe I’m wrong about calling it GMO, but it isn’t regular, old corn. Also, the type of RS said to be RS-2, by the company, but RS-4 by others.
RS-2 is naturally occurring RS, the same found in raw potato starch, RS-4 is chemically modified and not found in nature. Hi-Maize is used in baking. With RS-2, it should be impossible to bake with, so i don’t know how they are getting around that.
Here’s a description of the types for anyone who hasn’t looked it up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistant_starch:
RS1 Physically inaccessible or digestible resistant starch, such as that found in seeds or legumes and unprocessed whole grains
RS2 Resistant starch that occurs in its natural granular form, such as uncooked potato, green banana flour and high amylose corn
RS3 Resistant starch that is formed when starch-containing foods are cooked and cooled such as in legumes,[2] bread, cornflakes and cooked-and-chilled potatoes, pasta salad or sushi rice. The process of cooking out the starch and cooling it is called retrogradation.
RS4 Starches that have been chemically modified to resist digestion. This type of resistant starches can have a wide variety of structures and are not found in nature.
In this paper:
There is a discussion of the different types/brands of corn starches used:
“…Hi-maize 260 and HYLON VII which were the best diets for butyrate production are both RS2-type starches, contain similar amounts of RS (46% and 48% respectively) [23] yet the total dietary fibre levels are quite different (60% and 18% respectively) [23]. The hydrothermal treatment also does not seem to have significantly improved fermentation, because HYLON VII is the base starch for the hydrothermal preparation of Hi-maize 260, and it was both of these RS forms that performed the best in terms of SCFA production including butyrate….on balance the RS2-type starches tended to perform much better than the single RS3-type starch (ie. Novelose 330). ..”
It may very well turn out that Hi-Maize is the answer. I just can’t wrap my mind around a franken-corn source of RS. If this is what it takes to bring RS to the world, then maybe it’s a good thing. I just don’t see how they are baking bread with it when it’s not modified.
grrrr…link to paper cited above: http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com/content/6/1/11
It’s actually a good one to read.
Also @Kyle, re: “One great takeaway for me about your article is I’m now convinced I have not been eating enough and will up my consumption by two or three times (I was eating about 15 g per day which is three times the level obtained by the typical American diet.)”
I estimated 15g/day was about all I could get, too, with potatoes and rice. I was making dried plantain chips, which I thought were giving me 25g/day, but when I started the 4TBS of raw potato starch, it made a difference almost overnight.
I think my system was probably pretty well primed from the RS I was getting from potatoes, rice, and plantains and as soon as I added the potato starch it made an immediate, noticeable difference.
With the dried plantain chips, I think they have a lot of RS, but maybe it is inaccessible due to the nature of the chips as opposed to the fine texture of the potato starch.
All of the studies say the biggest limitation in studying RS amounts in different foods is that it changes so frequently with cooking methods, storage temps, and even eating/chewing differences.
One thing I like about potato starch is that it has been studied and used extensively in experiments on RS. Plus, it’s cheap.
hmmm, I did my first kefir fast day day before yesterday… I dropped 2.8lbs of bload, despite a quart for breakfast and a quart+ for dinner… but the constipation was not pleasant… perhaps this RS is what I need?
anyone note if this has helped and/or hindered weight/fat loss?
@golooraam – Weight loss, weight regulation, and hunger abatement have all been attributed to RS. Give it a try, but don’t expect immediate results–your guts may need time to repopulate with beneficial bacteria. I think the cultures found in kefir matched with the gut enhancing properties of RS should be a win-win situation for gut health and overall health, but maybe not a magic-bullet simply for weight loss.
My view on RS is it should be an intrinsic part of diet, like the bone broths and organ meats we should also be eating regularly.
I often wonder what would happen if a SAD eater, in the midst of metabolic syndrome, simply added 4TBS of potato starch to his diet…would it make any difference? I don’t know.
Is there a commercial bulk type potato starch that would be good for high resistant starch?
