Just Watch. Bulletproof Exec Dave Asprey is Going to So Biohack Resistant Starch
Another one is on board to check it out and this is good:
Is there such a thing as Bulletproof Resistant Starch?
My friend Richard Nikoley over at Free the Animal has blown the doors off the Paleo community recently with an amazing series of posts on something called resistant starch. If you are not familiar with Richard’s work, he’s a little crazy. As in totally willing to go on an all milk and kefir diet for a whole month. Or willing to experience crazy amounts of intestinal gas to test the effects of lots of potato flour on his blood glucose. He’s discovered some cool stuff, and Mark Sisson and Chris Kresser picked it up. Now it’s all over the paleo world.
Once I got wind, here’s what I said and meant in comments:
Dave, I’ve idly thought from time to time that you would find this irresistible as a hack.
The comment thread is kind of amusing. Apparently, because I said some bad words to judge and characterize certain individuals, it’s very, very bad that Dave had the audacity to link up this totally unrelated work. I guess it’s tainted, and so when I say xyz, it means something different than when a pure individual says xyz. That hundreds of people have commented about great individual results in about a dozen posts about resistant starch doesn’t matter. I’ll just grin and show you the last comment, dashing in just a few ago, and are representative of so many since last April.
Caliprimal // Dec 3, 2013 at 17:52
Richard, Tatertot, Grace and others,
Thanks for all you’ve done and please count these results in your tally:
As a PB low carber, I lost 25 lbs. and cured reactive hypoglycemia. However, when I hit my ideal weight last summer, the chronic insomnia (2 am to 6 am) and “slow digestion” kicked in severely. Tested positively for SIBO, just as I was discovering your research. Instead of antibiotics, I am two weeks into RS, Phsyllium powder, green ORAC powder with Prescript assist SBO’s everyday. Also making sure I get a serving of either reheated potato or rice daily, with my usual fermented foods.
Drumroll now?:) So far my “slow digestion” has gone from twice per week (sometimes 5 days in between), to everyday or at least every other day. I’m sleeping soundly from 10 pm until 4:30 or 5, right before the alarm goes off. These miracles happened after the the second week of the RS “treatment”, so I want to encourage people to give it enough time. I’ll update if anything else changes. I have plenty of stinky gas as expected, but hopeful that the good bugs will win and that will stop the smell.
I am curious if anyone has considered making an e-book or something to compile all of the information you have gathered? I know other people with SIBO and I would like to share this info, but it is so spread out and maybe a little daunting for people not even familiar with paleo. Just a thought.
Thanks again!
This is actually a cool way to get panties in a bunch, wouldn’t you say? Nothing like bunched up panties. Because as I always say, from a friend years back: “I’m not happy unless you’re not happy.”
Final note, Dave still has potato flour linked up instead of starch, which could spell disaster. I’ve tried to contact him to correct it. I’m sure he will. But: Bob’s Potato Flour and Bob’s Potato Starch are completely different things. The former is simply eating dried mashed potatoes and will give you the same glucose spike. The later is the RS granules extracted from a simple process of raw potato slurry that’s sieved to extract the starch granules. Taking that will not affect blood glucose, will blunt glucose spikes when other, rapidly digesting starch is eaten, and it will lower your fasting blog glucose significantly—and probably make you sleep and poop better, among a few other things.
I’m sure Dave will find a way for it to improve shaving.
To get caught up on all things RS, here’s the collection.
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Richard, I panicked when I read about the difference between potato flour and potato starch. I live in Sweden and the translation for potato starch is >>potatismjöl<<, which also translates back into English as potato flour. Here they don't seem to make any distinction between the two terms. According to the website of the product I buy this is the process (roughly Google-translated): "The manufacturing of potato flour is quite simple. One washes and grates the potatoes. Water is poured on the potato pulp. You stir a few times and the day after replace the water. Anything that floats up is removed. Water changes continue until the mass at the bottom is clean and white. Then the mass is dried, crumbled and polished."
This sound about right to you?
Bulletproof Upgraded Potato Starch … I’m rolling my eyes 🙂
Possibly using organic potato will be a very good upgrade.
Dave only sells stuff that is hard to get elsewhere.
Good luck finding anything like his Glutathione.
Ricardo, do Evelyn and MM have people who just follow you around telling folks what a bad, bad man you are, or what?
I’m getting tired of the stupidity. How do you not let it get to you?
Asprey isn’t going to “biohack” Resistant Starch. He’s going to rebrand it as “Bulletproof Resistant Starch,” slap an orange sticker on the side, and sell it for $19.99 per pound.
I’m sure I’ll get a lot of hate mail for that last comment. Oh well. (Relax.. I was kidding guys).
Anyway, I think Dave will ultimately give up on RS if he isn’t able to work through any flatulence. His blog post suggests he designed the bulletproof diet to minimize gas in his gut. But I suppose that also suggests that Bulletproof dieters don’t do much fermenting of fiber either. I’m worried all these Bulletproofers are going to speed up global warming once they start fermenting and farting for a change.
@david
That totally sounds like the process to me. To be sure, so the BG test. 4 T in water should not give you a BG rise over 2 hours. Or, take 4T with a bowl of beans, see is you’re the next man on the moon. 🙂
@Duck
Well, we’ll see. Dave is very smart and I think touting his coffee primarily is good evidence. I’ve spent time with Dave a few times. He’s ridiculous as hell, just like I like to be.
