Alright time to connect dots and integrate. What does a Paleoish diet look like now, in my view?
Let’s make it really simple. I could shoot you tons of research, references, etc. Best you just give it a whirl for 30 days or more, see how you feel. Any Qs, drop ’em in comments. Calories count, but we needn’t bother counting them. This ought 100% alleviate any need for that (for most folks, anyway). Tons of folks are doing great with this style and it’s easy and flexible, with tons of options.
- REPLACE all wheat and other gluten grains (barley & rye) from bread, pasta, cereals WITH white rice, beans, and potatoes (or other starchy veggies) as your “staple” foods and substrates for your proteins (meat, fish, shellfish, fowl, veggies).
- If you do bread and pasta (but best not often), get gluten free. Whole Foods has a lot of varieties, increasing all the time. I particularly like anything by Udi or Glutino (their crackers are the bomb). http://udisglutenfree.com and http://www.glutino.com. But stay away from all the sweet stuff (cakes, cookies, etc).
- Corn tortillas are fine, too.
- Minimize ADDING fat to stuff, as well as sugar. Eat fruit for sweet; cook with butter, ghee, lard, tallow, bacon drippings, coconut oil, red palm oil, or extra virgin olive oil. My favorite of the later is the Kalamata Greek Olive Oil from Trader Joe’s. Dump all industrial processed oils (canola, sunflower, safflower, corn, etc). One exception is high oleic sunflower oil (often called “high heat”). Completely different fat profile than regular sunflower oil and it’s not GMO, but natural plant breeding. Also, avocado and macadamia nut oil are fine ($$$). 90% of the time, I only use OO raw, on salads or a little drizzle on meat/veggies.
- Cooking white rice. You can use whatever (basmati, jasmine, etc.) but strangely enough, Uncle Ben’s original parboiled rice is the most healthful on a number of levels. Way more nutrition and the parboiling process forms something called “resistant starch” that feeds your healthful gut bacteria critters. To up things even further, cook rice with chicken stock (or beef, or vegetable, or mushroom, etc.). Kitchen Basics is THE BEST and I have tried them all (you can do your own stocks…but pain in the ass). Once cooked, put the leftover rice in the fridge or freezer, rather than letting it sit in the cooker. This forms even more resistant starch. RS, in addition to feeding your critters, also blunts blood glucose spikes significantly by slowing the rate of digestion.
- Stay away from canned beans. Do them yourself the traditional way. Cover with warm water and let them soak for 24 hours or more, up to 48 where they even ferment; drain, rinse well and then cook in beef stock (add water as necessary). The best beans nutritionally, as well as minimal toxins such as lectins (the soaking process removes much of these too) are: BLACK, LENTILS, PINTO. Red kidney beans are probably the worst. For those, minimal only, like a bit on your salad when at a salad bar (but load up on the garbanzos!). A great way to cook awesome pintos after soaking, and in the pot: a sprinkle over the whole surface of real bacon bits, garlic powder, desiccated onion flakes, and black pepper. Salt to taste when they are done cooking.
- Do potatoes any way you like (boiled, roasted, baked, nuked). Rather than deep fry, make oven fries with far less fat. coating with a combo of coconut and red palm oil and oven roasting (400 for 20m or so) is the BOMB. Minimize the butter and sour cream with baked or mashed potatoes. For mashed, better to reduce beef stock by 3/4 and thicken with a potato starch slurry—for a tasty sauce/gravy—than to load up with the butter and cream. Or, just do a classic red wine reduction using onion and shallot you strain out. Splurge with the added fat sometimes, just not all the time or often.
- Dump all the bottled salad dressings because they are all made with those same garbage industrial oils that were originally developed as machinery lubricant. Jet engines use vegetable oils to lubricate turbines. Mouth watering, eh? Instead, use any combo of olive oil, vinegars, lemon, lime, soy sauce, dijon mustard, onion, and whatever other herbs & spices and such you like to make a vast variety of your own salad dressings.
- Veggies. Anything, cooked any way, but blanching or parboiling is far better than steaming. Ideal is a variety of raw, cooked, blanched. Also, fermented veggies such as sauerkraut, kimchee. Eat seaweed for the iodine. Eat BIG ASS SALADS. I’m talking salad bar salads with all those tons of ingredients including the beans, beats, etc. I go to Whole Foods often, load up a box from their bar, then take it home and dress it myself. If you get those packaged salads for lunches like my wife does, toss the dressings and take along your own in a container.
- Fruit. Anything, but avoid juices, except the way they used to be consumed—in those little 4 oz juice glasses for breakfast. The dose makes the poison.
- Nuts. No more than a handful per day (normal handful). Macadamias have the best fat profile by FAR. Brazils are good for the selenium. Filberts are good, but I forget why.
- Meats. Anything, but again, minimal added fat in the form of gravies, sauces, etc. A pat of butter or drizzle of OO is fine. Meat already has fat in it. Try to eat organ meats like liver—the most nutritionally dense food on the planet by order of magnitude. If you can’t tolerate liver, you can: a) hide it in ground beef. You won’t be able to taste 2-4 oz of chopped up liver in a pound of ground beef, or b) eat good quality pâté regularly, or liverwurst or braunschweiger.
- Fish. Anything. As liver is the most nutritionally dense land food, oysters are the most nutritionally dense seafood. Highest source of zinc on the planet. Hopefully, you adore raw oysters, so any time you see ’em on a menu, have some. Trader Joe’s has decent smoked oysters that are packed in olive oil (instead of crap cottonseed oil like most brands—search it out). 1/2 – 1 can per day with your rice, or on some Glutino crackers is excellent. Also, mussels and clams are really fine. When I go to a restaurant, the first thing I check is if they have oysters, mussels or clams.
- Fowl. Anything, but don’t buy into this white meat bullshit. Fowl also has the worst omega 6 to omega 3 ratio (the primary reason all the crap vegetable/seed oils are crap). 6:3 is a yin:yang kinda thing. 3 is anti inflammatory, 6 is pro inflammatory. Traditional diets have a typical 3:6 ratio from about 1:1 to 1:3. The typical American diet is 1:15 to 1:30…way out of whack in the balance of nature, and it’s primarily because of all the cheap, crap “heart healthy” oils used…and the shifting to chicken everywhere. Eat your chicken & turkey, but it’s no panacea.
Ok, so how do I envision “a perfect day?”
BREAKFAST
A bowl of beans from the fridge (beans also have RS and cooling forms more of it), nuked for a minute while you fry up an egg or two in butter. Place egg(s) on beans, eat with a spoon. A small portion of breakfast meat is fine, but keep it real. 4 oz of juice ought to be fine too. Small glass of milk too, always WHOLE MILK, raw if you can get it. With milk, we’re not only talking nutritional density (it’s designed to be exclusive mammalian nutrition) but relative balance nutrient-by-nutrient as determined by mammalian evolution.
LUNCH
Big ass salad with or without protein; OR, rice bowl with protein (meat, chicken, or fish) and veggies…bonus for fermented veggies and a dusting of dried seaweed.
SNACK
Smoked oysters or liver products (pâté, etc., as mentioned) on gluten free crackers/toast or with veggie sticks
DINNER
Meat or seafood & potatoes, meat or seafood with rice, or meat & seafood with beans—or a rice/bean combo. Veggies if you like but my preference is to make dinner more of a starch bomb, with lunch being big ass salads.
DESSERT
Whole real fruit that you chew. Adding some real cream, real cream whipped, or ice cream you made can up the ante for a nice Friday or Saturday dessert after dinner. Dark chocolate (80% cacao or better) can also make an appearance now & then.
EXERCISE
- Hike a lot, but make it good. That is, places where you hike for less time but do way more vertical. It’s not a stroll, not a walk. Those you can do anytime as much as you want and they don’t count any more than a walk to to the bathroom to pee.
- Lift heavy things in compound fashion once every week or two.
SUPPLEMENTS
Here’s my go-to short list. When I use “most days” or “most days but not all,” it means that I mix things up. Sometimes I’ll go 2-3 days or more without any supplements. So, I treat them somewhat just like I treat food. If any is worthy of daily consumption, like eggs, it’s the liver tablets. [Update: since originally drafting this I’ve made a few changes, including learning the importance of soil-based probiotics, which I’ve added. Make sure to read it and check out the most awesomely nutritious smoothie for you and your gut, ever.]
- Carlson Labs Solar D Gems Natural Vitamin D3, 4000 IU, 360 Softgels (1-2 per day, most days but not all)
Life Extension Super K with Advanced K2 Complex Softgels, 90-Count (1-2 per day, most days but not all)- Uni-Liver, Argentine Liver Formula, 500 Tablets (5-10 per day, most days)
- Prescript-Assist Broad Spectrum probiotic, Advanced Orthomolecular Research Probiotic-3, and Primal Defense Ultra (I choose to use all three, 1 cap of each per day; alternatively, one might just take one of one kind per day and rotate)
- Doctor’s Best High Absorption Magnesium (200 Mg Elemental), 240-Count (1 per day, most days)
- Himalaya Herbal Healthcare LiverCare/Liv.52, Liver Support, 180- Vcaps (2 per day, most days)
- Bob’s Red Mill Potato Starch, 24-Ounce (Pack of 4) (2-4 Tablespoons most days, taken in cold food or liquid)
- Banana Flour (1-2 Tablespoons odd 7 random days, taken in cold food or liquid)
- Plantain Flour (same as with the green banana flour).
The last three are all about the Resistant Starch, which you can read up on until your heart’s content.
Now, I ask you: Does all this make rational, logical sense over the endless fidgeting and obsessing over calories, portion sizes, avoiding natural fats, and catechismic strict dietary protocols and bored-to-death exercise routines?
I hope so, and if it does, giver it a whirl and see what you think. If you do, I predict you’ll conclude:
- So liberating.
- So flexible. A million options.
- So delicious.
- So filling, satiating. You’ll find yourself skipping meals regularly which is fine, healthful actually.
- Loads of energy.
- Great digestion.
- Feel great.
- Sleep great, and find a new world of vivid dreaming you remember.
- Over lots of time, unwanted pounds melt away naturally, while lean mass is preserved.
- You will love it.
Just a word of caution. When entering the resistant starch realm, you may not have a gut microbiome that’s up to the task initially. You may experience discomfort, headache, and most frequently reported: aggressive flatulence. But most report normalization in a few week as the allies you’re feeding (the good bacteria) overwhelm their enemies (the pathogenic ones). Most will find also that flatulence is both highly dose dependent, as well as dependent upon whether taken alongside food—or just downed in water. So on this score, you are on your own to figure it out.
Here’s what you have to look forward to. It’s only the very best gut microbiome yet tested, counting 5,000 subjects; and the punchline is that he’s collaboratively driven this Resistant Starch emphasis in the diet right along with me: Resistant Starch: American Gut Project Real Results And Comparison (Very Big News).
Found a bag of Glutinous Rice Flour at the Asian Market that I was going to use for kimchi, but didn’t care for it in my veggie ferments. Thought of your RS experiments. Should work, right?
FTW !
Waiting for my RM Potato Starch to come today. I want those vivid dreams and deep sleep. excellent recovery mechanism after a HIT/HIIT gym workout. I use Tai Chi and Kung Fu for active recovery instead of hiking. And of course meditation. nothing wrong with hiking just don’t enjoy it personally. do what you enjoy to do for a satisfying life.
just saying :)
based on a research. glutinous rice has the lowest RS. 1st indica rice (long grain), 2nd japonica rice (short grain Japanese Rice, Sushi Rice ?), 3rd Waxy Rice BUT not by much.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1750-3841.12165/abstract;jsessionid=F650CA8D52290C3BAC79D2B3AD0DEB9B.f04t02
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutinous_rice
I have a feeling these guidelines are going to become the norm in paleo soon.
Uncle Bens Parboiled converted Rice is using long grain rice.
Parboiled info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parboiled_rice
Lucky for me I found converted rice in Winco @ 68 cents per pound. it even looks exactly like Uncle Bens Converted rice.
I have been tweaking my diet over the last 2 years and pretty much similar to what Richard outlined. except for the RS which is now being added to my latest tweaks.
Seems like a lot of feedings in your ‘perfect day’….. lol
Beans/Eggs/High Fat Yogurt
Big Ass Salad with Meat or Fish
Potatoes/Meat/Cooked Veggies
That’s it…dessert, Organic Heavy Cream with Stevia and mixed berries
:)
I like this idea, based on YOUR plan, Ill try it for a bit!
Simply perfect.
Tatertot, what’s your reason for taking 2 liver supplements? Are they necessary for most people? What if you actually eat liver? And how about choline if not eating liver?
Excuse me if I have missed this from previous posts but why “Minimize ADDING fat to stuff”. Are you not in agreement with Kresser and Sisson that we can eat as much saturated fat as we like. Sisson has got me eating butter straight out of the pack and it is delicious.
I’m going to give cooking my own beans a try, I’ve learned how to cook meat over the past few years (cooked a heck of a Thanksgiving turkey), time to move on to vegetables.
Been relying on the canned stuff.
Re flatulence I adapted pretty quick, some crop dusting at the gym at first (“Maybe if I walk fast they won’t know who did it”) but nothing really noxious.
Stomp the floor and swear at “those barking spiders.” (Not original but can’t remember the source.)
Great summary, thanks Richard.
Aggressive flatulence? I prefer to call it horse farting. No offence to horses.
I’m really hoping here I’m not the only person but it seems that I just don’t digest stuff like split peas or lentils. Nothing else in me seems to be digesting them either because they don’t give me gas. They just go out looking exactly how they went in. It’s not a matter of chewing because pureed peas come out like pureed peas. Reminds me of corn.
I know that meat gets totally digested because meat + split peas = split peas.
I can’t do the gut bug project because it’s only available at this time for Americans. So I don’t know if there’s something missing here but potato starch doesn’t give me gas either. I’ll keep taking it though because it’s easy.
Richard,
Thanks for posting this. Like David, I’m also curious on why you don’t favor adding fat to foods. Where would you draw the line? A common meal for me is a steak topped with a good chunk of raw milk blue cheese, or a pan sauce with a bit of cream (maybe a tablespoon or so) and a pat of butter. I don’t typically load up on extra fat in anything I make, except for mashed potatoes, and I probably use a bit too much fat when cooking greens, which is an easy fix.
Also, I was wondering if you could go into your opinion on beans. By and large, your layout seems fairly similar to the Jaminet’s PHD, but the beans seem to be the biggest difference (and the added fat, which I suspect will actually be a minor difference). I apologize if you’ve posted on this, but what are you seeing that they aren’t? Or, is this more of an N =1 experiment, where as long as you tolerate them, you don’t see a problem?
Now when I feel lazy, I can get Chipotle without guilt! Woohoo!!
Thanks,
Steve
Look what I found – fermented black beans – http://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Douchi-Fermented-Black-Beans/dp/B003K3KOM8/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t
OK, now anyone has experience with this stuff? Looks like a perfect kind of beans but it’s made in China.
Maybe Dr. B.G knows a thing or two about it.
T-Nat
First of all, wow. Looks like this might be quite a comment thread, as was and is the last post on Tim’s gut results.
@MAS
You’re never far away. Since I’ve been doing PS and plantain flour and the foods such as I mention, I stopped the work of fermenting. I think emphasis ought be on feeding rather than trying to get them in there. That said, still love kefir, but I tossed my grains and just do a store bought quart over about 2 weeks. I’ll typically mix 50/50 with milk or OJ and stir in 1-2 TBS PS and let it sit for 10 minutes for the critters to attach to the RS, and get a safe bus ride on down to the colon.