I’ve seen raw potato starch, unmodified potato starch, modified potato starch, etc. what is the way to go?
Can one juice a potato and drink the juice ? Would the starch be in the juice or the pulp?
Which Hi Maize is the best choice for resistant starch to use when baking?
I’m just trying to find a economical one for a few people household.
Anyone knows how much resistant starch in an average Yukon gold potato &/or other types of raw potatoes?
Thanks for any and all helpfulness
Golooraam
Constipation is an issue I never deal with.
You know why? Because no animal can store shit indefinitely. Changing what the biota in your intestines have to deal with makes constipation predictable, but it’s always temporary.
My advice to everyone is, if you’re constipated, double down. Eat twice as much of what you have been eating and show those little fuckers who’s boss,
you know what Richard… you have a really good point and ARE TOTALLY FREAKIN RIGHT
yesterday was a gluttonous totally non diet day…
had a monster workout (for me anyways): 52 neutral grip pullups – strict form – 10 sets
then I had a quart of raw kefir and then 3 kombuchas during the day
lunch had a ton of indian food then a milkshake
went out with the boys for ramen and whiskey
then had a before dinner of paella and fries and more booze
this morning: TMI but it was impressive 🙂
@tatertot – Thanks for the article. Yes, it is a good read.
I’m on the fence wrt whether potato starch or Hi-Maize is better (or whether Hi-Maize should be a concern). The article you referenced would tend to suggest that Hi-Maize 260 is superior to everything else, but that is a trial based on six different RS2 starches with only 12 rats in each test group plus a control. My only reservation in making decisions regarding corn is the fact that it has tremendous genetic diversity, fifteen times greater than the human genome (Source: . To me, that would indicate relative ease in naturally breeding many different characteristics into corn. (As a fascinating aside, there is speculation this is due to the fact that corn, or maize, was cultivated longitudinally across North and South America, whereas most other edible crops tended towards latitudinal cultivation – could not find the source on this….)
Regardless, after upping my current starch consumption for a couple of weeks, I plan to test switching between Hi-Maize and raw potato starch to see if I notice any differences….
Golooraam:
Yea, people seem to be totally in love with their morning happy shit face. If they don’t get it, hell to pay.
@kyle – I would love to hear what you think of Hi-Maize. Are you planning on using it raw or cooking with it? I saw the national marketing director of National Starch, makers of Hi-Maize, saying she puts 2TBS in a smoothie every day.
I am on the fence with corn, also. Corn was a staple of many American civilizations, originating in central Mexico, I believe, and tinkered with for thousands of years by ancient man, resulting in corn for all climates and uses. The big difference is, the original way to eat corn was to soak it in ash water (a form of lye) for long times and then cook it. It was eaten closer to what we call hominy. Here’s a good description: http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2009/03/wisdom-from-the-past-nixtamalization-of-corn.html
I have some seed corn from an old heirloom Native American strain of purple corn I am going to grow this summer and try to prepare in a traditional way.
How do i know if the potatoe starch i buy is raw or if it has been processed, should i use a blood glucose meter and check if my blood glucose only rises slightly?
What happens with potatoe starch if i first use it in cooking with water wich makes it into an sort of gel, and then cool it, will it turn back into RS after cooling?
Here in sweden we have used potatoe starch for a long as a traditonal cure for diarea and gut problems.
@Woodwose – I don’t know how to tell if it’s unmodified other than it says “Unmodified” or “raw” on the package. I’m pretty sure that all potato starch sold for human consumption is raw and unmodified. Potato starch is modified for use in industrial applications like wallpaper glue and other adhesives.
Maybe you could check with the manufacturer?
Once you heat raw potato starch past 140-160 degF, the starch granules will swell and burst, turning them into readily-digestible starch. Cooling will only return a fraction to an RS state.
In Sweden, how is potato starch traditionally used? raw or cooked? Very interesting!