Hey, if he can brand an RS sup and make it pay, more power to him. Tough gig, given it’s so cheap. I wouldn’t want to try it.
@Duck
I think Dave is big enough to say whoa. I can’t imagine that integrating the fact we have 10 times more bacteria in gut than cells in body leads to the idea they can’t give off their own waste.
I’m still waiting for someone to suggest that flatulence is healthful, more the better. It’s plausible, given the fact of the biome and what they do and that they are so numerous. “paleo” only goes so far, I guess.
Cool. Gotcha. I like Dave. I just think he goes a little overboard with the product placement. But, yeah, more power to him.
I’m pretty sure Jeff Leach told Kresser on his recent podcast that if you’re not farting, you’re not fermenting.
@David, I also live outside the US and the terms potato starch and potato flour are often interchangeable for me, too. If you put it in a glass of water and it sinks like a stone to the bottom, you’ve got starch. If it turns into a gluggy mess, you’ve got flour.
@David
Hi fellow swede (hej landsman). I Have tried kockens potatismjöl with BG meter and it seems like the real deal, it lowers or at least makes my blood glucose went lower when ingesting 80g of it.
If i remember correctly potatoe flour is more yellowish. Potatoe starch also are almost tasteless.
Anyone tried mixing 3 tbs RS 3 tbs psyllium husk and some yoghurt and let if ferment for a day or two? When it works it expands in the pot and tastes a bit sour, best cure i have found so far for IBS.
Woodwose,
what would be the added benefit of this? Would it be any different than taking RS + psyllium husk w. kefir, you reckon?
I’m currently mixing resistant starch with psyllium husk, and I supplement this with kefir. Cautiously very optimistic. Especially as I just had the best sh*t since 10 years after doing this for 1 day. no joke. (sorry, TMI).
I’ve been doing RS for ±2,5 weeks, with the only results being a lot of flatulence and gastro-intestinal discomfort. I think the RS-protocol might have to be adapted for persons with IBS.
I’m dead set on curing IBS this year, it hampers my life in so many ways (travelling, love, sports, social life). If this doesn’t work I’m going the DIY FMT route, as I’m very certain that this will cure it.
Thomas:
You might tray bolus dosing PS for 2-3 days 4-8T per day), do 2-3 with zero, etc. rinse, wash, repeat
This has completely eliminated fartage for me beyond just normal, such that I can have a big bowl of beans, dose 4T PS, and get little if anything.
My takeaway is that this community down there is so complex that you want to be mixing things up because there’s no way to tell what’s exactly right. It may turn out that it’s not a good idea to dose PS every single day, same dose, same time, same way (the thing people love to do). But rather, that it’s more like gathering and eating patterns.
There’s probably a J or U curve deal of some sort.
That’s an interesting approach, Richard.
I’ll add it to my list of 3-week experiments with RS.
Thanks for the response, will report back!
@David, same situation over here in Germany. Nobody seems to know that/if there is a difference between starch and flour. I found one that seems to be the only one: http://www.amazon.de/Bauckhof-Kartoffelmehl-Stärke-Pack-Tüte/dp/B004RG4PZY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386144315&sr=8-1&keywords=kartoffelstärke
According to the product information the process is the same as the one you described. Nevertheless, it is called “potato flour”. But it is gluten-free, of very white color and with no taste at all.
@Lauren: If i put in water though, it becomes a gluggy mess…
So, I am very skeptical about using this.
Any ideas??
Thanks!
@wood
This is the big unknown, still. At what point, by introducing the critters to RS before ingestion, do they render the starch no longer resistant? 10 minutes, a hour, a day.
Or do they multiple exponentially give that day you mention, and it’s a veritable microbiome bomb?
Re the comments on Bulletproof … you and Alec Baldwin are walking in the same shoes these days (he lost his show for using the “f” word lord knows what would have happened if he used the “c” word probably would have been burned at the stake).
I’ve been wondering about Sushi – Salmon, cooled rice, some vegetables, seaweed. I may need to pull that sushi roller thing I bought but never used out of the package and get to work.
Hadn’t heard about that, rob.
Check this out. The awesome Joan Rivers saying what needs to be said about it.
http://www.tmz.com/videos/0_dsdnwpoq
Wonder what Betty White would say.
@Phillip, my German is rusty, but I don’t see anything written there that talks about how the potato flour is made. The emphasis seems to be about how it’s tested and sure to be gluten free. Also, from the label on the back, the carb count looks high. If you combine that info with your experience of it going gluggy, I’d say it’s flour not starch. (But you could always test blood glucose to be sure.) In my experience, the starch will sink right to the bottom of the glass and only is drinkable if you stir it. Once stirred, if you leave it again, it goes back down to the bottom. It never mixes or becomes gluggy.
Thanks Lauren. Mine is called Potato Starch Flour (ie: both). Not gluggy and it sinks. It has a kind of silky feel to it when it’s dry.
Here’s a go Richard!
http://www.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fphys.2012.00101/full
l&k
john
Speaking of biohacks, I had an idea inspired by Tim’s lament that he didn’t have a “before” biome of his gut. I’ve started putting together a Kickstarter for my family to do a controlled before and after experiment of RS on our guts. Before I actually pull the trigger and publish it, I wanted to get a few folks’ opinion. Would you contribute $10-20 to see the results for this type of experiment? Unfortunately I don’t have the means at present to entirely self-fund it, so I’d need to seek help from like-minded folks on teh interwebz. Richard, would you make a post for a link to the Kickstarter if I made it live?