@Ray
Good observation, man. I _almost_ never eat that much but I purposely did not want it to look austere (plus, no portion sizes). I trust people and I think that if they eat right, just like animals in the wild, hunger will take care of itself and so will body composition. That’s my hopefully not foolish bet.
@marie
You should know, cherie; and who knows me the best? I’ll get to those recordings tonight. :)
@David
It’s a sensible middle. We have the fat mongers on the LC/VLC side, and the lean meat folks on the “Corleo” side. What we don’t have is someone who says, “ok, eat your fatty ribs and pork belly all you want, and any other fatty meat,” but you don’t need to glutinously add fat. Between fatty meat, fish, poultry skin nice & crisp—as well as cooking with fat—it’s plenty. No fear of fat. Let me put it this way. Suppose you smoke weed, as I do sometimes. Legalizing it will not change my frequency.
Moreover, fat is touted because why? To replace carbohydrate, sugar and starch. Thing is, fat is pretty nutritionally vapid, just as is starch and sugar. However, if you get starch from real food, there’s nutrition there. If you get fat from real food, there’s nutrition there. Since these guidelines reintroduce starch, it makes sense to limit fats generally to what you get from fatty foods.
Make sense?
Milk. What about milk? Raw as kefir?
Yes, but butter tastes so fucking good on rice or potatoes.
@Steve
“Where would you draw the line?”
Here:
“A common meal for me is a steak topped with a good chunk of raw milk blue cheese, or a pan sauce with a bit of cream (maybe a tablespoon or so) and a pat of butter.”
So very good and sensible, and I’m the guy with the Fat Bombs and Fat Bread, if you know about that.
I make sauces all the time. For example: Good chunk of butter, sauté chopped shallot and shrooms. Deglaze with 1-2 cups red wine and reduce to syrup. Add 1/2 to 1 quart of kitchen basics unsalted beef stock (all depends on portion size and I’m typically cooking for 2-4) bing to boil and simmer. When about half reduced, strain out all the chunks. Continue reducing. Save a bit of cold stock, and slurry 1/2-1 tsp of potato starch and introduce when volume matches your portion needs. Salt & pepper to taste.
Very little fat, blow your mind taste. Try it.
With regard to beans? I simply looked at my parents-in-law, my wife, and all of her family (Mexican descent and very in tune with the cuisine) and concluded they were right about that and everyone else was wrong.
See:
https://freetheanimal.com/2013/11/success-years-beyond.html
Mike:
So does meat, fish, fowl and spicy sauces like you can get all over Asia and south America.
I sometimes wonder if half of America’s obesity problem is because they’re so pussy when it comes to hot spice. :)
Seriously, I’ve been in bars in Thailand chatting it up with a young “working girl” at the bar, taking her break and eating a soup. She offers me a bit. I spend the next hours in agony, burning lips. Well, that was a long time ago, and I’m pretty good with hot now.
I think one has to make a basic choice: high fat, to whatever level, or, 30-40% from starch sources. I know which way I’m going, so I’m not going to load up on BOTH starch and fat. Personally, given the choice and the versatility of starches as a substrate, it’s no contest for me.
@ Richard, re: my query about milk, I just read the “meal plan”. I see raw milk for breakfast. Meal plans bore me so I did not read it earlier.
Can you make your own potato starch? I would assume you just puree raw potato and dry it in the sun or oven.
Maybe different folks respond to things differently. I know: ‘duh’. This week-end I couldn’t take it anymore. Made a Hungarian stew with meaty pork belly, onion, garlic, yellow sweet peppers, cayenne, paprika etc. and sauerkraut (it was fizzy already). Serve with 30% sour cream…………….. heaven on earth. F**k it’s good. Hits the spot. Sourdough rye bread to wipe the bowl. I can send you a picture if you want. This stuff rocks my world. It’s an addiction.
Now is sauerkraut and kimchi season. Thank dog. Happy stomach food.
I found garlic imported from Spain. Now these are garlics! Beautiful.
Fair point.
I love spicy food. My favorite foods are mostly Asian. I’ve only limited exposure to South American foods, but I’m game!
You’ve issued enough of a challenge to get creative at least with rice and learn some new dishes. At least when I want fat and starch I can take solace in my fortune of being one of those people with a high metabolism and hoping to keep it that way with athletic endeavors and a good eating regimen.
Mike. Here, knock your socks off and you can do many variations. Did this for breakfast Saturday.
Google sinangag.
While saying I’m not a fan of the texure of the potato starch got me called a wimp in the earlier thread, I’ve done some experimenting in the last couple of days with putting it into fruit-based smoothies to get to a ratio that effectively hides the starch.
In a Magic Bullet-sized blender, the following works for me now:
2 T potato starch
2-3 heaping T of yogurt
Frozen fruit (half full)
Almond milk
For those of you who need to prove your toughness to someone, keep taking it straight. The simple reality is that, while I did take it that way a few times, it was unpleasant enough I found myself avoiding it. I’m self-aware enough to recognize patterns in my own behavior and, rather than sitting in judgement, seek out solutions that work.
Why not steamed vegetables? I thought that was better than blanching or parboiling
Because with those, much of the nutrition ends up in the water, whereas with
steaming it stays in the vegetable. Or is your point that blanching and parboiling
are brief? In that case, why not “brief” steaming?
Richard,
Thanks. So basically, don’t go crazy with the fat constantly: got it. :D I’m rather curious what kind of macro ratios will end up being “optimal,” assuming such a thing exists.
Regarding beans: fair enough. I’m not a big fan of them, so I’m not sure how often I’ll eat them, but there are times where nothing but a plate of good rice and beans will do.
re beans : Tater says not to rinse, you say do. Could you guys say why you differ?
Any thoughts about how putting a green banana in the freezer would affect RS?
Makes good sense Richard. Thanks for the reply, and of course the original post. I love fried rice and look forward to welcoming it back into my diet.
@J Wynia
I don’t think anyone is trying to prove tough guy status. I drink it in water and it’s about as innocuous as drinking… water.
@Richard
I like the list. I read your point about not worrying about lots of fermented food, but instead to feed the bacteria down there. I agree that you don’t need that much fermented food for the bacteria, but I think that’s missing the increased availability of some nutrients in fermented food (particularly K2). I guess it’s easy to supplement, but I like the taste of fermented vegetables (just finished a pile of fermented root veg with some black pepper and cumin).
This is similar to the PHD, perhaps minus the gelatin/bones emphasis, plus beans. Thank you so much for collating the guidelines – almost makes me want to start drafting a cookbook around them.
I have the same question as Ellen regarding steamed vegetables.
I guess Mr. Bulletproof decided to try RS protocol.
I’m curious as to why you dropped the Green Pastures Fermented Cod liver/butter oil blend.
@doggie
Don’t worry about it. Don’t have time to look it up, but Bob’s red mill is so minimally processed as to make hg’s blush. It’s basically just chopping up raw taters, making a slurry and sieving it to get the starch granules. Zero heat or chemicals,
Beans for breakfast? I would never have thought of that. Convenient too – I can get them extremely cheaply at my local Hispanic mart.
And I missed why corn tortillas are ok. I thought corn was still a no-no? I’ll have to scour the archives.
This is a great post to appear at the moment. Starting Thursday, I’m beginning to reintroduce exercise after a slipped rib. Comprehensive and synthesizing posts like this are just what the doctor (my own reason) ordered.
Interesting story about the slipped rib actually. Hurt it, didn’t realize until a few days after the event that it was injured, immediately scoured the internet for information. Didn’t touch my phone to call a Herr Doktor. Read. Studied. Learned a bunch of anatomy etc. Realized a Doktor couldn’t help. Upshot: 2 months of no exercise to rest the area until it felt ready for action; didn’t waste my money getting a “second opinion”; about ready to start my own physical/dietary therapy. Total cost: $0. Given this Obamacare BS, I probably saved a few hundred/thousand $ (they’d do MRI’s, X-Rays, several meets, blah blah). Sure, I didn’t enjoy that fabled “peace of mind” that comes from paying “experts” to “give their opinion”, but I got by.
I always had a great metabolism and great gut health. Two years ago I had my 4th baby and a few weeks later found out I had cancer. Since that time, I have had some IBS type symptoms – not sure if it is due to age (late 30’s), or medication side effects, or cancer or what, but I don’t like it.
I started thinking about when I felt my best, and what it was that I would eat. The answer: potatoes or potatoes and eggs. In my teens and early twenties, I used to pack a cold boiled potato for my lunch and dip it in some salt. I feel great after I eat baked or boiled potatoes with some melted butter, drenched in buttermilk, and topped with salt. Any kind of left over potatoes warmed up and served with over easy eggs. Mashed potatoes with gravy. Potato salad. These are foods that make me feel good.
I googled “potato diet” and found this site. It makes sense to me, and I have returned to eating lots of potato dishes, simpler foods, and added the potato starch to my diet. My stomach is starting to feel better.
I was raised in a family that NEVER ate out. Family vacations – we pulled out the ice chest or found a park with a BBQ. Kind of weird, I know, but I really think that the simple good foods we ate gave me the healthy metabolism. I think a lot of people have never really felt good; they are used to feeling lousy. I was raised on “poverty food” and home grown fruits and vegetables, and I know what it feels like to feel good.
By the way, Richard, have you read the book “Tortilla Flats” by John Steinbeck? Chapter 13 stands alone as a short story, or works with the novel, but it a story about about beans and good heath and some real characters and it is just hilarious. Not worth paraphrasing, but well worth reading. If you have not read it, you should.
@ Richard. Making your own potato starch will cost a lot more money and take a check of a lot more time than buying good premade stuff. Just buy it and spend your extra time and money at the gym.
Richard, merci chéri :)
Meanwhile, I do see mention of going without food for some time, but if one makes a point of integrating regular fasts of multiple lengths in your plan, they’d have the diet of Crete, which seems to be the origin of the “Mediterranean diet” term in the 1990’s and its association with longevity and good health.
(that is, before popular wishful thinking turned “Med diet” into olive oil, wine, pasta and baguettes !)
The islanders have only few grains too, not much point trying to grow wheat on mountain slopes or in seaside salt-plains. Potatoes though are in every terraced hillside farm, as are legumes, olive and fruit trees, vegetables of all sorts….and those ridiculous mountain sheep and goats that seem to hang off the slopes upside down.
Then also, the seafood is so varied and plentiful that it too is a daily diet ‘staple’.
However, I wouldn’t discount the grapes either… ;)
Excuse-moi Richard … but I think you forgot to mention tea and coffee somewhere ;)
Great summary! It’s the PHD with beans :D :D
Good info here, Richard. I admit to being very hesitant about trying RS regularly in my diet. I’ve been on the weight loss roller coaster too long and finally dedicated myself to LC, completely gluten-free, and am losing weight and I can’t tell you how the thought of eating a potato drives me to paranoid distraction, like a few bites of potato or a few tablespoons of rice mean I’ll be five pounds heavier tomorrow and I’ll never wear jeans or a bathing suit again.
It’s irrational. Can you imagine living a life fighting a war against food and your body forever? I’m so tired of it but I finally found the discipline to stay LC and it’s helping.
But your posts on RS intrigue me. On Saturday I made a huge beef stew for a family dinner and used PS to thicken it – about 2T for a six-qt crock pot full of stew. No BS spikes that I noticed (I don’t test, I go by how I feel, I’ve suffered chronic hypoglycemia for as long as I can remember). Talk about vivid dreams, my gosh I was shooting snow geese and driving around a technicolor city all night long with 80s dance music playing in the background. And I remembered every detail.
Rice also seemed OK, I had 1/4 cup with a venison stir fry I made. I did notice that my appetite was elevated after the rice, but I hadn’t chilled it prior to eating it, just cooked and ate. Haven’t tried chilling it yet.
I’m not ready to go with daily RS. The body war is a tough fight and I just don’t know if it’s a good strategy for me right now. Maybe when my weight comes down. I’m just scared to go with so much starch right now and that I’ll hit a stall or fuck up my appetite so bad I’ll start scarfing down food nonstop like I used to every time I’d eat bread or sugar.
I’m grateful for this information, though. I’ve bookmarked every RS post so I can read up on it. I’d love to have my beloved mushroom risotto back once in a while, or the Cuban black beans and rice I loved so much when I was a fat bloated cow. Wait, I’m still one of those, and that’s what scares me. Becoming a bigger cow.
Why so many supplements? Given such a great diet, is 12 to 19 supplement pills plus the tablespoons of starch a day really necessary? I would have thought that real food such as this would be enough.
Hi Richard,
Great stuff. Quick question. Are you suggesting that someone adds in BRP (beans, rice and potatoes) when they are trying to say lose 20-30 lbs or take on this style of eating once they have hit their goal weight and use it more as maintenance mode. It just seems like potentially a lot of daily carbs that could reverse weight loss. I started eating more like the 4HB Ferris style and saw my weight start gravitating upward. Or maybe eat this way only on days in which one is uber active (sprints, lifting, hiking, etc). Would love your thoughts on those folks trying to lose weight.
One other question. I have been thinking about taking K2. Have there been any of your markers change as a result of it? I have slightly elevated oxidized LDL and I was curious if it can get that going in the opposite direction.
What about wine, beer, and spirits?
So. I’m in.
Bought a bag of tapioca starch today. In the UK, Bob’s Red Mill PS isn’t that easy to find. The health store I bought the tapioca at had “potato flour”, which I wasn’t so sure about. The ingredients were “organic potato flour” rather than potato starch. Ingredients of the tapioca flour were “tapioca starch” so I went with that, knowing they are pretty much the same as far as RS goes.
Have had some digestive problems recently, so will see what this thing of yours might do. Hoping the fartage won’t be that bad. Starting with a heaped tablespoon with a bit of cocoa powder and a pinch of salt. Pretty good, can’t really taste the starch.
Excited.
@Richard, me thinks that your burning lips my not have been from the Thai soup :)
Great post, I am sure the Paleo nazis will cry over your suggesting beans, but who care right?
I like the simple approach, and thanks again to you and ‘Tater for the wonders of PS, just started it, already sleeping better, here’s hoping for a better gut!
For supplements have you seen LEF makes a D,K and Iodine complex in one capsule, super convenient. I usually do it in the winter when I want the 5,000 IU of D.
Do you ever recommend HCL supplements to people with digestive issues?
Cheers.
You’ve outlined almost exactly the sort of diet I’ve found myself eating after tinkering with paleo for some time. Financially its nice not having to buy so much meat. Also, including plenty of tubers, rice , and some properly prepared legumes frees up the budget for buying more high quality animal products when they are consumed.
@Brian
My thoughts on LDL, for what its worth: Theracumin form of Curcumin, loading dose 3 x 600 mg per day for a week, then one a day, Pantathene from Jarrow 2 pills a day with meals, Tocotrienol (take away from Vit E at least 6 hours, or it wont work) – Designs for Health brand, one a day with evening meal, Liposomal Glutathione 500mg per day (this shit is expensive, but worth it). The Pantathene takes up to 9 months to reach full effectiveness if it will work for you, so I would wait at least 3 -6 months before I retest. Remember while you are loosing weight, some peoples cholesterol tend to spike, so keep that in mind and focus on the weight/diet/fitness. Also consider getting the LDL Particle Count done if you are worried about cholesterol, do a search for NMR LipoProfile test, its the cutting edge test.
Thanks so much for this! Do I need to add anything to the water when I soak my beans? Do I need to change the soaking water several times during the course of the soak?
I am very interested in RS. I was wondering when the optimal time to ingest RS is? Could it be beneficial post workout, utilizing carbohydrates in RS? Although the insulin blunting effects that it is said to have may hinder performance and strength gains. Is the best time prior to bed? 4TBS in a kefir drink? Curious to learn what you think?
Great post!