@tatertot – I’ve been eating it raw for the most part and substituting it for any recipes where starch is required (not that many for me, though I have been increasing my Chinese cooking lately). To condense a very long story, for about two months I’ve been consuming HM260 in a smoothie, though I haven’t been eating one every day. I’m now changing plan to eat a smoothie with store bought coconut kefir/berries/half banana/3 Tbls HM260 as my first meal of the day and another smoothie with homemade (finally!) whole milk kefir/berries/half banana/2 Tbls HM260 as my last meal of the day (someone in one of the comments a while back suggested including your RS2 in the evening – can’t remember who). That should get me in the range of 50g/day consumption of RS2 fiber I believe.
As for my opinion of HM260 – not really sure what to say. No issues with using it and it appears to mix quite easily in a smoothie or during cooking – makes for a very slightly gritty smoothie, but nothing much more than whey or hydrolyzed collagen. The only reaction I’ve seen so far indicates it does seem to decrease my appetite, but I’m not sure that isn’t psychological suggestion from reading all these posts over the last few months. Richard’s comment on dreams sort of resonates with me though. My dreams do seem to have changed rather dramatically during those times I was consuming HM260 more consistently. It will be interesting to see the impact of much higher dosage and more consistent consumption.
I’ll report back on this thread or a more current thread of Richard’s concerning RS.
@Tatertot, have you heard of Superstarch? I’m a fan of Peter Attia & he thinks this shit is the best thing since cracked eggs. http://eatingacademy.com/sports-and-nutrition/introduction-to-superstarch-part-i
I can’t see myself using it, but I wonder if the superstarch and resistant starch might be related.
@Joshua – I’ll be darned! I learned something new.
I had heard of Superstarch, but just blew it off as an expensive supplement Attia was hawking. Following your link, I found this paper: http://generationucan.com/pdf/technical-breakthrough-sports-innovation.pdf from the makers of SuperStarch, UCan. In the paper, they say:
“Two peer-reviewed
scientific studies have confirmed that ingestion of
a novel heat-moisture processed cornstarch is
superior to conventional treatments in preventing
hypoglycemia over extended periods of time in
subjects with Glycogen Storage Disease(4, 5)”
A novel, heat-moisture processed cornstarch…hmmmm, why does that sound familiar?
A few posts up, I posted this quote about Hi-Maize resistant corn starch: “The hydrothermal treatment also does not seem to have significantly improved fermentation, because HYLON VII is the base starch for the hydrothermal preparation of Hi-maize 260”
Doesn’t that sound the same? I’ll bet SuperStarch is a mixture of Hi-Maize and some other things, but I can’t find what–they seem to keep this info very close. They probably don’t want people to figure out they are charging $50 for $5 worth of potato starch!
Also in the paper:
“n the intestines, SuperStarch is semi-resistant to
digestion, but is eventually completely absorbed in
to the bloodstream, thereby giving it a slow
time-released absorption profile. Because of the low glycemic impact, there is also little
stimulation of the hormone insulin following ingestion. ”
Sounds like RS to me.
Read the paper and the website http://www.generationucan.com/super.html replace the words SuperStarch with Potato Starch, and you will probably be ready to take the plunge.
This must be where SuperStarch comes from: http://www.dfepharma.com/en/Excipients/Starch/Partly-pregelatinised-maize-starch.aspx#tab-overview
This stuff is marketed to make pills out of…could it be the same thing?
SuperStarch® 200 is a partly pregelatinised maize starch that integrates multiple functionalities of binder, disintegrant, lubricant and flow-aid. SuperStarch® 200 conforms to all tests in major pharmacopoeias.The main application areas of SuperStarch® 200 include direct compression tablet formulations as well as wet granulation and capsule formulations. SuperStarch® 200 is made from maize starch containing a mixture of amylopectin and amylose. The water soluble amylose in SuperStarch® 200 provides the binding needed for tableting and granulation. Amylopectin provides the structure of unruptured starch grains enabling disintegration of a tablet by swelling of the starch grains.”