If it helps, here’s the project description I’ve written for it. I’m open to suggestions for improvements:
“I will purchase two “Microbes for Four” swab kits from the American Biome Project.
At the start of the project four members of our family, two adults and two children, will provide a stool swab.
Over the course of a 6 week study period I will maintain a food journal for each participant as well as randomly assigning each member to one of the following test groups:
a) Control — normal diet, no potato starch ingested
b) 2 TBSP daily potato starch mixed in water and consumed on an empty stomach
c) 2 TBSP daily potato starch mixed into yogurt
d) 2 TBSP daily potato starch plus a commercial probiotic capsule mixed into yogurt
At the conclusion of the study period the four test subjects will provide a second stool swab for comparison purposes. Results from both swabs will be written up by me and shared publicly on the internet.”
@PortlandAllan
Already put out there. If you want to pre publish here to drum up more support, please email (address on the About Page).
Could be cool.
I’m going to let Tim and perhaps DrBG Grace tweak with your study design. That’s how we work. I’m just the MC.
I’m waiting for someone to connect the dots and surmise that the flatulence from the cavemen and their starch intake is what killed the dinosaurs. 🙂
“I’m sure Dave will find a way for it to improve shaving.”
I’d been thinking about giving a safety razor a try for the first time since 1976 or so and Amazon had an Edwin Jagger razor on sale so I took the plunge, also bought 100 high quality blades for $9 so I’m set for two years. Started using it Monday and so far very pleased, I’d forgotten that shaving is actually possible without a 5 blade Gillette Beard Incinerator Mark IV that costs $2.50 a pop.
Hard to get the area right under the nostrils but otherwise it’s better than the disposables and at nine cents a week beats the Dollar Shave Club by a pretty big margin.
Woodwose, wanna care to elaborate a little more on your IBS cure? What did you do and what did it resovle? I’m curious as I have family members with IBS: what aspect of IBS did you have and what did it resolve? Thanks.
Thanks Richard. I don’t have the means to test my BG but I will go with your second method and hopefully get a good look at the Northern Lights next time…
@Lauren & Woodwose Thanks for the tips.
Woodwose, Hej! it is Kockens that I use, the only they sell in ICA. I see from their website that they have an organic version but I haven’t seen it for sale in any shops.
@rob
I wear stubble and just hit it with an electric clipper every couple weeks. Once or twice a year I do a clean, old fashioned shave when up at the cabin. You know, scalding hot water, the towel, the wet face, the cream….and I never need more than a plain old single blade.
It’s hilarious that men can actually fall for this new & improved marketing schtick time after time.
Back in college, I actually had the cup of shaving soap and a brush.
@Portland Allan – I’d like to see a diff dose on adults. One adult up to 4TBS/day, other at 2TBS.
Baseline Test — no RS for anyone
Test Period — 1 adult 4TBS/day in water, 1 adult 2TBS in water, 1 kid 2TBS in yogurt, 1 kid 1TBS in yogurt.
The only kicker is that the Am Gut results won’t show bifido unless it is highly enriched over other participants.
Grace – is there a better test that would show bifidobacteria and some other markers? We need to think this out.
@Richard — “Already put out there” I did see people volunteering to do before & after on themselves, I didn’t see as close to a controlled before & after on a healthy, homogenous group that all eats and lives together. Seemed a unique & interesting spin. I’ll email if this is taking the comments off-topic. Thanks.
@TT — Sure that’s another way to go about it. The random assignment felt more like a real science experiment, but seeing your response I have to agree comparing dose responses is probably more interesting at this point since the efficacy of RS is reasonably well established. But no interest in what a probiotic might do?
Thanks Richard and Tim/Tatertot
Hello Portland Allan~!
Great questions.
I not only colloborate with educators here in China for functional medicine and lab testing (Pacific Wellspring, Lawke), but I’m also an international practitioner and I can order the appropriate GI gut testing that you are requesting. Please email me (remove &) rama&&&&ramax&&&&&&&@&&&&g&mail&&&.com
I did these with my 12 and 14 year olds also, like your family. VERY VERY VERY COMPELLING. We all had parasites and overgrowths (not the same ones LOL!! wtf right??)
Here’s my example and how I fixed SIBO story. Also Brent Pottenger’s healthy sample.
http://drbganimalpharm.blogspot.jp/2013/09/my-n1-pre-and-post-microbiome-digestion.html
Description of the tests (right hand box has AWESOME resources)
ONE — Optimal Nutri Eval — noninvasive so good for kids. This provides much information on toxins (plastics and environmental), DNA damage/oxidation, nutritional status, vitamin/mineral deficiencies and MOST IMPORTANTLY the gut dysbiosis markers. Yeasts, fungi, pathogenic overgrowth and parasites secrete nasty things. These are captured in blood then urine. We can quantify, track and follow them as we improve gut health.
http://www.gdx.net/product/10003
GI FX stool testing 2200 — see my link for explanations. VERY COMPREHENSIVE. All the species of overgrowths and parasites can be detected. (what’s missing are spirochetes, viruses, bacteriophages, and some of the cool good species that Tim and his wife Jackie show).
http://www.gdx.net/product/10150
g
(turn around time is 4 wks — I need 3-5 business days to drop ship to you. Can’t do NY. RU in NY hope not?)