Your guidelines opens up a new realm of options for me with the legumes. I have never been a consumer of legumes. I will try it for a month and see what happens! :)
What are your thoughts on preparing legumes in a pressure cooker? I found this thread on paleohacks and got interested!
Ok, let’s see if I can catch up.
@Ellen – Yea, it’s for the briefness, so a brief steam might be fine. No big, but blanched tastes better than steamed for me. Ever have raw broccoli on a salad? Try blanching (along with dunking it in water to stop the cooking) it first. Not sure why not rinse the beans. I do, after they have been soaked. Not sure what would happen to RS by freezing green plantains or bananas. Seems it would lock everything in place. Probably a great thing for smoothies if you peal fist, cut into chunks so you can use just a few.
@Todd – I’ll probably go back to the GP at some point. My last order was 6 bottles and when that ran out, I just went and grabbed the LEF, as I can get over at Vitamin Shoppe. However, everything still pristine with the teeth. Probably not a bad thing to mix things up in this way.
@Amy – Careful. Heating potato starch (like for thickening) changes the starch into rapidly digesting. That’s fine, but if you’re targeting RS, you’ve got to take it cold, like stirred in a cold drink, or in cold or just warm food. It won’t effect your BG at all, will have zero effect on weight loss or gain. That’s because you’re not digesting it, your bacteria are. See here: https://freetheanimal.com/2013/10/resistant-ingestion-blunting.html Also, I find that it curbs my appetite significantly. Mushroom risotto the hard way: https://freetheanimal.com/2013/11/chicken-quarters-mushroom-risotto.html
@Brian – As many have pointed out, this resembles a PHD in terms of macros, just that you’re perhaps having less rice so you can have beans. I see absolutely no reason to be on a low carb diet unless it’s an intervention for something like diabetes or any of the other conditions where a ketogenic diet has shown promise. It’s become silly to me. Look at all the lean rice and legume eating populations. That ‘aint it. It’s processed foods and eating too much of them because they’re engineered for over consumption for money. Re K2, best you search the blog. Lots of posts on it. Essentially: very smooth teeth, no need for cleaning, barely a need for brushing, zero gum inflammation or bleeding (I had two gum surgeries about 12 years ago and had to have 4 cleanings per year). Dentist and hygienist amazed. Also, soft skin and thicker, stronger fingernails (more “tool” like).
@Dave – Well the D and K2 are pretty well established as necessary, for obvious reasons. We’re in doors to much, and live in places where we didn’t evolve (e.g., black folk in Seattle). We’re not getting enough K2 because the stuff it’s in is not consumed that mush. Plus, my results with K2 are profound and clear. The Liver is simply desiccated Argentinean grassfed beef liver. Just a stop gap. Liver is SUPER nutritious (hit that link in the post) and I don’t always get out to cook it or grab pate. Mag is involved in like 300 processes. Can’t recall why zinc & selenium. The Himalayan is a liver support herbal deal with clinical studies to back it up. Anyone who consumes alcohol ought consider this supp. The starch, well, that’s what this has been all about: https://freetheanimal.com/2013/12/resistant-primer-newbies.html
@nonpavement – I’ve read way too much conflicting stuff on iodine supplementation, so I steer clear. Just get some dry seaweed and sprinkle in rice or add to soups and such. I tried HCL, did nothing for me, so not something I promote. I think that if GERD is caused by SIBO, then PS is going to be a potential fix for both. I think the best way to do this (speculative) but take your PS in just water, and on an empty stomach, like first thing in AM and don’t eat for a couple of hours. Idea being that bacteria in the small intestine glom on to the RS and get carried to the colon. I have been doing this daily for about a week and have noticed a SIGNIFICANT reduction of GERD, even when consuming alcohol in the evening.
@Patrick – I stay away from beer almost completely. I may have 3 per year. Always makes me feel like crap. Wine is fine. Spirits are fine. I don’t think it matters what kind, since they are distilled. You’re not getting any gluten even if made with gluten grains. Of course, standard rules of moderation apply. I’d say no beer, but whatever your habits are for the rest.
@Matheus – Don’t know about the tapioca starch. There’s was some dispute in a previous comment thread as to whether it’s got much RS. One way to test is to take like 4 T in water and test your blood glucose. You’ll get almost zero rise doing that with potato starch, demonstrating its resistant qualities. I think tatertot did this with Bob’s tapioca flour (which is synonymously labelled “starch” on the package) and he got a pretty big BG spike, so at least that brand is mostly regular rapidly digesting starch.
@Guerilla – Sorry, but you’re going to have to work that all out for yourself. Too individual. What I like to do is both mix up the dose, as well as when I take it so that something it’s going straight down, and sometimes its along with other food.
@Kelly – Nope, no need. There’s already bacteria on the beans, so just warm water and let it sit. A stir every now & then seems to increase the amount of scum and bubbles on the top.
Still curious on the parboiled over steamed veggies bit. Any further details on that?
Also, was the “24-48 hour bean soak” meant to be applicable to black & pinto beans rather than lentils? I’m curious what would happen to lentils in a 24 hour soak. In the lentil sausage soup you made the lentils soaked for about an hour, would you change that?
@Richard
interesting. because the pdf list you posted some time ago (RS content of ALL the foods) had tapioca at very similar levels to PS. anyway, will see. had some minor fartage and whatnot after drinking it. this wasn’t Bob’s though (http://www.healthysupplies.co.uk/tapioca-flour-organic-500g.html). Dunno. The texture was very similar to that of PS.
What do you think of potato flours? Is it the same thing?
@Trevor – It’s not a BIG deal, so go with whatever you like. Check this out:
http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-parboiling.htm
Yea, 24 hour soak on all. I’ve done lentils many times.
@Matheus – no potato flour is definitely not it. That’s made from cooked potatoes all ground up.
@Richard
thanks, thought as much.
will stick with the tapioca right now, will see what it does. don’t have a way to measure my BG though, any other way to test if it’s the real deal?
@Matheus – most drug stores sell a blood glucose meter for less than $15, Walmart is even cheaper.
Thanks – so when doing lentil-sausage soup you’d do a 24 hour soak + 1 hour intial boiling water soak?
@Richard – Something I just came across the other day. Seaweed is full of prebiotics, almost as many as are in human beast milk. This is probably how the Inuit were able to maintain balance on low carb intake.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2920542/
“Nori, a dried form of the red seaweed Porphyra yezoensis, was fermented by all but one of five intestinal Bifidobacterium strains,…”
Tons more good info in the study. Guess who has led this research into seaweed prebiotics for almost 30 years now–pig farmers! Pigs get potato starch and seaweed, humans get potato salad and California Rolls.
I have never found a way to incorporate seaweed on a regular basis, this gives me a good reason to.
Okay, I think I know why you prefer blanched
Or par boiled. Steam is hotter than boiling water.
So if you want something still crunchy it might be more difficult to control
The timing with steaming
@tatertot
I get my seaweeds here http://www.seaveg.com/shop/
I buy the granules and flakes, about 1lb each of whatever is available. Use it as spices and condiments. I typically put 1 tbs on my omelets.
ad my tapioca starch:
I did a non-newtonian test and it passed: definitely behaves like a starch, exactly how potato starch behaves in water (played around with this over the summer). then tasted it on its own, it tastes a little sweet, quite a weird taste I haven’t had before. the packaging says it is derived from cassava root. not much more though.
waited for a few minutes. immediately got some discomfort and, afterwards, farts. I am carefully optimistic about this. which is odd to be about discomfort and farts, but hey :D
I appreciate the feedback and who doesn’t like self experimentation!
@Matheus
well you have been warned about the BG spike that tatertot experienced trying tapioca starch out.
so between a fart test and a quantified BG test I would personally pick the BG test BUT thats just me. The BG test will show the diff between resistant starch and digestible starch.
@sootedninjas
I am quite aware of that. I am not using the same product though. Would test my BG if I had a device, which I don’t. Will stick with it for now, report what it does as times goes by and maybe as I up the dose. I’ll try to switch to Bob’s PS (or other raw PS) if I manage to find one here in the UK.
@ Mattheus
yes it is available in the UK UNLESS you don’t want to purchase online
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bobs-Red-Mill-Potato-Unmodified/dp/B0013JOKBC/
a bit expensive tho @ £5.93 + £1.99 UK delivery
compared to $3.50 shipped in California
@sootedninjas – I know, I came across it as well, but the price is what put me off. it’s probably not being shipped from within the UK.
what I really don’t understand is that the store I bought the tapioca at today had all sorts of Bob’s Red Mill stuff (gluten free oats, various gluten free flours and mixes), but no potato starch. Will probably have to ask if they are not considering stocking it. Or try to find something else.
This looks great. Much more sensible than a lot of what I see out in the “paleosphere.” One thing I would mention is that I started taking a flaxseed oil capsule a day based on Seth Roberts’ results for it, and I found that especially in conjunction with taking Vitamin K2, my teeth feel ever better than they used to with K2 alone. I know some people say that flax contains short-chain amino acids that don’t convert to long-chain as well as when you just consume the long-chain ones, but there definitely is some kind of clear response in my body. If I stop taking flax for a week or so (vacation, etc.), my teeth start to form a bit more plaque. So it may be something worth exploring.
I’m on day 2 of PS. I woke up with a headache this morning, but it went away after I showered. Good to see that it’s something expected from RS. A little bit gassy, but nothing too huge so far. We’ll see how this continues…
fatty acids, not amino acids, sorry.
Like Todd mentioned above…
Why did you ditch the Green Pastures products?
GP Butter oil in it’s pure form would still seems to be a superior product for getting one’s K2-Mk4 .
I started taking these way back, due to reading Stephen Guyenet’s & your research on
K2-MK4. Would really like to know why you switched…
Between your blog and the PHD blog, my life has become so much easier to manage in the realm of diet and exercise. I’m sick of the empty gut feeling that comes with vlc dieting and worrying about carb counts being under 30 everyday. I wondered why I did so well on the South Beach diet before switching to a vlc/ high fat eating plan, then gaining gobs of weight back! (For the record, I do feel a lot better eating a bit more fat and eliminating wheat, but I had been adding lots of extra fat to everything). Here’s to you and all others in visible places who are able to change course when real evidence presents itself!
@Trevor – I’d cook them in beef stock (boil, then simmer) until they reach the doneness you like. I prefer slight al dente.
@tater – great news. And nori is easy to get and keeps for a long time. If you get the kind that are cut into thin “noodles” about 2″ long, you can sprinkle some almost anywhere. They probably have it in powder form, too.
@Matheus – some stores put the bob’s PS along with other starches. This messed me up a few times where in one section it’s with all the various flours and with starches on a whole different isle.
@Jens – Give it a try. Perhaps down it right near the end of your fast, but wait an hour before eating. There’s some kcal in it, but very minimal since it’s going to feed your gut and not your metabolism.
@Katie – interesting. Worth a try. No idea what the headache thing is. I think I’ve had two, but the problem is I only get a few per year anyway and of course, it’s confounded by alcohol and possible dehydration.
@Kati – Thanks. I doubt RS will be the last revelation, but it sure looks to be a biggie and, from a paleo perspective, tough now to dismiss foods that have decent RS content, like rice, potatoes and beans.
@katie same here I woke up with a slight headache which I don’t ever experience unless if I was feeling under the weather BUT it dissipated quickly after I woke up.
deeper sleep than usual BUT NO VIVID DREAMS. I want those.
Also, I was NOT gassy at all. No burping maybe a couple of farts the whole night BUT that’s about it.
@tatertot
Would you consider resistant starch as fiber in the context of calculating NET CARBS ?
Since I does not spike blood glucose in the first place.
@SootedNinjas – I wouldn’t/don’t count RS as anything. It’s effect is just too different than anything else you eat. It’s not your food — it’s the gut bug’s food.
I was just reading this paper: http://physrev.physiology.org/content/81/3/1031.full In it, they calculate that humans need 300-400 mmol of SCFA to be produced by gut bugs daily, and this requires 80g of fiber. They recommend that people eat the ‘average’ fiber of most Americans, which is 15-28g, then get another 5-10g of OS (oligosaccharides–from milk, inulin, psyllium etc…) and fill the remaining requirement with RS at 40-50g/day, but also note that 32-42g/day of RS will fill the requirements for SCFA as shown in other studies.
This is almost exactly as Richard and I have been doing without ever reading this! 2-4TBS of Bob’s PS, some good fruit, dairy, and veggies and a lot of RS rich foods and you are good to go. Sort of like….Richard’s ‘new paleo’ guidelines!
Funny, though, about the study I linked, it never makes the leap to supplementing with a raw starch, but rather concludes with a plea to governing agencies to include RS in their fiber requirements.
@tatertot excellent !
I don’t make a big deal about it, Nathan. I’ve used all the products over time: the original butter oil alone, Thorne drops, the LEF and the GP CLO/BO glen in caps. Soon as the couple of bottles of LEF are gone, I’m lively to reorder the GP blend again. One of my issues is that the owner of GP seems like a bit of a woo woo kinda guy and you can’t pin him down on the content of K2.
Thanks Richard, I had missed your previous reply.
I was looking at it more for saving money, unless you order a shitload of bottles at GP
it can be pretty expensive.
In the past, I too was unable to get any response on k2 amount in the blend or butter oil capsules.
Still not even sure of what the RDA of k2-mk4 would be? Stephan G. had once mentioned 500mcg. but I’m not sure how he came to this number.
I imagine if you are eating grass fed animal products regularly (especially liver, which I can’t stomach), you are probably fine, even without supplementation… though after starting GP supplementation years ago, I never had any more dental issues, so I’m sticking with it.
Can’t wait to start some experimentation with RS…big thanks for sharing your research!
GP Butter Oil is kinda out of my price range.
So supplementation of K2 helps on dental health. Right ?
I just bought Ener-G potato starch. Same thing as Bob’s?
I think it is hard to pin down the K 2 in GP because it is such a natural product, especially compared to most of the supps one buys. The grass always changes, each cow a bit different, etc. And with the CLO fermentation is an ongoing process that prolly continues, albeit slowly once in the jar. Just like your kraut once it goes in the fridge. so the same jar might measure differently from one month to the next. And not only time, but temperature will cause change. I agree Dave can be woo, but don’t think that is the issue with the lack of precise measurements. Some even consider that a virtue of the products.
@richard Nikoley
Great guidelines and tips all in one place. Thanks!
I’m still on the fence about doing the RS/PS before I know I have a negative SIBO test in hand. Don’t want to drag you down that road again, but this document is a great roadmap as I go forward. Your work and expertise is much appreciated!
@Brian
I just Googled. Says “Pure Potato Starch Flour.” Now, they may be using flour colloquially, but since there’s both PS a PF available, I’d want to contact the manufacturer to find out their process, and make sure it doesn’t involve heat. We had to do this with Bob’s to ensure. On the other hand, you can do the BG test. You should not get much more than a few points rise from 4TBS.
@Ellen fair enough. I think he’s very thoughtful and caring about what he does.
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!
@Caliprimal
Excellent and Wunnerfulls. Book stuff is confidential, for now. :)
FYI Braggs makes a organic 100% olive oil salad dressing in two flavors. It’s hard to find sometimes at health food stores. HCL Betaine made a huge difference when my husband started taking it. He used to fart all the time now maybe once a day and not smelly like before. He’s a vegetarian.
@Caliprimal
Now you’re going to be famous. :)
http://www.bulletproofexec.com/is-there-such-a-thing-as-bulletproof-resistant-starch/#comment-1149741217
It’s a funny comment thread on Dave’s blog. Apparently, some are _very concerned_ that I use bad words sometimes to describe my judgment of a very few others, such that it results like Caliprimal’s and hundreds of others in thousands of comments over a dozen posts don’t matter.
Dave is very bad, now, because he took our message to his biohackers.
The vividness and dream recall side effect of RS is very interesting – and seems very similar to reports from 5HTP users. 5HTP is used to boost serotonin.
You have been giving me all this wonderful information as you discovered it for years. What a difference it has made in my life as a type 2 diabetic. As a mother I am so proud of you for helping so many people with the horrible affects of diabetics and so many other health problems. Never stop, you make a difference. What more can anyone ask for
Mom
I just discovered this site and I think it is an answer to my prayers! Then I saw this comment from “Mom.” How blessed you are to have a son like this, and how grateful I am to you, who made it all possible. Thank you for sharing him!
apparently, some of the folks commenting over @ BP needs to get their info and priority straighten up.
More lols at MDA http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/thread97831.html People are scared of two things in life, more than anything else–Richard and beans.
Thanks for the sunmary, very helpful. Just started testing RS with my paleo diet.
Hey Caliprimal~!!
AWESOME. Hope you continue your wonderful journey with even more impressive improvements and stellar changes. RU in Cali? Next time I’m back we should all meet at Richard and Bea’s (sorry — I’m inviting myself over)!
I love hearing outcomes like yours. Good for u! Who needs 100 RCTs (random controlled NEJM-published human not rodent trials) to f*kcing tell them THAT THE SKY IS HELLUV BLUE, no??
Yes — I totally concur — I believe in open source medicine and SIBO 101, don’t you? Especially if lead by normal everyday EXTRA-ORDINARY folks like you, Richard N. and Tim Steele (Tater)! Richard, bring your book on and start rocking.
g
Dave is awesome. What are people afraid of with you? you’re harmless if they really knew you ;)
Caliprimal, this information is extremely useful (and hope inspiring!) to me! I also have SIBO and actually did initially go the antibiotics route, which unfortunately didn’t work. I very recently came across Dr. BG’s article on curing SIBO as well as this blog post, of course. I’ve just started taking the Amazing Grass ORAC powder and am supplementing with small amounts potato starch. I’ve been taking Prescript Assist for awhile, as well.
I’m curious how much potato starch you’re supplementing with, also how much psyllium powder? I was doing fine with just a tsp. of PS morning and night, but when adding in unripe dehydrated plantain chips, cooled and reheated rice, and attempting to increase the amount of PS even slightly, I have very quickly gained weight and gotten more bloated (my main SIBO symptom).
Despite these setbacks, I do feel like I’m on the right track, but maybe I’ve just done too much too soon. Would love to hear any additional information you care to share! What fermented foods do you eat? Was there anything besides the constipation which led you to be tested for SIBO? Have you had any ill effects, aside from the stinky gas, since starting this protocol? Would love to hear how you get on with everything, as I’m trying the same things as well. This might be too much for a comments section on a blog post. Would love to do a little email correspondence and pick your brain some more, if you wouldn’t mind. My email is [email protected].
Thanks!
No. No , No
Put it here
We want details
Or, at least, I do,
I fully support this approach to eating and am finding it works well for me – I was afraid it was going to put me back on the pre-paleo carb/ blood sugar rollercoaster but it hasn’t done that at all.
The only question for me is what to call it. With all the starchy carbs esp. from agricultural crops I can’t call it paleoish. Resistostarch Neo, anyone?
Very nice, Richard. You have my full support and approval. This is how I’ve been living for well over a year, minus a few differences:
1.) I generally don’t eat beans. I’m actually trying to work on that – and thankfully the only beans I really like are black, pinto and chick peas. I need to move away from cans to bagged, though. The handful of canned beans I have I rinse very well to get that weird liquid out.
2.) I generally hate supplementation. IMO the best supplements out there are dessicated thyroid (I like Natural Sources Raw Thyroid) and maybe 10mg pregnenolone as you age.
Aside from that, it’s sound, and I think vastly superior to most “paleo” prescriptions. I’ve been saying it for awhile, now: paleo is a great STARTING POINT. Just don’t end up there.
@Choco
It’s years now I see you always adding value to everything I do. Thank you, sir.
on the plantain flour, how many actual tablespoons in 1lb ?
Most flours have about 4 cups to a pound. With 16 tbsp per cup that would be about 64 tbsps.
Thanks Richard. I contacted Sam at Ener-G and he said he got 3 other calls today about their starch. Funny – I told him you had something to do with that. He said they get it from a supplier in Germany. I think it’s starch not flour since he told me that if its white and has no fiber then it’s starch since the potatoes are peeled before they are dried. He had no idea if it’s heated. He said for the flour it will have a yellow-ish tinge to it and will have a tad bit fiber from the intact peel. I think I am good and I’m 90% it’s PS. How do you recommend testing the BG? 4TB with water and then wait 2 hrs without eating anything else?
@Brian
Ha! What have I done? The price for Bob’s has doubled ion Amazon (likely demand driven). Sounds like you’re cool. So year, Bolus 4T in water, well after any meal. BG before, and then 15-30 minute intervals for 2-3 hours. If It’s RS, you should get no more than like a 10-pt rise.
Love the diet guidelines. Just wanted to point out that before uncle Ben falls as much in love with you as uncle Bob of Red Mill, his parboiled rice tests pretty high for arsenic. A better choice would be a california grown basmati – Lundberg’s brand is quite low. Consumer Reports did some testing and I can’t get their link to copy for this comment, but it appears on this blog I found. http://hipandhealthykids.wordpress.com/2012/09/25/uncle-ben-just-got-demoted-to-distant-cousin/
And I wonder about the pesticides in Bob’s. And is it GMO?
Richard, Thanks for the fame:D! While not likely “cured” of SIBO, these were my scariest symptoms and suddenly they are gone. I’m still not sure what caused the insomnia and how that relates to resistant starch? If anyone has info about gluconeogenesis affecting sleep at 2-3 am, I would love to read it.
Good stuff. I’m in, let’s see if it helps my chronic fatigue, constipation, and bowel pain.
Grace/Dr.BG,
Thanks for celebrating with me:D. I am in LA land and would love to meet.
I am still absorbing the tons of inspiring info on your blog, especially the SIBO protocol. My next step is to try your edible clay recommendation. I will stay in touch!
Beth M and Ellen,
Within the first few days I built up to 4 tbsp PS mixed into yogurt at night with 1 tbsp Psyllium powder and 1 tbsp green ORAC. I’ve had whole milk keifer and sauerkraut weekly and Greek yogurt daily for a few years now.
Other symptoms? Yes, I ‘ve still got them but only after ingesting an “allergenic” food, or any alcohol, or stress. Basically, I bloat, have painful pressure on abdomen and lower sternum area, and make loud gurgling-growl noises that seem come up from my belly to my throat. It continues to get worse until I am trying to spit out all of the excess saliva in my mouth and/or i erupt in loud painful hiccups. The only relief is to lay down (opposite of GERD sufferers). That seems to shift the pressure in the other direction and eventually it comes out peacefully enough as gas. Weird, isn’t it? And very unpleasant.
I just had a vacation with family, thanksgiving and my birthday, so there were some allergenic things that caused these symptoms, but I’m hopeful that staying really clean for a few weeks and sticking to the sibo protocol will help.
I will send an email:).
Niko – Thank you for collecting all this together into one salient post. To me, this reads as easily and conclusive at Kurt Harris Archevore guidelines.
Cheers!
Paul
Thanks. It means a lot coming from you.
Richard checkout “The Dental Essentials”
Great new product has VitD, both forms of K, and omega 3’s i believe, could cutdown the amount of pills you need to take.
Hi everyone, I’ve been reading this blog for years now and pretty much live by it now! So much useful stuff that I have implemented in my life. Been doing the PS since September now, just started adding psyllium about 2 weeks ago. Still having more “air” than I would like but it’s getting better.
I’ve been getting a specific type of pain (for as long as I can remember) that is called Proctalgia fugax, which only shows up during the night (wakes me up) and can be very painful and lasts about 20 minutes. Seems to happen randomly and I have yet to identify what causes it, though I find that dehydration might be part of the equation. Since some of you here know A LOT MORE than me about what’s going on in the “below-the-belt” area, I was wondering if some kind of relationship could exist with intestinal bacteria. I’m 55, very active with no known disease. If some of my spelling is off, it can be because I’m french-canadian…
Proctalgia fugax: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proctalgia_fugax
Keep up the fantastic work, and also, keep the “tone” alive!
Johnnydrz
Chocotaco:
“paleo is a great STARTING POINT. Just don’t end up there.” Ha ha ha. Don’t stay there? Why, does Paleo bite? Welcome to the club.
Escape to a Pre-Industrial, Neolithic Diet (PIND) before Paleo bites your ass. Move over Paleo!
good info on butyric acid short chaines fatty acid produced by RS fermentation http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.ca/2009/12/butyric-acid-ancient-controller-of.html
This is great stuff! Question: Why do you recommend only a handful of nuts per day? Would eating more nuts be harmful in some way?
From everything Richard has written, and I have read, the RS doesn’t act like regular starch once consumed. It doesn’t spike blood sugar, and thus doesn’t stimulate an insulin response. Being LC, I’m sure you realize that’s what “regular” carbs and starches do, and that’s what makes your body pack them away into fat. The RS shouldn’t do that because it’s digested much more slowly, and much lower in the gut – not like standard starches and simple carbs, which begin to digest as soon as your saliva touches them, and rarely make it past the stomach and upper portions of the small intestine. In other words – the body reacts differently to RS, and thus not to worry. The upshot to this for those of us so carb-senstitive is that it actually keeps bs down for an extended period of time, which also seems to help when eating other carbs.
The comments on this Bob’s Red Mill blog post (by a Bob’s staffer) clearly state that the potatoes are boiled in the process of making potato starch. “Tim” was the commenter inquiring; maybe this was Tatertot? He followed up with Bob’s customer service and was satisfied their PS was a good source of RS, but didn’t say why, since the staffer was very certain the potatoes were boiled. So…. raw or not raw? And if it was boiled, what are the implications for RS content?
http://blog.bobsredmill.com/featured-articles/getting-gastrointestinally-groovy-prebiotics-and-probiotics/
@julia – I just think that’s a reasonable approach. I think there’s some reasonable risk to nuts, but a handful gets you some of the important nutrients like minerals.
@annika – yea, I recall that. Don’t remember specifically what Tim found out off line, but it was satisfactory and of course, we have all seen that even 30g don’t move BG at all, and in fact, blunts the BG spike from other starches.
@annika – that was me! I got a letter from them explaining it all. They blast the potatoes with steam to clean and peel them, but it doesn’t cook the inside. After that, it is all cold water and air drying.
Potato flour, however, is made from completely cooked potatoes.
http://blog.bobsredmill.com/featured-articles/getting-gastrointestinally-groovy-prebiotics-and-probiotics/
Funny reading those comments–the Bob’s Red Mill lady says, ‘you need to ask Tim’. lol
I’d forgotten all about them. It took a while to get the answer but I got a letter from their supplier who laid it all out. It’s def not cooked. I’ll bet they were wishing they had paid more attention to those comments back in April, now they are way behind power curve.
Thanks TT & Richard! I had a hunch that the spokesperson from Bob’s might not be firing on all cylinders. Hoping some random commenter would provide the answer for HER product? Really? Anyway, I’m very glad to hear Bob’s is the real deal.I threw some in a smoothie this morning, and I’m about to stretch the last of my turkey gravy with some bone broth ‘n Bob’s. Here’s hoping the fartage isn’t too exciting!
Okay, here’s a question, since the topic of Uncle Ben’s instant rice came up. What about rice noodles? Would they develop RS like rice would if I cooked and then cooled them? Or does the processing somehow change that?
Ann – I like rice noodles. even better are mung-bean noodles or cellophane noodles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellophane_noodles
I have never really seen an exact RS content of rice noodles, probably depends on what type of rice they are made from–if it’s glutinous rice, low RS. But as just a food, they are great!
The mung bean sheets and noodles should be fairly high in RS, but again, not sure what.
http://apjcn.nhri.org.tw/server/APJCN/19/2/274.pdf
This Chinese study puts rice noodles at 1g RS and mung bean noodles at 23g RS.
I just bought some mung bean starch, does this have comparable amounts of RS to PS or Cassava starch?
I just somewhere, from Spanish Caravan, that ming bean starch felt like the strongest RS to him/her?
No way to tell without testing. Speaking of which, if you are interested, check out my project to have all these starches tested: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/resistant-starch-analysis–2#/
Everyone who donates to the cause will get the full list of RS contents. everyone else will have to wait until the paper is published, and then may have to pay to see it, depending on which journal publishes it.
I notice lots of hubbub here and enough people are sharing their n=1 experiments eargerly. But has anyone noticed improved libido from RS? I seem to have but failed to notice it for a while. But honestly I can’t tell whether it’s due to RS or something else: I also started a multiple probiotics regimen recently, taking Prescript Assist and SBOs.
I know this might be equivalent to yelling “Fire” in a crowded theater. But seriously, has anyone seen it? For all I now, it could be a synergistic effect from everything that I’m doing: RS, probiotics, psyllium husk, dried plantains, green bananas, 3 different lentils, kombucha, beet kvass, Bubbies sauerkraut, and occasional RS enemas. But if true, this will motivate the entire VLC camp to get on the RS bandwagon. For sure. I don’t think Dr. Kruse or Jimmy Moore will need any encouragement after this.
So who else has noticed that with 4 tbsps daily of RS, you go from Limp Noodle ==> Moby Dick? Like I said, I can’t be sure but I want to hear some confirmations whether it’s all psychosomatic on my part.
OMG – RS enemas! What a great idea – has anyone else tried this? I’ve done this with probiotics, trying to get some relief from IBS symptoms, and it’s helped some, but what a great way to get the RS right where you want it to go! Direct application- OR, like Richard said, mix the probiotics withe the RS (he used kefir), let it sit so the probiotics attach to the RS, and then do the enema. I’m trying this.
@SpanCar – Not your imagination. That’s all I’m sayin’
@Ann – do what you want, but I really don’t think it’s necessary. What you would accomplish with an enema is moving the fermentation of the RS towards the distal end of colon. This same effect is done by mixing RS and psyllium, 3TBS RS, 1TBS psyllium husk powder. This effectively causes a complete flooding of the large intestine and fermentation throughout. http://jn.nutrition.org/content/129/11/2081.abstract Mix RS and kefir let sit just a few seconds and drink. The probiotics attach immediately.
Tatertot, I am trying psyllium husk powder but that stuff is giving me mega-fartage. I’ve solved the gas issue with RS but psyllium brought it back. I didn’t realize all that gooey stuff will cause gas. Is this only me or do you have to ride it out with psyllium?
Ann, I’ve only done it 3 times and the reason I did it was because I have nightshade reaction to PS and am also allergic to Hi Maize and mung bean starch. Now I’m doing plantain starch, to which I’m not allergic. If you do it, you’ll never forget it. There was like a die-off thing happening because even 4 tablespoons of PS killshot won’t travel all the way downstream to the nether region. Soon after, there was a bacterial Super Bowl playing down there and when it died all down, I had the softest and most remarkable BM I ever had. It was like I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt coming out as BM. This one seems right up your alley.
@Spanish Caravan – what exactly did the post-die-off reaction feel like? I have IBS and I get heart palps and anxiety if I go overboard on fermented foods, or if my gut gets out of whack from “accidental” or unintended exposure to my big allergens, gluten and dairy. Did your die- off reaction mess with your head at all? I’m assuming that for me the mood changes and anxiety have much to do with the neural transmitters in the gut being disturbed…
I thought I was allergic to nightshades as well, because potatoes, especially cooked in fat, cause me a lot of gut distress, usually 18-24 hours post consumption. The potato starch, however, hasn’t even caused a blip, and if anything my gut feels so much better-
No real neurological impact, just down there. Lots of touchdowns being scored by Team Good Bacteria in vanquishing Bad Bacteria. I honestly only had great BM and REM sleep. Next day, felt like a polar bear awaking from long hibernation. Felt really refreshed and in good mood, more from my deep sleep than anything else.