GDX testing became affordable in 2012. In a big campaign to enlarge the utility of these spectacular tests with practitioners and patients, the program called EasyPay deposit allows those with insurance (non-HMO) to get the above comprehensive testing for $129 and $99, respectively. Full price however is in the hundreds for each (like Richard, Kaiser and other HMOs). I can let you know the details when you email me.
@Portland
See, I practice division of labor. Big fan. You get all sorted however, and I’ll promote the hell out of your Kickstarer.
You’ll get funded probably, and then it will be fun to publish results, no fear.
Rob,
care to share the links to the razor and blades? I have been meaning to go this route but haven’t gotten around to it.
T-Nat
Portland Allan,
uBIOME is not bad — uses the same 16S DNA amplification technology, but it is limited. It won’t identify pathogenic overgrowth in the small and large intestines or the parasites, worms, protozoa, yeasts, fungi, etc that affect our health DRAMATICALLY. The cost is only $10 more for GDX over uBIOME!
Hi Dr. BG,
Is Genova the same as Metametrix? They both seem to offer similar kind of testing.
I will be sending you an email. I am planning to get these tests done in a few weeks.
Thanks
T-Nat
Grace,
Can you please comment on this product.
@Richard — Sounds good, and yeah “promote the hell” was all looking for from yourself. 🙂 Following-up with BG & TT offline now.
T-Nat,
YES they’re the same now — GDX bought out MM about two years ago. Looking forward.
Portland Allan, Richard
I wish Dave Asprey would do the GDX! He is very mycotoxin sensitive (genetic susceptibility and history of mold damaged environment). My sister M and I talked at length with Dave at dinner with Bea and Richard (with Patrik V of paleohacks Jan 2012) about mold, fungi, candida, autisism/spectrum/Aspie. The GDX captures the fungal burden — both the stool 2200 and ONE. The stool provides load, species, identification and the ONE fungal dysbiotic markers in the urine.
Dave sells many mycotoxin-free products (like mycotoxin free coffee) on his website as well as promotes his VLC diet to control candida. Unfortunately this as we are now fully aware starves out the SFB, soil based organisms and other commensals which CONTROL AND CROWD OUT pathogenic overgrowths of candida and other fungi. Anyone with one course of antibiotics (or eats CAFO poultry, eggs or meat gets antibiotics these days) selects out for candida. It is inevitable. One single course of antibiotics completely changes our gut flora permanently.
This was noticed on Michael Pollan’s Am Gut profile after a round of prophylactic dental antibiotics — Pollan’s gut flora NEVER returned to as good as baseline even MONTHS after that one course of drugs. Sad.
http://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/some-of-my-best-friends-are-germs/
uBIOME (+Am Gut) DOES NOT IDENTIFY FUNGI which we all have too much (or parasites, protozoa, worms, or helminths) 😉
therefore I think if you can, GDX trumps the cr*p out of uBIOME.
g
Dr. BG,
Sent you an email. Thanks, T-Nat
sounds like potato starch.
I haven’t shaved since May, but I use a Merkur “Hefty Classic” Safety razor and Feather Hi-stainless steel double edge razor blades for about 2-3 years. Those razor blades are the sharpest I’ve tried, which is what you want. Best shave I’ve ever had with just water.
For those in doubt re potato flour vs potato starch flour, look into the macronutrient list as well on the package. PS flour should have about 0 fat and protein and 80% carbs. And yes, the color is pure white, texture is silky, taste bland / chalky (well, I never tasted chalk powder …) and it does not mix well with water if you don’t stir it often, it sinks to the bottom. If you warm it up, it should gelatinize. The Scandinavians have these red dessert using PS as the gelifying additive (it’s quite good actually but RS is destroyed for sure in it).
For a number of years as I’ve sipped my morning coffee, my first thought was “How delightful this would be with a big dab of butter and a few spoons of potato starch!”
Make it happen, Dave.
so Dr. Jack Kruse posted on his facebook timeline the following statement
“You think the latest ‘paleo crazy’ of resistant starch is big? Well instead of eating a processed man made dietary fiber like potato starch, why not just eat nuts? Did you know nuts have huge ability to make hydroxybutyrate? This fat is manufactured in your gut by bacteria to cause an epigenetic alteration of your DNA and RNA. Hydroxybutyrate is a very powerful epigenetic compound that inhibits the deacetylation of histone protein’s. Hydroxybuturate is a broad spectrum HDAC inhibitor that inhibits most HDACs except the class II and class II HDACs. HDAC inhibitors can also be classified by their molecular structure. In this classification system, hydroxybutyrate is classified as a “fatty acid type” HDAC Inhibitor and is the most effective “fatty acid inhibitor” in this molecular class. It is a “Baby Maxwell demon”.”
and some interesting comments to my question
“Butch the best resistant starch when you have an altered mitochondria is nuts not potato starch. There is a post coming on this bio hack I did over six months…..”
“Nuts are better than artificial RS like potato starch”
ahhh…. artificial RS ? Why is it artificial ?