I did PS for 2-3 weeks too with no problem. The allergy hit me after that. I thought I didn’t have any problem until it hit me later.
@tatertot
glass noodles, chinese vermicelli, mung bean noodle is a OK ! Booyaaaaa !!!
another one of those Asian traditions that I avoided when I went low carb. Love those Pancit Filipino dish made of Glass noodles and Vietnamese Glass Noodle Soup with Beef tendons.
Another great reason to bring those dishes back to life just like my beloved fried rice. I’m really enjoying this resistant carb movement. Who knew. Our Asian ancestors got it right in the first place until the American SAD came along and started making everyone obese. All in the name of capitalism gone wild.
tested my morning BG after 3 days of PS and raw-milk homemade Kefir mixture around 9 pm the night before and my morning BG was 80! Pretty cool. I’ve been measuring for the last year and its never been really below 90-92. Is this a good sign? Oh yea, farting more too. Can I expect some weight loss?
That was my family, Joy! Very frugal, mom cut our hair, etc. But it allowed us to have a beach front property and a sailboat.
The ONLY time I remember eating in a restaurant was when we were getting ready to move from Lawn-Guyland (with accent) to Florida. My father grew up in New York, and I guess the folks wanted us to experience typical small restaurant upstairs NY Chinese food.
Over the years they did loosen up, but other than San-a-Lac powdered milk, we ate real foods.
I DO have to watch and record what I eat. When I go ad litum, the pounds return with a vengeance. I think some people who “can’t” lose weight w/o recording might be surprised when they do. I heartily recommend Diet Organizer, a mere $20 and no pokey internet pages required. http://www.dietorganizer.com
Even with ample PS, I do have blood sugar issues. It’s a LOT better, now, but still not the magic, consistent bullet I would love to have discovered. A mere 25-30g carbs with a meal will bump me to almost 150 45-60 minutes later. It goes down about 25-30 points per hour.
After many months hovering in the 240-245 pound weight range, it is plummeting! “Bye bye 240’s, hello mid 230’s!”
“How so?” you might ask. I think it’s due to leaning more like the PHD and cutting back on meat. With an estimated Lean Body Mass of 170 pounds, I’m aiming for around 100 grams of protein or less per day. Half of what I used to eat. I’m sure that all that meat kept my insulin up for many hours.
Since I can’t eat more carbs (aiming for 100g a day or less) my daily fat content is up to 60+%. You know what? That’s HARD to attain! Lots of Plugra butter, coconut oil and milk, and cream. (Plugra is tastier than candy; why mores so than Kerry Gold, I dunno.)
No fruit, occasional few ounces of berries.
Bye, bye adipose tissue!
re K2 supplementation: I was getting ready to order some more NOW brand MK-7 when I read some guy’s very long post comparing the different K supplements on Amazon. Am I glad I did! Turns out the Life Extension Super K has double the MK-7 of the NOW brand, PLUS 1000 micrograms of MK-4 PLUS the same amount of K1! All for literally a few more dollars per bottle of the same 90 gels quantity.
http://www.amazon.com/Life-Extension-Advanced-Softgels-90-Count/dp/B004GW4S0G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386339968&sr=8-1&keywords=Life+extension+super+K
@tatertot: We’ve touched on this before: There most certainly are calories in potato starch. Whether one wants to fret about them or not is another matter. For me (see above about my necessity of recording and blood sugar) it does matter.
Yes, the bacteria do consume a bit of energy, I presume that’s the “missing” .5 calorie per gram. But, using your middle number of 9 grams of RS in a TBSP of PS, that definitely leaves us with 3 grams of conventional starch and 3.3 grams of SCFA for a total of 42 kcal per TBSP.
That’s 8% of a 2000 kcal daily diet. Not to be ignored when trying to lose weight.
Great discussion
TT or Richard,
So is RS the final answer to the question of why most Asian populations don’t have such high rates of obesity despite consuming such a seemingly proportionally large quantity of simple carbs?
If that turns out to be the case, it would be interesting to see data on obesity rates comparing, say, Northern China, where, from my understanding, the population relies much more heavily on wheat-based noodles as their main source of dietary starch, and Southern China and other Asian countries, where white rice is the staple.
PZO, why add the extra calories? Do you binge if you don’t get enough food after a few days? Why not just drop the extra fat?
@Matthew: Huh? I explained myself quite adequately, I think. I don’t know why your are reading things into my post that aren’t there.
“Why not just drop the extra fat?” (Head slap.) Why didn’t I think of that?
@pzo, just asking why you’re aiming for 2k calories a day if you’re trying to lose weight?
@Matthew: Several reasons. One is that it’s the standardized USDA adult male intake. The second is that for me, a large guy, it’s just a few kcals over my BMR. Doesn’t include as much as typing here, let alone chores or exercise. So it is actually dieting for me.
@Ann – I don’t think RS is the final answer to anything–it’s just a simple solution to a huge piece of the puzzle that has been missing for most people for hundreds (thousands?) of years.
I’m at a point in my thinking that a robust community of gut bugs is vital to our well-being, we can live long and be relatively healthy with normal SAD gut bugs, but getting gut bugs as healthy as possible be the aim of the medical community over treating every symptom. One day they will be there. For now, it’s RS to feed them along with avoidance of chemicals and crappy foods.
@pzo – “But, using your middle number of 9 grams of RS in a TBSP of PS, that definitely leaves us with 3 grams of conventional starch and 3.3 grams of SCFA for a total of 42 kcal per TBSP. ”
There may be another answer to those mystery calories…potato starch is 20% moisture. I think the error in the grams vs carbs is due to the moisture content.
Funny thing, it’s hard to believe a bag of potato starch is 1/5 water–it seems so dry. But the water is locked inside each and every of the billions of starch granules–it’s why they swell and burst when heated.
Do what makes you feel right when counting them–it surely wouldn’t hurt you to count 1TBS as 10-12kcal and deduct that from somewhere else. Calories are such a fickle thing.
@tatertot – What’s the time frame for improvements in constipation with RS?
I had some improvement (timing, formation) from VSL#3 and Prescript-Assist for a bit, but can’t get to regular elimination. My flora was pretty low on MM stool test from January.
Thanks for all the time and effort you are putting out to help others!
@David – sorry I don’t have a better answer, but it’s going to be individual based on gut microbes already present, diet, and other co-factors. Normally, though, it seems pretty big changes occur within 3-6 weeks when supplementing with potato starch.
@tatertot – No problem, just looking for something to gauge progress. I started 1 tsp PS 3x/day about a week ago, up to 2 tbsp 3x/day now. Tried variations with psyllium 1 tsp, kefir, combined with VSL#3, etc…
Diet is PHD for 2.5 years. Presumably little good microbes present (3 months of combined antibiotic protocol in 2011), history of yeast overgrowth, etc…
My mitochondria are singing, “I’m loving it!”
Don’t know how much “it” due to RS and how much is due to my high fat diet explained above. Probably both.
I decided to get on my Trusty Trek today and ride to the beach. I have been riding it off and on for five years to, mostly, one beach destination or another one farther away. I know every bump, every (Florida coastal type) grade, wind directions, and how it all impacts my ride. The close one includes a 60″ bridge climb. (My biggest hill, ha ha!)
I’d not been on the bike for three months and was dreading the ride. I got on, took off, and within a minute I knew something was really wrong, in the right kind of way! Usually, in a few hundred yards my muscles complain until I get about a mile along, and then they are on the program.
A few hundred yards, hmmmmm……feeling strong…….damn, a sharp headwind……hmmmmm……not a problem. Powered up the bridge with headwind. Jeez, am I not 67?
Reviewing the whole ride, the bottom line is that I think I was operating at 90% of my top conditioning level!
As McGuff and Little explain in Body by Science, what is usually thought of as aerobic ability through the lungs and cardio is really a mitochondrial effect. Since I’ve done no “cardio” in months…..and even that wasn’t much, I checked my records, I’m going to presume it’s diet.
Oops, the bridge is a 60 foot elevation, not 5 feet!
@Heisenbug – Good hack! Loved it. I wish Jeff Leach and Mr. Pollan would have a hack, too.
Where you are missing some points though, a predominance of Firmicutes over bacteriodetes, as Pollan’s show, is indicative of obesity…mine show a tendency toward non-obesity.
Also, bifido don’t produce butyrate, they thrive in a butyrate rich environment. Other gut bugs–as you showed–make the butyrate. Bifido doesn’t even eat RS. It relies on co-feederes and keystones to eat the RS.
It’s a whacky world down there, one day they will have it all figured out, but I liked your take on it–i’m a total skeptic on most things, too.
Thanks for taking the time to do all that–I need to re-read a bit closer and look at charts and refs.
http://nutritionfacts.org/video/tipping-the-balance-of-firmicutes-to-bacteroidetes/
firmicute over bacteriodete program
@hisenbug I posted a comment in the blog you link. Was wondering if you can take a look at it and respond.
regards….
Thanks for putting this together, Richard. I really appreciate you taking the time to synthesise things, so that I don’t get lost in the details until I want to understand them better.
We’ve been traveling for 6 weeks throughout Europe, and I’ve experimented on this trip with one simple change to the typical low-carb approach: in a restaurant, if the dish comes with potatoes, I don’t bother substituting them. I have stayed away from rice and all grains, (with the possible exception of unexpected gravy, maybe once or twice per week). I haven’t noticed any ill effects so far, and my pants fit the same as they did 6 weeks ago, so I conclude that I have nothing left to fear from potatoes. Good to know, considering that I live in PEI, and we kinda make a big deal of potatoes.
I tried beans a little just before we left. Again, no deleterious effects. I didn’t want to eat beans on the road, because I don’t know how others have prepared them. I will try again when we go home. I’d like to reach the point where the gas goes away. :)
When advising others now, I tell them that they should give up potatoes for a year, then experiment with reintroducing them after they’ve got their weight more under control. It seems reasonable to me. I liked having the chance to stop “needing” potatoes, but rather thinking of them as something I could eat or not eat.
31 months on, still 130 lb down, best shape of my 30s (and almost of my 20s), and with no appreciable exercise. I need to decide how to incorporate some strength training, given that I really, really find just lifting things boring as hell. I’d prefer a sport.
@tatertot, … “Pigs get potato starch and seaweed, humans get potato salad and California Rolls.” … So this would make bacon a health food then, right? Thank you so much! ;-)
Hey guys. I just wanted to check the dosing for potato starch here. It’s 2-4 (US) tablespoons a day, right?
Sisson’s article said TEAspoons. I just wanted to check. Also I’m from the UK and I believe the US tablespoon is smaller than ours.
Soot:
I am really computer inept, it is prolly really obvious, .but I cannot see how to find the comments there. Only how to leave one.
@Brad – Look at this website: http://www.manitobastarch.com/feed.html
We know very well how to feed animals so they produce tasty, antibiotic free cutlets and bacon, why can no one see that people need to eat similarly?
“Thank you for your interest in MSP[RS]® Resistant Starch. MSP[RS] functions as a prebiotic which has applications in swine and pre-ruminant production for facilitating a healthy lower digestive tract in young animals. MSP[RS] is an all-natural product that is safe and cost-effective to use in your operation.”
“Resistant starches are not readily digestible in the stomach or small intestine. They provide colonic benefits and help to maintain a healthy digestive system as a result of the fermentation of the resistant starch in the lower digestive tract:
Supports the growth of beneficial bacteria.
Reduces lower digestive tract pH and reduces the effects of potentially harmful bacteria.
Increases production of Short-Chain Fatty Acids (SCFA) in the colon, particularly butyrate, which has been shown to be important for maintaining healthy colon cells.
Why is MSP[RS]® the premier source of resistant starch?
MSP[RS] resistant starch is processed to protect resistant starch properties. It has been used effectively since 2008 across Canada and the United States for the benefits of providing improved performance.”
@tatertot and Heisenbug
It seems possible to me that the ratio to me is not important. If you look at an overall US population, you’ll get a correlation one way. IE there are a lot of fat Americans. As Tater mentioned you can have pathogenic and friendly bacteria in each one of those categories. Perhaps the more important part is which bacteria are present under each category than the ratio of the two.
If I look at the post Richard did on Tater, and compare to Pollan, yes he’s bigger. But Tater certainly isn’t fat. If I were betting, I’d be eating resistant starch as well as other plant based prebiotics. I think having RS alone as your source of prebiotic would be missing something, but Richard’s post does mention other vegetables and sometimes raw. The emphasis on RS is mainly because it’s been totally ignored whereas plant fiber is not in the same boat.
Whizzer -We are recommending 2-4TBS (US) per day which is very close to 20-40g of RS. This is the amount used in dozens of studies to good effect.
T-Nat
Fermented beans are more used as a condiment and flavoring for dishes. Pungent, super unami flavor and tasty with chopped garlic. They burn body fat, did you know? Maybe it’s the SBO + RS-enriched Asian tubers (white mountain potatoes, taro, yams, etc) and whole grains (buckwheat, barley, etc)?
Black bean sauce also has the SBOs like B subtilis and B licheniformis found in other fermented foods good for our health — kim chee, shrimp paste, fish sauce, Korean gochujang/kochujang, etc
http://drbganimalpharm.blogspot.jp/2013/09/korean-pepper-paste-burns-visceral-body.html
What are your thoughts in 1 day old+ chilled potato salad. Seems like the best alternative when one needs a change from PS
@Brian – I think potato salad is great…eat it all the time, just not for the RS. Sure it has a bit, but you’d need to eat like two pounds t get anywhere. But, include it in your menus and it adds a bit of RS.
One prob with potato salad is the stuff you buy in the store is loaded with crap veggie oils. If you make your own mayo w/olive oil you are better off.
I think if you really want a change from potato starch–go with green bananas and dried plantains.
You can eat warmed cooked potatoes the Russian way: Okroshka: yoghurt/kefir or buttermilk, real fermented pickles chopped, fresh cucumber chopped, chopped chives/green onion/shallot/white onion/red onion, parsley, dill, hard boiled eggs. Serve with cold or hot potatoes. You can add cooked ham or whatever you’ve got as well. I don’t bother with the meat. Very refreshing. A refreshing change from potato salad made with mayo.
It’s a sort of whatever you have at home dish except some things are needed like the pickles, even beets, the green stuff…. because it’s a spring food.
@grace
“Black bean sauce also has the SBOs like B subtilis and B licheniformis found in other fermented foods good for our health — kim chee, shrimp paste, fish sauce, Korean gochujang/kochujang, etc”
all of these that you mentioned are traditional Asian foods that are used from different Asian cultures.
Most likely that our “great grandparents from whatever culture” got it right in the first place UNTIL industrialized agriculture came along and mess everybody’s health.
Nowadays when I think of food, I think of what did the caveman ate and/or what did my great great grandparents ate. Did they ate this kind of food that we are eating now ?
@Heisenbug
I did saw that product from Now Foods, but when I check the nutritional information from the Now Foods website
http://www.nowfoods.com/NutraFlora-FOS-4oz.htm
It says NutraFlora® FOS (Fructooligosaccharides) and NOT scFOS as opposed to the Swanson NutraFlora Prebiotic Enhancing Formula
http://www.swansonvitamins.com/swanson-probiotics-nutraflora-prebiotic-enhancing-formula-750-mg-60-veg-caps
which specifically mentioned
NutraFlora® scFOS® (short chain fructooligosaccharides) (providing minimum 95% total fructooligosaccharides)
Question is it is the same ingredient ? NutraFlora® scFOS® vs NutraFlora® FOS (Fructooligosaccharides)
@sootninj – You know they didn’t, but you also must know they would have given the chance! A dead, stinky lizard or a bucket of KFC…you know what they would have eaten! Don’t you suppose that’s how healthy things have fallen out of favor? Dried plantains, raw potatoes, and natto are definitely not tasty to most. Unfortunately we had thousands and thousands of years evolving with nasty, but good-for-you foods. Seems like our brains would have evolved to seek out these missing elements instead of going straight for the Pringles…or did they? Ever hear of Pica? Maybe it’s not so crazy afterall (Thanks, Melissa!)
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pica_%28disorder%29
Pica is the consumption of substances with no significant nutritive value such as earth or ice.[1] Subtypes are characterized by the substance eaten for example:
Amylophagia (consumption of starch)
Coprophagy (consumption of feces)
Geophagy (consumption of soil, clay, or chalk)
Hyalophagia (consumption of glass)
Consumption of dust or sand has been reported among iron-deficient patients.
Lithophagia (a subset of geophagia, consumption of pebbles or rocks)[6]
Mucophagia (consumption of mucus)
Odowa (soft stones eaten by pregnant women in Kenya)[7]
Consumption of paint.
Pagophagia (pathological consumption of ice)
Self-cannibalism (rare condition where body parts may be consumed; see also Lesch-Nyhan syndrome)
Trichophagia (consumption of hair or wool)
Urophagia (consumption of urine)
Xylophagia (consumption of wood or paper)
maybe we have the capacity of eating a “stinky lizard” because our caveman ancestors over thousands of years are part scavengers also when hunting is NOT so succesful as opposed to “industrialized food” that it’s literally “in your face” 24×7 and our body was never given a chance to adapt from it. too much, too fast, too soon
Thanks for info on potato salad. Another similar question: has anyone found a source for dried green plantain chips versus DIY?
Richard have you investigated the black nightshade content in the LiverCare pills? There’s more than a few bad reviews of the product on Amazon due to this ingredient.
I just started taking them and haven’t had any issue yet. A little googling brings up this informative page on black nightshade which points to a missinformed public:
http://foragersharvest.com/black-nightshade-2/
What’s the problem with canned beans?
@Roger Elliot
Asked and answered dozens of times in the RS posts and many comments. I will not answer that question any longer, and I will delete any comment from anyone else who does.
#fuckinglazyasses
Look what we’ve done. The last time I bought a box of Bob’s potato starch from Amazon, in October, it cost $11.52. Today it’s $25.32.
It’s seems obvious that the Amazon potato starch seller is trying to cash in on the PS *movement* .
You can get it for a lot less straight from Bob’s Red Mill or Vitacost, who was running a special for a while for under $3/bag. I snagged 5 of them.
“It’s seems obvious that the Amazon potato starch seller is trying to cash in on the PS *movement* .”
May seem that way, but that’s what you do when you have huge lead times for orders, get unexpected demand. Sensible business people raise prices in order to maintain a stock. Out of stock is really, really bad.
Econ 101: AKA, supply and demand.
…Or, let me spell it out in pure inventory revenue terms, Judy, in hopes you might integrate it and not always open your beak to swallow the regurgitate, next time.
Suppliers and distributors need to make x dollars over y time with a profit in order to do something, such as make it so conveniently avail on Amazon with 1-click purchase and free shipping if you buy enough or spring for Prime. (FYI, when I first began blogging this, the price dropped by a few bucks—typical reaction…it does work both ways.
They have lead times. Could be 60, 90 days or more before a surge in demand gets realized by new product on the shelves. Has to be produced (and maybe the producer is hosed, too, in which case it could go all the way back to raw material sourcing).
So, with stocks diminishing and demand surging, they will make $0 over much time if they don’t keep stock on shelves. So, in order to balance between getting more product, along with taking a risk in probably a far bigger order (if they overshoot and demand goes down, watch them discount it to near cost in months to come).
I just love it when people expose their ignorance of markets, economics and business, allowing me a teaching moment, because that shit you spewed you didn’t come up with. Some moron ignoramus taught you that, and you just repeated it proudly, without even being embarrassed about pulling your pants down around your ankles and yelling “look here!”
Good grief, Richard. It may well be as you said, and it may just as easily be as I speculated. Apparently other suppliers like Bob’s (the source), Vitacost, and numerous other sellers on the web aren’t feeling the same pinch as per your “Econ 101: AKA, supply and demand.” I know where I’ll be shopping.
“Good grief, Richard.”
Laf. I love it when I get that. No worries, Judy. We’re all learning here, and in different areas. :)
Just a side note. Tator and/or I will be doing some BG testing on some real tapioca/cassava starch (not Bob’s Red Mill Tapioca FLOUR). If the results indicate high RS content that may give another option and some competition to BRM’s Potato Starch. Where I live (not in USA) you can buy it for around $1 per pound.
Just a side note. Tator and/or I will be doing some BG testing on some real tapioca/cassava starch (not Bob’s Red Mill Tapioca FLOUR). If the results indicate high RS content that may give another option and some competition to BRM’s Potato Starch. Where I live (not in USA) you can buy it for around $1.50 per pound.
Laf. I love it when I get that. No worries, Judy. We’re all learning here, and in different areas. :)
You must have had some potato starch with kefir :-)
Your original answers to me made assumptions about my background. Like anyone with brains in her head, I looked at the price jump on Amazon, which has been documented a couple of times here on FTA, and I noted that it went from somewhere around $11+ to somewhere between $11 and 15, and lately to what your poster said at $25+ now.
One could think that the jump is because of supply/demand and maybe that’s true for the Amazon seller. However, since Bob’s site hasn’t increased price in accordance with the Amazon seller (who I presume is getting his supply from), and since during the same time frame Vitacost was selling potato starch at a great discount, I have to wonder why the dramatic increase in price from the Amazon seller. I’ve seen much greed in my life; price rises aren’t always due to supply and demand. When I see something like this, especially in the context of the main supplier (Bob’s) not raising his price, I’m suspicious. The other thing, of course, is that the Amazon seller has priced him/herself out of the market for many people, including me. Not good business practice.
Maybe you know the seller; maybe you are the seller. All I know is that unless we actually know the seller and his/her motives, neither of us has an accurate, verifiable answer as to the seller’s motivation.
Agreed that we are all learning here.
Judy
Most often, when weird prices / changes show up on Amazon, it’s because that Amazon seller is using one of MANY computer pricing programs for their stock. That’s why you’ll see books occasionally for many hundreds of dollars — the programs are (cheap and) stupid — and don’t apply anything like reasoning to pricing.
“I have to wonder why the dramatic increase in price from the Amazon seller.”
I dunno, perhaps it’s because on all my posts I’ve used an affiliate link to Amazon and last I checked, about 300 people or so have ordered the 4 bag deal. That was demand out of nowhere over a short period of time.
My Lamborghini is ordered.
I hate to keep banging this drum, but I just wanted to mention that tapioca/cassava has similar effects as gluten and other allergens for someone with food sensitivities. I have an equally violent reaction to tapioca as the reaction I have with gluten, dairy, and nightshades. It causes my IBS to flare, and causes diarrhea, cramps, stomach distress, and anxiety. It’s well-documented on lists of “gluten cross-reactive” foods. Not trying to be a buzz-kill, but for anyone sensitive to those foods, it might be wise to proceed with caution…
I have the same problems with Tapioca starch which makes a lot of gluten-free products off-limits for me. Small amounts of white rice flour are tolerated, but not as a staple. This is why I use sprouted brown rice and sprouted brown rice flour instead. Also, I can’t do Xanthan gum, so I use Konjac (Glucomannan) Root powder (1 for 1) instead. I don’t seem to have any trouble with potatos, while Pork can give me problems. And since Pork is a source of Thiamine, I have been trying to find a reasonable substitute such as Anasazi beans. In short, a lot of my issues appear to be with problematic food proteins; Gluten, A1 Casein, Pork that I can think of for now, as well as with any source of carbs that spike blood sugar levels. Richard’s dietary guidelines in this version of Paleo are damn near right on because they are a marriage of Paleo and Weston A. Price dietary principles, that can be customized for each individual. And on the subject of resistant starch, I think that Richard may have come upon the idea of an essential carbohydrate, and this may be part of the reason as to why I failed on a low-carb diet in that low-carb (and low fat calorie restricted) diets are not concerned with body recomposition (i.e. lean mass is preserved or increased, while body fat decreases over time).
Amazon prices are sometimes set by algorithms that can get weird. http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=358
Aaron
So laf. Hilarious.
Hi Amy,
I just wanted to give you my N=1 with regards to RS and weight loss. Like you , I have been on the roller coaster my whole life. Always losing weight, gaining it back and then some, rinse, repeat. Average of 130 pounds overweight my whole adult life. Now, at age 44, I finally feel like I have found what works…for me.
I am a Type 2 diabetic (10 years), and have been controlling with low carb for about 5 years. It was never easy to stick to for me, I always had those cravings for what I couldn’t have. (Low Carb was great for my blood sugar numbers however) I had been gaining and losing the same 20-25 pounds in this time also. Not a good situation. Then came Richard, Tater Tot and Potato Starch and nothing has been the same since! I re-started a good clean low carb diet on May 20, 2013 as a foundation. I started supplementing Bobs PS at the same time, beginning with a tablespoon in my Kefir or Yogurt for lunch every day, as well as a tablespoon in water before bed (oh the dreams!!!). Long story short, 6 months later I have lost 60, yes SIXTY pounds! I supplement 3-4 tablespoons most days, skip every once in a while too, and always have some with a fermented food. (Yogurt and Kefir mostly, but I have been known to dip a Bubbies pickle in PS as I eat it, as well as mixing in with Kimchee too!).
I am truly amazed at how I feel. RS has totally erased my cravings and controls my appetite like no other! Not to mention the blood sugar benefits! Fasting is down 20-30 mg/dl from previous, and I have recently started the cold potato / rice (and beans too soon!). I can now eat a baked potato (6oz.) that I have cooled for 24h and reheated and get only a 15-20 mg/dl rise in blood sugar that is back to starting within an hour. This is a pretty normal BG curve and usually only wishful thinking for a Type 2 that is only minimally medicated (Metformin only). And unlike other times I have been low carb for a while, my hair is not falling out, my hands and feet are nice and toasty and I sleep very well , thank you!
So Amy- try it! It may be the missing piece to your puzzle as it was mine! I could go on and on about this but I wanted to keep it brief (ha)! I am thinking of emailing my whole story to Richard someday on the chance it may help someone else out who is on the fence about this. Personally, I am never looking back and I owe a debt of gratitude to Richard and Tater for all their research! THANK YOU BOTH!!
Hi Diana,
Fantastic results! I know this post is exactly 2 years old now and I’m only just getting on the RS bandwagon myself.
Also a many times yo-yo vlc/zero carber for 10+ years, I would love to hear how you’re tracking 2 years later.
Kind regards,
Angela
@Diana – Thanks for the testomonial! I have to share this with you. Back in April when I was going on about RS to Richard, he said in an email, ‘you’d better be right’.
Thanks for taking a chance, everyone, I think I was right!
@Tatertot. You were definitely right. And we are all the better for it.
@Tatertot- Indeed you were correct!
@Lauren- yes, we are DEFENITELY all the better for it!
I read everything I can about this subject now, I find it so very fascinating- thanks Tater! :-)
Oh, and Richard- after years of reading you, it’s not just my diet that has changed (no more voting etc.) so thanks for that too!!!
Like my Dad used to say: If you keep your mind is open, the possibilities are endless
@Tatertot- Indeed you were correct!
@Lauren- yes, we are DEFENITELY all the better for it!
I read everything I can about this subject now, I find it so very fascinating- thanks Tater! :-)
Oh, and Richard- after years of reading you, it’s not just my diet that has changed (no more voting etc.) so thanks for that too!!!
Like my Dad used to say: If you keep your mind open, the possibilities are endless
My Lamborghini is ordered.
Excellent reply, Richard. LOL!
“I dunno, perhaps it’s because on all my posts I’ve used an affiliate link to Amazon and last I checked, about 300 people or so have ordered the 4 bag deal. That was demand out of nowhere over a short period of time.”
Yeah, that’s true, but since the supplier (Bob’s) hasn’t raised his prices over the same time frame, well…..
Heck, Richard. I can walk into my local grocery and buy Bob’s PS for approximately $4.50 including tax and clearly including shipping. I don’t know what the Amazon supplier is thinking, but as I said before, he’s priced himself out of the market if you look at local suppliers as well as online suppliers like vitacost. I understand affiliate relationships like you have with Amazon. Can you not have the same type of relationship with vitacost? I would gladly click through to a site with good prices and support your site at the same time.
Judy
It doesn’t work like that, Judy. Amazon, just as for books, is setting it’s own price based upon demand, inventory, order lead time, etc. doubt there is a middle man between Bob’s and Amazon.
Out of curiosity I checked both Amazon.com and Amazon.ca. There is only one nebulous offer for Bob’s Red Mill potato starch that appears out of whack price wise and gives no information as to what a person would be ordering or getting at that price. Every other site is normal. Why anyone would highlight this is beyond me. It’s easy to order at the regular or lower price in bulk or 1 bag. Sheeesh.
Hi all,
3 weeks into my experiment and up to 3tbs RS with probiotics and p.husk.
What I have noticed:
I gained 2 lbs. I may be eating a bit more carbs in general but has anyone else gained weight? seems like most lose weight.
Also – I have autoimmune issues and about a week into this experiment have noticed definite soreness in my joints in my hands – have never had this in my life. I know the potato starch is supposed to just zoom through to the colon but am wondering if the potato starch could be causing the joint pain??
My stools are bulkier and every morning and quite clean – will save money on toilet bowl cleaners.
The flatulance is finally decreasing – I have 4 brothers and even they would have been proud to hear me!
And yes, count me in on the dreams – I haven’t had dreams like this in 20 years.
My body temp has increased as well – I have hoshimotos and have gone from 96.5 to 97.1 in the morning before my meds.
thanks for any feedback about the weight and joint pain!
Ann – I really doubt the soreness is related, but who can say? Same for weight gain. Temps going up, dreams, clean BMs, and toots–RS related.
Let us know what you do and how it goes.
Ann, according to something I’ve read, if a person consumes enough resistant starch it can contribute up to 500 kcal. Depending of course on how much. I suppose a person could gain weight if their intake of other foods is not reduced through whatever satiation effect the potato starch exerts. All those gut hormones……Just because we don’t digest it, the bacteria do and we absorb the short chain fatty acids. That’s calories.
Maybe we should try half cooked potatoes, although potatoes get boring and potato starch does down the hatch easier.
@gabkad, In general RS contributes half the calories of regular starch so about 2kcal/gram so … you’d have to eat something like an entire kilogram of potato starch to get 500kcal. The caloric content of RS can generally just be ignored. And anyway, 2 pounds weight gain? C’mon, that’s nothing to pay attention to.
Anyone see this blog and talk about honey being as effective as PS. He says PS raises BG – I’ve seen the opposite.
Maybe a Ps kefir honey cocktail
http://blog.sethroberts.net/2013/12/07/why-does-bedtime-honey-improve-sleep-more-helpful-data/
Ann – with your auto-immune issues, is there a chance that you have some sensitivity to nightshades? I am having a problem with the potato starch. I had good results until I was about a week in, and then began to have my usual potato sensitivity. I get IBS symptoms, and irregularity, but I’m wondering if you could have some sensitivity that causes you inflammation, which could account for the weight gain. After all, inflammation is a form of injury, and probably swelling and some fluid retention. When I stopped eating the things I was sensitive to (not by choice – I was forced to, as they began to cause me adrenal fatigue and general systemic shutdown) I began to lose weight like never before. I wasn’t eating a lot of those foods anyway, but I replaced them with the usual Paleo suspects, fatty meat, nuts, avocados and such, so I sure wasn’t eating less calories.