“potatos are not an RS”
hmmmm…….
artificial meaning processed like Hi-Maize
@Tatertot – Wow. This is even better:
We are deep in quantum chemistry here. I wonder that perhaps bifidos exploit these weak intermolecular forces to attach themselves on a starch molecule and ride down. Actually, I saw these potato starch fun at demonstration physics lesson of my son (6th grade). Depending on the force applied it can behave both as fluid or solid matter.
And yes, in our case it was potato starch, ubiquitous here in Czech republic (alas, colon cancer also ubiquitous, see http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/cancerstats/types/bowel/incidence/#geog).
It’s artificial just because you don’t do the processing yourself? Seems like a lame excuse to me.
@sooted
I typically just let people be wrong, nowadays.
Tim and I have bigger fish to fry.
@Richard
it really boils down to n=1, and a lot of folks that tried the RS protocol as describe by you and Tim has great quantified success.
The beauty is that RS is a very easy tweak to a working “Paleo” template.
@tatertot or @Richard
In your opinion, do you think the RS on gram for gram basis is about the same or close between
Bob’s RM Unmodified Potato Starch vs DEHYDRATED Raw Russet Potato ?
Hey, Ninj – Here’s what I think. You can squeeze 1TBS+ of potato starch from 1 pound of potato. I did it at home in my kitchen sink.
So, with the dehydrated potatoes, you’d have to figure out what equals one pound of hydrated potato, know what I mean?
I’d personally not mess with dehydrated potatoes if you are buying them, they are probably sprayed with anti-fungals or preservatives…I may be wrong. They may even be partly cooked– I’m thinking of the potatoes that used to come with Hamburger Helper…I think those are partly cooked.
Hope that helps!
Also @Ninja – re: Jack Kruse ideas. I came across some info that Almonds produced a second-meal effect like RS does a long time ago. It was put out by the California Almond Growers Assoc. I have never seen anything that suggests tree nuts are rich in RS, although the do have RS. I think Jack is doing his own thing with ‘ancient pathways’. That’s cool, he may figure out a piece we are all missing.
As to the thought that potato starch is a processed food, definitely not. It’s about as unprocessed as anything could be. It’s extracted from raw potatoes by grinding in water baths then filtered. You can make it at home. That was the first thing I looked at before getting excited about this over a year ago. Flour scares me–even the gluten free stuff, bleach, vitamins, colors added to lots of it…there are good ones, though, I’m sure. Even rice usually is processed way more than potato starch, especially the ‘enriched’ versions.
As to nuts being equally as effective–easy to prove with gut testing. Show me massive bifidobacteria after eating nuts for a couple months and I’ll believe it.
1tbs Potato Starch = 1lb of Raw Potato = ? lb of Dehyrated Potato. yup… gotcha you.
thanks
so, 4lbs of Raw Potato just to match a daily regimen of 4tbs of Potato Starch.
I was thinking more in the line of purchasing Organic Russet Potatoes @ TJs then slicing and dehydrating it myself withe some Himalayan Salt on top potato chips.
I think that would work. That’s a lot of taters to eat! Dehydrated potatoes get pretty hard, you may want to try a few first. Let us know, though, they’d make great snacks if you can make them palatable with super-low heat. Get some plantains and try them, too. They dry better than potatoes IMO. 1 large plantain has about 30-40g RS.
I’m just speculating here BUT he might have confused potato starch as potato flour.
He also said “potato is NOT RS”. Also just speculating, he might be referring potato as cooked potato which RS destroyed and makes it to digestible starch as opposed to raw potato.
But as I said, your success and others is quantified in regards to gut biome and blood sugar measurements.
I have seen and tried a couple of dehydrated potato. They are hard BUT if it is sliced thin enough it should work and make for a good potato chip. I’m getting a dehydrator that has an adjustable thermostat it could be set to 90 degrees.
Plantain… hmmmm. That could be a better option just for the amount of RS it contains on a per pound basis. Because 4lbs of Potato daily is just to much to take while 1 Plantain daily is much more manageable.
Any idea on the RS content of cold buckwheat? I live in Ukraine, and my wife’s granddad eats it every morning with kefir and a bit of honey. He’s in his 80s, which means he’s definitely in the running for the oldest man in Ukraine.
A real cure would perhaps be an exaggeration but my gut feels renewed. I have IBS type D albeit a mild variant of it. Nowadays i can eat melted fat and raw veggies as long as I have fortified my gut with some RS. Before this a sallad or too much fat on meat would have my gut content rush out prematurely along with all the stomach acids.
I have basically followed Richards and Tatertots advice. Tatertort mentioned somewhere along the line of the FTA blog posts that RS worked as a sort of catalyst for other kinds of fiber so i have also included one tbs of psyllium husk for every 3 tbs of RS. Raw chopped onions and some youghurt to be able to chew them is also fortifying.
The first 3 weeks where very gassy but nowadays its a very rare problem. The first few weeks it felt sort of like the RS welded, discarded, rearanged and burnt alot of “stuff” in the gut.
Nowadays i eat RS mostly direct from the container but also sometimes try to pre-ferment it with psyllium and yoghurt. I feel its best to have variety. I also find whole canned anchovies and Okra helps. Sauerkraut on the other hand can easily bring back the IBS type D if im not carefull with it.