I’m pretty disappointed in my inability to eat the potato starch. I really think this is something that could help a lot of my issues, and I was having great results, but I can’t live with the IBS – it causes too many other areas of my life to suffer, so until I can work something out with plantains, I’m going to have to put it on the shelf for now.
@Brian
My friend Seth is wrong, and his error has been brought to his attention with copious references.
That’s all I’ll say about it,
Seth will also get a gift of a bag of white powder courtesy of moi when we get coffee and fun here Shanghai
GO QS n=1 and the brave and bold at FTA ;)
Ann- yes, i was coming to that same conclusion as my IBS symptoms have returned. 2 lbs may seem insignificant but i have been at the same weight for years and am thin so the 2 lbs was not upsetting but just noticeable and within the first week of starting the PS. will eliminate and see what happens. So disappointed! I have celiac too so my list of food sensitivites seem endless. I thinking of getting the cyrex array #4 test. If anything, to confirm what i already know.
So on to plantains – i was going to buy a food dehydrator, is that the best way to make the chips as the lowest temp my oven goes is 170 degrees.
@Ann
Just slice the plantains and put them on a wire rack and run a fan over them. 170 in an oven is too hot, the starch will turn in to regular starch.
Fan and wire rack takes about 1.5 days to dry out fully as long as you slice thinly.
@Brian, wow Seth… for a guy who claims to use a scientific approach his take on honey/sleeep is anything but. He doesn’t even seem to understand how fructose is metabolised. Not to mention no real studies supporting his conclusions. RS has plenty as you know. Even if… a big *IF* (and I’m very skeptical on that) honey helped SOME people sleep better, there could be various reasons and he is jumping to a huge conclusion that glucose is the reason. Fructose is only converted to glycogen by the liver if it’s needed – ie, stores are not already full. In most of the “sugar burners” he’s talking to that is not the case and so most of the fructose will be converted into triglycerides by the liver. So it may very well be that the trig’s are making people sleep better, but I’m betting there no REAL correlation between sleep and honey… except for perhaps the “carb crash” that ensues after an insulin spike. That might help people fall asleep, but hell, there are boat-loads of LC and VLC/keto eaters that have no problem sleeping through the night. And if you think about it, it makes no sense from an evolutionary standpoint. No food = no sleep = dead human. But the reality is that humans have great ability to handle intermittent fasting. If you’re metabolism is broken?… different story, and different problem.
Brad, there are some studies evaluating sleep quality for children with a cough when dosed with honey. Honey actually worked better than the medication in the study.
http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=571638
I know personally it improved my sleep (this is ontop of RS at night). By improved sleep I’m not talking about time to fall asleep, but the level of alertness I feel the next morning. For what it’s worth I can (and do) fast for 24 hours without any trouble. When I do that (or end up in ketosis), my sleep is significantly worse than when I am eating higher carb or take honey before sleeping. I’m not sure if Seth’s speculation as to the mechanism is correct, but from a N=1 point of view, it works well for me.
Honey is really not that bad as far as an insulin spike. Fructose does not cause an increase in blood sugar. Some honey comes in as low as 35 on the glycemic index.
There are a lot of complaints on Paleo forms of low carbers and sleep issues. I’m not sure we can say sleep is not impacted by blood sugar. There are studies showing how the sleep pattern changes in ketosis too. http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/maney/nns/2008/00000011/00000004/art00001
I don’t buy the evolutionary argument either. When I have no food and worse sleep, I wake up and focus my efforts on obtaining food. Drawing the conclusion that death will follow is a bit of an exaggeration.
As I said, I’m not sure Seth has identified the correct mechanism and I think Heisenburg may be on to something with the prebiotic content of honey since that meshes well with RS and improved sleep. The good thing about honey and sleep is it’s harmless and relatively cheap to test.
@Paul
How much honey do you use ? Maybe a teaspoon ?
Thinking of adding that to my RS protocol too before bedtime.
2tbs Potato Starch + 2tsp Psyllium Husks + 1tsp scFOS + 1 cup Kefir + Honey, blended together then chug it
I wanted to see if anyone thought there was anything wrong with this concoction: I take iodine drops and some apple cider vinegar in the morning with water. This morning I added 2 T PS. Wondering if there is some weird chemical reaction that might cancel out some of the effects. I also don’t always have kefir or yogurt in the house. Is water the next best thing to use? I also have raw whole milk too that I could use.
Thanks.
@sootedninjas
I usually use a bit less than a tablespoon, but I haven’t experimented to find the minimum effective dose. That being said, I don’t think there’s any reason it has to be honey. I had about a cup of grapes last night with my PS and it seemed to have the same effect. Doesn’t help clear up the mechanism since both grapes and honey are glucose and fructose monosaccharides with some prebiotic content.
Actually that brings a way to test. I know honey works. I can test table sugar (100% sucrose disaccharide) which also has no prebiotic content. I can also test maple syrup, which has prebiotic content but the sugar is in the form of sucrose rather than glucose and fructose monosaccharides. The final test needed would be some combination of glucose and fructose monosaccharides without prebiotic content, but I’m not sure where to get that.
@Brian
I can’t contribute any insight on weird chemical reactions, but I find that the PS works better for me taken in water rather than kefir. I get bloating when I take it with kefir versus none with water. The reason for taking it with kefir is just so it binds some of the bacteria for a safe trip to the colon. This probably isn’t strictly necessary if you already have some of the good bacteria down there.
@Brian – “I take iodine drops and some apple cider vinegar in the morning with water. This morning I added 2 T PS.”
What happened when you added iodine? It should have turned it instantly black. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine_test
I don’t think this will have any effect, just might be startling.
Thanks Paul and TaterTot. Good to know about water as an ok mixer and yes – the mixture this morning turned Minnesota viking purple….felt like I was back in HS chemistry.
Thanks for sharing this great article. Many of it is part of my daily plan (lentles, beans, rice) Being an Indian and brought up in Indian eating I do tend to love veggies just as much as now being in US and trying meats.
Compounded with great trainer at CrossFit CFT I cannot ask for more and say my gratitude.
-Jin
@Paul, If carbs make you sleep better, then honey has nothing to do with it. But anyway, who wants to eat a 72% carb diet and be a well slept fat-ass? You better have one seriously active lifestyle with a macro ratio like that. My personal belief is that regular intense exercise has far more effect on sleep than anything you could eat, and with all of the other benefits of exercise why even bother with the minutia if you’re not exercising regularly? I’m 51, eat relatively low carb, and have no problem with energy. Lazy people (not saying that’s you) are always looking for that “super food” that will magically transform their body fat, muscles, sleep, energy level, etc., etc. One day it’s honey, the next coconut oil, then next chia seeds, etc. If you’re exercising hard and still having trouble sleeping (and it’s not emotional/stress relate) then OK, test some things out and find out what works for you. If it’s honey in that case, then yeah that’s interesting especially if works for lots of folks.
@Brad
So carbs help, but it’s probably beneficial to look at this on a continuum. If I call 1 feeling like I did not sleep at all and 10 feeling like I’m ready to take on the world, then the story looks like this (assuming RS taken in all cases).
Ketosis: 3
VLC: 4
>200g carb: 6
>200g carb with honey: 8
Carb intake is more of a continuum with no sleep benefit over 200g.
Exercise has never had much of an impact for me with respect to sleep. I used to do nothing and slept fitfully. I used to do crossfit 5-6 days a week and slept fitfully. I trained for a marathon and slept fitfully. I currently do 1 day of crossfit a week, 2 days of 3 sets of pushups to failure, 1 day of 4 minutes tabata sprints, and 1 day of 3 sets of hand stand pushups to failure. Otherwise I am a office worker. Sleep still tends to be fitful unless I add the honey.
I don’t want to get too much in to the macro debate, but I currently eat about 50-70% carb by calorie, am relatively inactive (see above), with a daily intake falling between 2000-3000 calories. I’m 6’3″ and weigh 165 lbs. I’ve never been overweight, even eating SAD, but having been a poorly slept skinny dude I would probably choose well slept fat-ass over that if those were my only two options.
I suspect that the main drivers here (as far as obesity) are avoiding seed oils and having sufficient prebiotic foods to help counter inflammation. Even when I ate SAD I always cooked with butter and ate a significant portion of vegetables. There are lots of examples of fit low carb populations and fit high carb populations so the logical conclusion in my mind is that carb % is not the causal factor. I will say that low carb seems to be very useful in helping someone who is metabolically damaged reset. To bring this back on topic, Richard’s diet seems like it would be a good low inflammation diet. Of course you’ll have the paleo fear of legumes and carbs from some.
Paul, Brad and other sleep-questers,
I’d be interested to know if you have ever tried this quick sleep re-set : work and stay active for 48hrs (do an all-nighter), then got to bed at preferred time and wake naturally without alarm. No research, but decades of personal/family/friends experience behind this – for what it’s worth.
Afterwards, sleep doesn’t seem be as sensitive to diet or exercise or mood or anything much.
Until funky life-style choices eventually deregulate it again…. ;)
Would like to hear any experiences with this, especially if violated any conditions below :
Deceptively simple, so here’s the conditions : must be done before a break so one can sleep afterwards as long as needed naturally with no alarm, and must eat/drink consistently throughout – no starving and no bingeing either.
All bets are off if staring at some screen overnight (tv/computer/tablet….), since over-production of cortisol can be debilitating and eye strain is a game-changer.
Any experience with this?
@Paul, it’s interesting stuff. I was just reading more about honey and oligosaccharides. Much more to these larger sugar polymers than I knew before. One thing I could not find anywhere was the mention of the (quantity) oligo’s in honey. It seems like it would be very small given other monosaccharides in it.
I get where you’re coming from and people really seem to react differently to macro ratios. Last year I was eating low carb paleo and was the leanest I’ve ever been, then I added more rice via PHD template and gained belly fat. I have never had a problem sleeping regardless of my diet, which is much different than you, but I also would have no clue how to gauge (numerically, as you did) my sleep quality. I simply am not that “in tune” with how I feel, I suppose, upon waking. I’m 5’10” and 178 with prob 13-15% body fat (a guess). If I eat much more than about 100g carbs/day I gain belly fat. Only time I started to have a “six pack” was when I was eating low carb and lifting 3 days per week. But I don’t do much of any cardio/fat-burning exercise. Just very intense lifting sometimes with low inter-set rest to hit my heart/respiration rate. I prob eat between 1800-2300 calories/day (another guess).
One thing. The more I read the deeper the subject of prebiotics is. So many different kinds… dextrins, FOS, GOS, etc. There is one helluva book that badly needs to be written.
@Brad,
Do you gain visceral fat with RS rich rice (parboiled, cooked, frozen and reheated) also? I notice puffier belly “pad” overnight if I eat white rice instead of RS rice.
T-Nat
@Paul, just found the breakdown of honey. Now the oligo’s are pretty small (4.2%) compared to some other plant based foods especially on a per-calorie basis, but maybe there is something special about it given it’s source is quite different (nectar). Plus there are some other “-ose” sugars beyond the normal ones – glucose/sucrose/fructose.
Chemical Composition of Honey: http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/webprojects2001/loveridge/index-page3.html
“The carbohydrates present are the monosaccharides fructose (38.2%) and glucose (31%); and disaccharides (~9%) sucrose, maltose, isomaltose, maltulose, turanose and kojibiose. There are also some oligosaccharides present (4.2%), including erlose, theanderose and panose, formed from incomplete breakdown of the higher saccharides present in nectar and honeydew.”
@Brad, it doesn’t say raw or heated. They could be totally different.
T-Nat
@Brad
Interesting stuff. I agree there’s a huge information gap as far as all the different prebiotics and their impact on gut flora. I suspect it will be a while before we know what is the ideal balance for health.
I’m trying to find the breakdown of grapes (since those help my sleep too) but so far just finding glucose and fructose, although in similar ratio as honey depending on ripeness. Hard to speculate the cause and I have to consider it could be placebo effect. It seems like a small amount of food and even smaller amount of prebiotics to have a real impact, but I definitely sleep better. If it’s placebo, well, it’s a neat placebo. If that small amount of prebiotic has that big of an impact, people should probably be very careful with VLC/ketogenic dieting. I still haven’t gotten warm hands back since my venture through that.
Happy New Year Everyone! I just created a new facebook group called Resistant Starch to allow us to get to know each other better and have a more free form discussion on all thing RS/PS.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/resistantstarch/
With the exception of a few tweaks here and there (i.e. sprouted brown rice instead of white, goat dairy instead of cow due to a1 casein intolerance, Anasazi beans instead of Pintos), this is a way-of-eating that appears to be working for me, and yes it does open up a lot of culinary choices. I’m not sure what to call it, though. Maybe the ‘Free the Animal diet’ or Paleo 3.0 since this way-of-eating is an important upgraded version of Paleo that includes safe starches among the grains, tubers, and legumes and excludes the most toxic food choices (wheat, soy, toxic vegetable oils, chemicals, preservatives, etc.).
Hi Richard,
Is it OK to heat the rice after it has been in the fridge over night, or will that destroy the RS?
Thanks
Ben
Two-point-five years of mostly-LC paleo (with the occasional gallon-of-Tillamook-ice-cream binge) has me 45 pounds lighter, great blood pressure, low resting heart rate, and generally healthy & energetic (maybe TOO hyper?), BUT still plagued with middle of the night insomnia, mild Rosacea, and sometimes-debilitating Reynaud’s. Haven’t found anything on the various RS threads concerning Reynaud’s, but am a week into my own n=1 with PS, psyllium, probiotics, and the occasional cold-potato/yoghurt for breakfast. Sleep already intermittently better, but am frequently wakened by “barking spiders” (aka “aggressive flatulence”, “horse farts” etc). Do hope that this side effect resolves soon — I’m a trial lawyer. The thought of a courtroom explosion (or six) is daunting.
Anybody else in this biosphere have Reynaud’s?
Kate
You made me smile with the thought of farting for dramatic flare at just the right moment during a trial.
“Is that what you think?” “PhhhhhhhhhhT”
“Your honor, I object” “Overruled” “Braaaaaaaaatt”
OK, on the Reynaud’s. There’s people who have Reynaud’s for real and there’s people who give it to themselves by eating low carb and trashing their metabolism…I had the latter for about 2 years.
I would notice 2 or 3 fingers on one hand would go white and get numb with just the slightest chilling, like reaching in a cooler full of ice or washing the car with cold water from the hose. It would just effect 1 or 2 fingers and would last maybe 15-20 minutes, flailing and massaging fingers helped a bit. This got worse and worse as I went lower and lower carbs. It got to the point where gripping a cold steering wheel would cause 2-3 fingers on each hand to go numb while driving.
As soon as I adopted Perfect Health Diet carb levels it went away and hasn’t come back.
What about the thyroid?
Initially the adrenals will ramp up to make up for the low thyroid so a person can feel energetic but then need a major down time to recover.
Eventually the adrenals poop out too.
Something worth looking into if you haven’t already.
TaterTot ~ VERY encouraging. Thanks. I was first diagnosed with Reynaud’s when I was a sixteen, back in the Swingin’ Sixties and long before my adventures down the Atkins trail. The diagnosis has been consistent. No thyroid issues have ever been diagnosed, so I’m guessing I really do have it. But LC sure makes it worse!
Sounds like you have the real-deal then.
I work at a hospital in northern Alaska. They have been doing experiments with Reynaud’s where they have people repeatedly dip their hands in warm water while dressed lightly in cold weather, it somehow trains the CNS to respond correctly. I think I heard that they can prevent flares of Reynaud’s for quite some time with 20-30 of these sessions.
http://www.bendomd.com/404-raynauds-syndrome-remedies.html
This explains it better. There may even be some published papers by now.
WOW, TaterTot, just WOW. My hands soak frequently in warm water — but only after they’ve gotten so white and numb that I have to stop what I’m doing. I also drink a lot of hot water. I live in eastern Washington state, and winters are a real bummer — no walking, hiking, cross country skiing, or even riding horses in a drafty covered arena. Spring here, but still in the high 30s/low 40s part of the day, so I’ll have a chance to try this out.
Are your patients on the RS program as well? >^..^<
Hey KAWAM, are you my twin or something?
I suddenly had this white and numb fingers after only 5 months of LC (I ditched gluten and all added sugars and starchy vegetables, and added all the good fats etc. in April 2013) to cure my migraines. What a relief. I am migraine-free for a year.
But, long term LC (5 months in my case) was no good for me, I should have known better. In September, I observed absolutely diminished hunger (is that what the anorectics feel?) and when the weather got colder, suddenly, sometimes white and numb left middle finger.
Luckily, I read here what Spanish Caravan and Tim and others were writing. I forced myself to eat more and after studying all the stuff about carbohydrates, I added RS and beans and potatoes, etc. Now, I feel the best in my life. Occasionally, I feel the finger going cold again, I guess if I do not eat enough calories or no RS. With the next meal, I take RS and some fresh ginger tea, and I feel warm again.
Hope that helps, I am thankful to everybody here.
Gemma ~ After about a month of adding RS/probiotics I still get several episodes a week, but less often/severe. I’m adding Reynaud’s episodes to my n=1 journal so that I’ll have objective data for “before RS/after RS” comparison. Much warmer weather here is also a factor, although I can go all white-finger in a warm room in August. As I noted to in my response to Tim, I was diagnosed with Reynaud’s when I was sixteen, long before LC entered my life. And I still prefer to eat RS/probiotic-enhanced LC, but with carbs around 75-100 grams instead of the VVVVLC of my past-life.
Richard, how dare you recommend beans!
Is there anything detrimental about taking the four tablespoons of potato starch in two doses? I’ve found that for me, 4 tbsp at once = gassy, 2 tbsp twice a day = not so gassy. I know that the gas eventually “passes” (so to speak), but if dividing the doses results in less overall, it seems a good way to get acclimated. Unless, there is another reason not to do that which I am unaware of. (Hence my question.)
No prob, in fact may be preferable. The whole thing boils down to getting gut bugs to convert the potato starch into butyrate and other byproducts that are beneficial to you and to other gut bugs.
One reason it’s best to take the PS along with other fibers, is that the other fibers will slow the fermentation a bit and allow the PS to travel further distally letting more gut bugs get in on the action.
Picture a pen full of chickens. If you just throw small handfuls of corn throughout the day, it will be the biggest, baddest chickens at the front of the flock who hog all the corn. If, instead, you chuck a whole shovelful of corn, sunflower seeds, and oats into the pen, all the chickens will eat and the flock will be healthier overall.
In the normal SAD way of eating, what little RS we get from potato chips, tacos, or potato salad gets ‘hogged’ up in the cecum by resident gut bugs, the other 4.5 feet of colon end up full of scrawny chickens looking for scarps.
Excellent, thanks for the fast reply. Once the (admittedly smaller and less frequent) chemical attacks die off, I’ll likely switch to the full 4 tbsp all in one dose.
I’m genuinely interested – not trying to challenge you!
You advise us to limit our added fat – why? If I’m eating a lot of resistant starch and fermentable fibers, is there anything unhealthy about eating fat?
James, I’m not anti fat at all, I just see no need of benefit in loading on heaps of added fat. 50%ish of calories ought to be plenty.
Plus, they are pretty lame on terms of nutrients other than fatty acids. So, little vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and no soluble fiber.
Or, look at it this way. Mammalian milk is about 50% fat. Seems reasonable.
I’ve been gluten free for about 6 years, fairly low carb, Paleo for over a year which successfully controlled hypoglycemia. I got to where I almost stopped eating because I got so sick of Paleo but was afraid to change my diet because of the hypoglycemia. So I read about RS and I’ve been doing potato starch for a couple of months with no GI issues after the first week. I’m up to 4 tablespoons a day taken with probiotics and triphala. I’ve added a little cooked and cooled rice, beans and potatoes back to my diet and feel pretty good, however, I just got the results of a blood screening back today which showed elevated potassium and fasting glucose. Liver and kidney is good. According to what I’ve read, beef, chicken, fish, most vegetables, beans and nuts are all high in potassium – basically, my diet. RS is supposed to be good for glucose control but I believe it is quite high in potassium. It looks like all I should be eating is boiled rice with scraps of meat and bits of veggies. So I’m confused. I’m wondering if I should continue with the RS with the hopes it will bring down my fasting glucose and then alter my diet to reduce the potassium levels. I believe increasing the triphala may also have a cleansing effect that might flush out the excess potassium. Any information would be appreciated.
Sandra, is there any possibility that you were dehydrated somewhat when the blood was taken?
Also, have they done another sampling? For example:
PSEUDOHYPERKALEMIA
Pseudohyperkalemia occurs when laboratory reports of potassium do not reflect actual values. The most common cause is lysis of red cells in a phlebotomy specimen. Other causes are listed in Table 32,3. Potassium released from platelets can lead to spuriously high levels of potassium in a blood sample allowed to clot to collect serum. Pseudohyperkalemia can be excluded by repeating the sample collection as atraumatically as possible and obtaining serum and plasma potassium levels. In patients with pseudohyperkalemia, the plasma potassium will be normal in the face of an elevated serum potassium.
I suppose the dehydration is possible. The phlebotomist said my vein was difficult to find and I have been doing “hot” yoga 3 days a week and it’s hard to drink enough water to hydrate properly.
I don’t know about the pseudohyperkalemia. I have my blood tests done annually and I’ve never had elevated potassium before but I’ll mention it to my doctor. She’s having me redo the tests next week so I’ll be sure to be well hydrated. Thanks for the information.
FWIW, labs about 3 months after starting RS showed my K (potassium) level was 5.9 (ref range 3.5 – 5.1). One year later, it’s 4.9.
Looking back at old labwork from even pre-paleo days, K was always on high end.
Yeah, sounds like you may have been dehydrated. That will increase both the glucose and the potassium.
Do you use salt in your cooking? Balance is all. Potassium : sodium ratio in the diet should be 2 : 1. It can be higher, of course. But should not be lower.
BTW, do you know what your blood pressure was at the time? I’d hazard a guess: it was low.
Recently I bought some fruit vinegar from the Korean supermarket. It used to be popular in the United States years ago, called shrub. I add a very little to water when I’m at work and the flavour encourages me to drink more fluids. Otherwise I get quite dehydrated so urine is dark yellow by the end of the day.
I find not drinking enough fluid during the day increases various aches and pains as well.
The fruit vinegar, like backberry or raspberry taste good. There’s apple and plum and other stuff too.
And there’s also the claim that drinking vinegar is good for a person. I don’t think I add enough to make it a therapeutic dose. I’m just glad I can drink something that encourages fluid consumption. I don’t drink coffee or soda or herbal tea, so the fruit vinegar appears to hit the spot.
It does sound like a possible link.
I do use Himalayan pink salt. But based on the potassium levels of the food I normally eat, I’d guess that my salt usage is probably too low. My blood sodium was at the low end of the normal range. Potassium, I read, is counteracted by sodium, which, I’m guessing is why doctors tell hypertensive patients to reduce their salt intake because low potassium can cause high blood pressure and too much salt can cause low potassium. I don’t know what my bp was at the time my blood was drawn.
…and, when I get out of yoga I’m covered with salt from sweating so perhaps that has something to do with my high K. We’re always encouraged to limit our salt intake but I may not be replacing enough of it.
I have had ulcerative colitis for over 10 years and a friend of mine had told me about RS starch which I have been doing for the past 2 + weeks. I dont know if this is working for me, but I have cramping, diarhea, smelly farts, stools not solid almost like I am having a flare up minus the bleeding and mucos stools. There is pain in my lower left abdomen and not sure if this is my gut trying to heal, or making it worse?? What is going on? Is this supposed to go like this, or is it just not working for me? I take 1 heaping Tablespoon of Bobs red mill PS with water along with the probiotics you suggest at night before I go to bed and early in the AM when I wake up. Any insigt on this would be greatly appreciated because Im not sure if I should continue or not? Thank You
@BJ Olson
Cannot give medical advice but perhaps you might like to read what commenter Eddie has to say in this post:
freetheanimal.com/2014/06/refining-resistant-content.html
BJ
Are you targeting any of the RS foods?
Also, you might try using only one of the probiotics at a time, for a week, say, see if there’s a difference between them.
Always give yourself a rest of 1-3 days per week with no supplements.
Experiment.
Thank You so much. I will give it a try..
Have a question? When is the best time to take your Bobs red Mill Potato starch/Green Banana Flour/probiotics? Empty stomach, with food, morning, evening? Maybe I missed that some where on the website, or posts, but I am not seeing it?? Thank you for your help:)
Weighing in on resistant starch:
Item: Bob’s Red Mill All Natural Potato Starch, Unmodified
Status: freshly opened package
Volume: 1 level tablespoon
Weight: 10.0 grams
Balance Calibration @ 100 g = 100.0 g
My local grocery store carry’s a brand of pre-made mashed potatoes in the refrigerated section called ‘Simply Potatoes’. The ingredients are only mashed potatoes, cream, butter, and some type of preservative. Am I right in assuming that this should contain RS3? It should contain a decent amount of RS since its been cooked, cooled, and eventually re-cooked. What do you think? Also, trader joe’s has frozen mashed potatoes and frozen roasted potatoes- probably all high RS3?
Is it okay to use Bob’s Red Mill Tapioca Flour (http://www.bobsredmill.com/tapioca-flour.html)? It says on the package it’s also known as Tapioca starch.
Quick question – any reason why white rice is preferred over brown rice?
My thinking has changed. Brown rice may be better. See the recent articles on the blog about iron overload and fortification.
I have just now heard of the RS possibilities. I bought the raw potato starch and will be adding it to my diet starting today. As I am reading the above post, I notice that there is only one post since October 2014. Are there any new updates I should know about? Apparently all that I read seemed to have been written a couple of years ago.
Thanks for any advice/help
Joanie
Lots over at my place!
From yesterday: http://www.vegetablepharm.blogspot.com/2015/09/new-study-rs2-and-gut-inflammation-in.html
You are all crazy if you love this website. This website tries to preach the perfect diet but it gets out of hand real quick. “Look out for crazy”, as it will save me a bunch of time here. Good luck all of you! Hire a moderator?
This website does not try to preach the perfect diet.
We hate moderators.
Hi Richard,
Someone on a Mercola comment recommended your site and I’m so glad they did. I’ve been trying to find more info on RS for a while, then gave up. Most of my 20’s-40’s I carried an extra 35 pounds. Of course, there was the big low fat fail. The Atkins fail (I wasn’t digesting protein for decades) Then I tried straight 1,200-1,500 cal/day, but high sugar. Didn’t lose. Finally found the glycemic index because I wanted (needed) some grain. I dropped 35 pounds practically overnight, by pretty much eating paleo, low carb, high cal, high fat and not even knowing I was doing RS. Since barely has the lowest grain GI index, I took whole barely, cooked until just chewy and refrigerated a weeks worth. For breakfast I had cold barely with nuts, blueberries, coconut and some cream. Sometimes eggs. The rest of the day was salads, veggies, meats; whole food. That was 10 years ago. Eventually, an ongoing bout with Lyme and weight gained back.
So, I spent most of the day and late into the night reading your blog and your book. But what info I can’t find is the exact crossover or difference between your book on paleo and now RS. The book says no grains, no beans, high fat. The RS starch posts state rice, beans (cooked, chilled and reheated) OK, and limited fat. I guess what I’m looking for is a page that states something like, “In my book I recommended…., but I’ve found that if you do……..it works even better because……”
I’m sure it’s in your site somewhere, I just haven’t found it. And our family wants to start losing Labor day. (Just order potato, banana and plantain starch).
My husband (52) needs to drop 15 pounds and dramatically lower his bp (his diet is worse than SAD). Our son (18) needs to drop 40 pounds and wants to join the military, his diet is SAD. I need to drop 30 pounds and my current diet is SAD, but hasn’t always been. I know we can do it paleo, low carb, but I’d like to add in the RS…….so many more options.
I have found this current page and “A gut Microbiome” most helpful. Are there some other to-the-point pages I”m missing? I’ll keep Trumping through them. Also, any updates since these pages as far as recommended pro-biotics?
Thank you!
Well that’s the problem with books. Knowledge and perspectives change, book stays the same.
So yea, not only potatoes and legumes, true whole grains as well. Always unenriched, non-fortified.
I have some observations to contribute to this thread. I have baked with Hi-Maize RS and regular all-purpose flour b4. The result is completely different. It was a simple fruit torte but while the regular flour torte came out burnt on the sides the Hi-Maize Rs torte looked like I did not exceed the cooking time at all. The crust was not charred or burnt anywhere. The crust was a nice tan or brown color at most while the all-purpose was black on some sides. The HM RS torte was also much easier to cut and slide off the pan while the all purpose burned and cooked into the pan and had to be scrubbed off after. I was very impressed.
But it made me think of 2 things – one that somehow due to the degree of crystallization or gelatinization of the Hi-Maize (maybe) it seemed like a superior RS to PS or maybe even Cassava (cos their texture to me is very similiar) to be able to resist baking heat while PS cannot.
It also made me think of something SpanishCaravan said somewhere else on here where he/she said that even though mung bean starch has less RS2 per gram it is maybe better formed RS which made this person conclude that it is an even more better quality of RS than PS or Caasava starch.
Just curious Richard if ‘supplementing’ with raw starch is essential. I have been using plenty of tapioca for about a year now. Of course after being LC it left a wonderful tingling feeing in the mouth from all that starch that felt absolutely criminal… but hits the belly like a bomb which you get used to. No cravings for more. Doesn’t fell like any sugar spike to me. Very filling satisfying, however mine is maybe more of a bomb because I always want nutrient content so:
foccacia, pizza, crepes, rolls-whatever with plenty of egg and bone broth.
One thing that I was afraid of was putting on weight but this never happened. Helps with the household budget too!
I’m just wondering, when cooked and mixed with other fats/proteins whether or not it produces the same positive results in the gut.
kathi:
Two things. First, you can’t cook with any of these if getting RS is your goal (if not, fine, they all hve gluten free application). Second, nobody seems to know the RS content of tapioca starch, so it’s an unknown. At any rate check out the RS primer post:
https://freetheanimal.com/2013/12/resistant-primer-newbies.html
Since olive oil is mentioned here and is used by many primal/paleo and paleoish people, it’s worth noting that it’s essential you make sure you purchase REAL olive oil as the vast majority of “extra virgin olive oil” sold in stores is adulterated with soy and other nasty refined oils. Some don’t even contain ANY olive oil at all. Don’t trust labels on any olive oil from Italy. Check out the following for more info:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/is-your-olive-oil-really-olive-oil/#axzz2yXoJBIm3
I find it best it buy locally grown olive oil here in Texas. Once I tasted the real thing, the difference is amazing.
I wish this would be talked about more in the paleosphere…there are a lot of people unknowingly still eating crappy oils when they think they’re eating healthier…..