I eat a ketogenic diet and I also dont feel that the RS has affected my ketosis levels. When my ketosis is humming along as it should I can train fasted and leave the gym without feeling hungry, this is still the case even with RS and my strenght results are also improving (even if there are too many variables to atribute that to RS alone)
My advice would be to lean into RS first, perhaps with an increeasing dose up to 3tbs/day. And then If the results are positive experiment with some other fermented/fermentable Foods. And dont overdo it.
And the he above post was meant as a reply to Spanish Caravan
More starch science: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilatant#Corn_Starch_and_Water_.28Oobleck.29 showing Van der Waals forces for instance in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCHPo3EA7oE
@timinukraine – Buckwheat has a fair bit–16-18% by weight, not great, but OK. Surely eating it every morning has contributed to granddad’s health. Here is Master RS list: https://freetheanimal.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Resistant-Starch-in-Foods.pdf
@Gemma – Those are cool videos. Starch is way weird. have you seen the ‘walking on water’ starch vids: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wiYtoG9kZE jump to 2 minutes. I hope that isn’t potato starch they are using! What a waste.
@sootedninjas… Dr Kruse also said this in his Facebook post on RS: “Nuts are good when inflamation in the person is low and when the nuts are raw and not roasted. Roasted nuts have oxidized PUFA’s which are a quick way to T2D and mitochondrial dysfunction. Details matter.” Personally, I’ll take raw potato starch which decreases the risk of T2D and has the entire host of benefits without any risk!
Dr. BG, one could reasonably assume that Michael Pollan goes to the dentist on a regular basis and if he’s got some sort of condition requiring prophylactic antibiotics, then he gets a dose everytime anything invasive is performed (i.e. scaling of teeth). Unless he’d never before been for a dental appointment which I doubt.
Based on your premise, then his original gut flora was influenced by antibiotic as well so that was also not optimal.
I have no doubt that intestinal flora is affected for a considerable length of time post antibiotic ingestion. However, if Michael would consume some natto and various other fermented foods and maybe eat a handful of dirt, he’d re-establish some sort of really kickass intestinal bacterial complex. The prophylactic antibiotic ‘rules’ have been changed significantly over the years so he must have something serious or his dentist is over-prescribing.
BTW this is why I very rarely prescribe antibiotics to my patients. My prescription pads last forever. The date print 19…. had to be crossed out way into the 2000s. Support the body and usually it will do it’s job. But when someone shows up with a face so swollen that I have to cross my fingers and keep in contact over 24 to 48 hours because they are borderline on requiring IV antibiotics at a hospital, then the choice is clear: I’d rather they keep breathing regardless the impact on the gut biome.
@Lauren In general, nuts has a lot of O6. except for macadamia and I think Almonds and Cashews. But heck, macadamia is like $12 per pound. So is it cost effective for the results it will give. Same with almonds and cashew, it’s like $7 per pound. Good luck eating those nuts @ 100 grams daily. And will that have enough RS to be beneficial at all.
Tatertot,
Thank you for taking the time to answer my question.
In Germany you can get Fiberfin (called Hi-Maze in the US, I think). They do not advertise what percentage of their product is RS. I asked them and they told me that it is 60% RS2. The manufactures of potato flour/starch (in Germany) on the other hand did not answer my questions regarding the extraction (and possible heating) during their production process. So no information on that.
Really?
How hard is it to get single source Guatemala coffee like he sells? I can get it here in Alaska and at half the cost from a local coffee shop. Its the exact same coffee he’s re-branding.
There are other things that Dave does besides just packaging the coffee. He says that he has his coffee tested for mycotoxin and also ships it in special air tight bags so that pollutants from diesel fuel exhaust, etc. don’t make their way into the coffee. I’m sure there are other things.
There’s actually a really good interview he did if you search youtube where he goes into super geeky detail about his coffee.
In the end, it’s up to you to decide if it’s cost effective. I buy 5 lbs at a time, and for me, it is.
Why don’t you also try asking the man yourself? He’s on Facebook and Twitter.
@Cody
I just might have to give Dave’s coffee another try. I bought 2 pounds from him in Austin. I won another pound by being the first to answer his question. But I love very dark roast, French and Italian.
Thing is, it’s like the RS is giving me better resolution and waking up feeling real good, halfway into the first cup of coffee I feel shirty (not BP coffee, just black). I’d been considering dropping it.
Richard, I used to get really tired after drinking coffee.
Not with Dave’s coffee.
And I’ve taken to drinking it black and very strong. No butter or anything else except collagen.
I’m trying to get some protein first thing in the morning and eat my kerrygold on poached eggs with bacon most mornings and maybe an avocado.
Its hard to tell what’s working when your base state is always crappy.
Once you start feeling really good, you start to tune into the subtleties more.
BigRob – the idea behind Dave’s coffe is the process – lots of testing for mycotoxins at multiple steps in the process. So it is about determinism and predictability of what you get. So with normal coffee you may get a product like his one time, but a higher-toxin one next time. It may even be statistically good – eg. for 90% of time you get clean coffee, for 10% contaminated one; but it’s just not deterministic. Notice he markets his products to executives etc. – people who cannot afford to have random moments of low brainpower, as they make critical decisions most of their time. On the other hand if you have access to statistically high-quality coffee and don’t need that level of determinism, then using that source is ok.
Gemma – about “ubiquitous here in Czech republic (alas, colon cancer also ubiquitous)” Czech Republic is number one in the world in the beer consumption per capita.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_beer_consumption_per_capita
Potato consumption is only half of other Slavic countries (eg. Czechs – 68kg Polish – 121kg Russia – 136 kg, Ukraine 131 kg per person per year in 2007)
http://www.helgilibrary.com/indicators/index/potato-consumption-per-capita
Would like to just reinforce Richard’s comments.. After starting on PS and night time honey (See Seth Robert’s blog) – The morning energy is so intense that I have lost all cravings for any morning drink, coffee or tea.
Gabriella Kadar,
I agree — Pollan’s gut is probably already mildly compromised from prior antibiotic exposures. No one’s gut rebounds well from antibiotics, not even his. Additionally his latest book focused on many fermented foods but also sourdough bread and all leavened goods. That’s a lot of heat-stable gliadin which opens tight gut junctions. As a vegan-apologist, who knows really what gut damage has been wrought from decades of soy-fake meat, soy milk, whole gluten grains, and protein deficiencies.
When I was 27 a bunch of us when to Cancun and I brought back Shigella. Yes, tt was quite fun (fever, green water stools, cramping, dehydration). Thank goodness for Cipro, however I have no idea what gut havoc both caused — the enteric infection and downstream post-antibiotic complications.
Now that I know what I know, really which was worse? I had never had sinus infecitons but after that single round of Cipro, I started having sinus infections every year, which then lead to a course or two of Septra DS (then I developed a horrofic sulfa allergy of course — hives which required a Prednisone taper which was fantastic for the adrenal health LOL). Ugh. And I was ‘healthy’
The septra didn’t even really ameliorate the sinus symptoms on retrospect. Now I know what I had was likely fungal overgrowth on the mucus membranes, including sinuses and that’s why the Septra never worked.
Thank U Cipro~ and the subsequent bacterial/fungal overgrowths…
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/15591252/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/19763411/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/20552348/
We love buckwheat porridge — just started after my girlfriend told me about how her husband’s family in the Ukraine’s had it everyday growing up. It gets really nice, slimy and quishy after soaking overnight.
Ellen,
The fulvic acid in the New Earth product sounds okay and like bentonite clay, edible earth and diatomaceous earth. For all products that we ingest or place topically on our skin (or sinuses as they direct), I think checking third party testing for heavy metals is good like Consumer Labs.
Grace, HydraSense gentle mist is great for keeping the nasal membranes hydrated and the sinus openings from being obstructed by inflamed tissue. Of course, with allergies there’s got to be something more. Even though a lot of people get all in a tizzy, the microgram doses of topical steroid are better than having repeated sinus infections. I have patients living in mold infested housing. They just don’t ‘get it’ until they get it: chronic infections of every kind and even leukemia. There is an epidemic of lack of awareness and education. Plus it seems to me that once the environment gets them, their cognitive functions are affected to the point that there’s nothing that penetrates the fog. It’s a downward spiral. Very sad to watch but since these people are adults they are permitted to make their own decisions even if their decision making faculties are severely compromised. May as well be labeled as disabled and have someone else have power of attorney. But it’s not an available remedy.
Amazing how the ‘old people’ (like my grandparents, long gone) had a much better understanding about these things.
@GTR
– yes I agree that beer consumption has a lot to do with colon cancer rates here in CZ. According to top oncologist though it is caused by genes, lack of fiber, too much animal fats and too little exercise. No mentions of beer.
– native potato starch is really ubiquitous – one can buy it anywhere and does not have to order online from Amazon or so. Unfortunately as a product it ends in other heavily consumed processed foods – mainly meats, breads and dumplings (washed down by a lot of beer). Not much resistance left I guess.
“…game of drugs to manage OX, heartbeat, and BP”
I’m sorry to hear about your last grandparent’s passing… Want to read a beautiful essay on the graves from Neanderthals and herbology (weeds and other medicinal plants), which is a celebration of life, earth’s abundance and beauty? It’s a direct contrast to the high tech game of synthetic pharmaceuticals.
Gabriella Kadar,
Yes — we are bound we want air locked homes which resist cold/heat extremes yet don’t want mold… “It’s a downward spiral.” you said it grrrrrl!!! Can’t live in tents but also must balance the lack of ‘breathing’ in new modern homes.
Definitely I trust my grandparents who lived to 90s-100 which is way more than the modern drug-ridden elderly who live such creeky achy lives now to only the 70s. That’s one generation span gone and much related to our massive technological lives. Love what you stated “Amazing how the ‘old people’ (like my grandparents, long gone) had a much better understanding about these things.”
g
“I trust my grandparents who lived to 90s-100 ”
All four of mine lived past 80. All four raucous smokers and drinkers. The last one, died of an intestinal blockage. They tried a few things but had to cut her open.
I called her the day before surgery just to hear her utter an f-bomb again, and to tell me what a pain in the ass smart ass I am. I knew I’d miss hearing it.
Her liver couldn’t handle the drugs needed to survive the surgery. Knowing it didn’t go well, my dad and I flew in the next morning and I sat in ICU for like 20 hours straight, and it was a game of ICU nurses playing a game of drugs to manage OX, heartbeat, and BP.
Several days later she had a couple of hours of clarity, only to wonder why nobody was there for her.
…
I found the same Liposomal Glutathione on Amazon, actually. No link here, just search there.
I now use a cup of shaving soap and a brush. Soooo much better than shaving cream in a can.
Sure you did. I guess you don’t know how to read ingredient listings…
I think that points out the value of maintenance vs. therapy. The latter is what many of us in more “developed” food environments are doing with this.
If such product happens, then likely Bulletproof Upgraded Resistant Starch is going to be a “pure” resistant starch, without the side effects of starch. That is close to 100% resistant rather than low percentage as most available? A resistant starch that you can use and still have a low-carb diet, as it is doesn’t turn rapidly into glucose as a starch?
Have you read any of this series?
@Grz
I honestly don’t even know what to say….
Face. Palm?
I can think of two better words than ‘face/palm’….’potato/starch’
So how to make this RS and coffee compatible? How about some “Resistant Coffee”?
1. You need cold mineral water – waiting in your refrigerator.
2. You need espresso machine, min. 15 bar one.
3. Filtered water for the espresso machine.
4. MCT Oil as a necessary component
5. Some RS
6. Butter doesn’t fit here – the coffee needs to be cold, wchich precludes butter – at cold temperatures it is solid. Butyrate is going to e produced by bacteria
The sequence would be as follows:
1. Make an espresso from filtered water in an espresso machine. It’s a small coffee, something like 60ml. This is “hot” part of the coffee.
2. Pour cold mineral water from the fridge to the espresso. For 330 ml cup you’d need to add 270 ml of cold mineral water. This drops the temperature to the liquid to comfortable for RS.
3. Add RS.
4. Mix together
5. Add MCT
6. Mix again.
@GTR, I make an BPC/Primal-Egg coffee with RS nearly every morning. Nothing complicated about it. I add a couple raw pastured eggs and some cream to the hot coffee and blend. This cooks the egg whites a bit and cools down the coffee enough to add the starch without degrading it (second quick blend). I think the temp has to be north of 150F to degrade the starch crystals. Personal/single sized blenders work great for this.
@Brad – few of the major points in my recipe:
1. Mineral water. Paul Jaminet claims that we have too little calcium and magnesium because of water treatment. Thus in my recipe the treated water is only used to make at max 60 ml espresso (a coffee concentrate). It’s additionally filtered, so you won’t damage the delicapte piping of an espresso machine with calcium clogging it.
The main portion of water is mineral water, preferably high-magnesium one, which you keep in a refrigerator. So this water has 2 functions – adds minerals, and lowers the temperature to the one suitable for RS addition.
2. Espresso machine with at least 15 bar pressure is able to extract coffee oils (aromas), while conventional methods like pourover or french press are not able to do it. It also lowers the tanin level due to the shorter brewing times.
For anyone who is duped by Dave Asprey’s marketing hype to believe into his coffee-mycotoxin BS and buy that expensive bullet proof crap, please read this:
http://suppversity.blogspot.com/2013/12/true-or-false-mycotoxins-in-coffee-are.html
It essentially says that roasted coffee has mycotoxins to the tune of 6 – 10 nano grams per cup which is 1000s of times below the allowable limits.
T-Nat
I don’t monitor coffee toxins, the only scandal I remeber was in 2006, when Astra Classic instant coffee exceeded the legal limits of ochratoxins :
Here’s the table of ochratoxins of tested instant coffees:
Nescafe Classic: 0,63 mg/kg
Cafe Prima Finezja: 0,64 mg/kg
Maxwell House: 0,69 mg/kg
Elite Pedros: 1,40 mg/kg
Posti Club Café: 1,53 mg/kg
Tchibo Family: 1,56 mg/kg
Woseba (first probe): 4,90 mg/kg
Astra Classic (first probe): 4,90 mg/kg
Astra Classic (second probe): 5,00 mg/kg
Woseba (second probe): 8,00 mg/kg
Astra Classic (3rd probe): 21,80 mg/kg
The legal limits in Poland was 10 mg/kg, while in Germany 6 mg/kg. Notice – legal limits for conventional coffees are lower – 5 mg/kg
Sources:
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=pl&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=pl&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Flifescience-corner.blogspot.com%2F2012%2F06%2Ftoksyczna-kawa.html
(original: http://lifescience-corner.blogspot.com/2012/06/toksyczna-kawa.html)
@GTR, I think your best bet for minerals are nutrient dense foods like sardines, beef liver, and bone broths. Water is just too low in quantity to make it worth all the effort IMO.
@GTR, who the hell drinks *instant* coffee??? yuck!
http://www.cavemancoffeeco.com/products
Joe Rogan’s buddy Tait Fletcher seems to have taken Asprey’s idea.
“bulletproof” coffee wasn’t his idea. Robb Wolf came up with it somewhere in 2004, Asprey refined it.
“Glycoalkaloids could not be detected in starch extracted from tubers with a glycoalkaloid concentration of 6.6 mg/i 00 g (fwb).”
This matches up with accounts from studies done in the 1800s when they discovered that they could use the “very worst potatoes” to make perfectly good potato starch.
http://books.google.com/books?id=Q9TuW1zrFSoC&pg=PA227&dq=Starch+from+bad+potatoes&hl=en&output=html_text&sa=X&ei=PND0Uqu3JueisQSnioGIDw&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAg
This was a huge discovery because it meant they were able to save potato crops that had gone bad. Bad potatoes were turned into clean starch and then used to bake breads.