This is so huge that I’m beginning to believe that what Tim “Tatertot” Steele and I have been promoting in therms of Resistant Starch—via nearly 50 posts and thousands of comments since last April—may constitute nothing short of a revolution for 300 million diabetics worldwide, 30 million in the US. Of course, if it works for diabetics, you don’t even need to ask whether it’s beneficial for virtually everyone in terms of blood glucose stability alone.
Steve Cooksey, long time friend and Type 2, went kicking and screaming into his own test that will be reported on soon. But, after seeing his initial results, induced some other diabetics to try. The first, Allison Herschede, is a lifelong Type 1. She has an insulin pump and continuous glucose monitoring that captures the data.
Let me just punch line it for you. Here’s her typical recent data over a day, with the green zone being a normal range of 65-120 mg/dl. The pump provides baseline insulin, and she has to dose depending upon meal composition.
Normal Day (click to enlarge)
Here’s what happened after she began supplementing with resistant starch via potato starch.
4 TBS Resistant Starch via Potato Starch Daily (click to enlarge)
Now, go check out the whole cool story.
Please do all diabetics and favor and pass this and Steve’s post far and wide.
Cool!
As more and more information on the human microbiome and the effects of prebiotics and probiotics on human health come to light, I keep coming back to something I read about Humans just being elaborate vessels for the propagation of microbes… Certainly a little scary to think about, but doesn’t seem far from the truth considering that we are 99% microbe from a genetic perspective and that these bugs seem to largely determine both our mental and physiological health.
I have to say this blog has gotten a lot more interesting since the reststant starch thing.
Wow.
Further; Excerpt from this page (Steve Cooksey):
http://www.diabetes-warrior.net/2011/02/25/giving-credit-to-richard-nikoley/
“….As I learned about all things primal, I wanted to TELL THE WORLD what I had found…. so I did. At the time, I knew what paleo/primal had done for me…. but I was a ‘baby grok’ and was still learning and growing in my knowledge. I did not feel comfortable going on the offensive against “trained diabetes educators”…. I was still being nice. :)…”
That sounds exactly what we/I experienced beginning this year when – discovered an easy approach to revolutionize first aid in seizures, after more than 30 ears of no help.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3017646/#!po=1.y78571
Doctors, epilepsy advocacy groups, hospitals,…. etc. contacted. Experience?: They don’t want to know, take NO risk (to loose the business), do nothing for patients, except the part that makes money in “farming” all the ill sheople.
Health is not an issue in sickness industries.
Tim, Richard, of course you’ll have to share with Grace now; :-) We are! talking Nobel now.
Peace.
“This is so huge that I’m beginning to believe that what Tim “Tatertot” Steele and I have been promoting”
Wow! I’m starting to believe it, too. I have a couple questions, though–is potato starch the same thing as potato flour? What about just eating regular wheat flour? How much RS in an apple?
Aren’t you glad we answered all those questions a million times each?
Richard/Tim, Amazing. You probably can’t even imagine how many people this will help (obviously way more than just diabetics).
I think you guys need to create a YouTube video that explains all this to the masses. If it went viral, it would change the face of Diabetes and metabolic treatments everywhere.
This is an interesting theory “The Key Cause of Diabetes is low oxygen in cells due to heavy breathing”
http://artour.hubpages.com/hub/The-Key-Cause-of-Diabetes-Low-Oxygen-in-Cells-due-to-Heavy-Breathing-247
I have improved my health a lot by breathing from the nose instead of the mouth and breathe less overall.
So this is a type 1 diabetic who produces tiniest of endogenous insulin and must rely on external insulin to control BG. I’m gonna assume here that she’s using the same amount of insulin as before, since PS doesn’t raise BG.
If so, then RS has the same effect on insulin, whether external or endogenous. And this makes it very clear. RS makes you insulin-sensitive, period. It doesn’t matter whether you’re Type 1 or Type 2 or Prediabetic or Normal. It will make you insulin-sensitive.
But that leaves out two camps: (1) the non-diabetic ketogenic/VLC dieters who barely raise their insulin due to their near zero carb intake and (20 Type 2 diabetics not on insulin who are controlling BG through VLC/ketogenic diets.
So now we can make a reasonable reference. If RS has some insulin (whether injected or internally-generated) to work with, it will make you insulin-sensitive. If there isn’t much insulin to work with, like some of us here whose post-prandials did not benefit much, then it’s not as effective.
@DD – No, what we need to do is delete all these posts, throw up a pay wall and charge for our miracle cure! Who wants to be first?
Just kidding — that’s a good idea, my whole thing from the very start was to publicize a dirt-cheap intervention for improving gut flora and reaping the rewards.
Thank you. Truly, thank you.
Another thing is that, if she’s taking the same amount of insulin as before, she will have to reduce the dose, as she breached 50 twice. Insulin is more effective with RS and you can become hypoglycemic quickly. Use less insulin and maintain blood sugar and also watch out for hypoglycemia.
well I keep telling people and posting the links to stuff like this post on facebook, but nobody EVER responds. It’s such a miracle cure-all that people just assume it’s another “One Weird Trick” come-on. And my girlfriend seems like she is simply NEVER going to even start taking tbsp’s of PS because I warned her about the farting. I’m sure this is the ONLY reason she is not doing it. By the way – she is hyperthyroid: does anyone know if she’d be helped by this?
Spanish:
I believe it say in Steve’s post she reduced insulin by half. Not sure that was before of after that particular data set.
Spanish, I think she already cut her dose by half and still went hypo a few times-
From her story: “even after only a week, her insulin sensitivity or her glucose processing has indeed improved because she was able to take HALF her normal bolus insulin for the 30 grams of vegetables with only a minimal blood sugar spike to 110 mg/dl.”
So it’s not just a little bit of improved ins sensitivity but a HUGELY improved ins sensitivity.
On the hypo front, I can vouch for it. In the initial days of my PS supplementation, only 1 – 2T on empty would throw me into brief hypo but I didn’t connect the dots at that time. I would take the PS immediately before a round of ping pong with my son and I’d start getting a little dizzy after about 20 minutes. It has since stabilized and now I am upto 3T without any issues. I think after a few months of supping with PS, we may actually see our blood sugars REGULATED in the optimal ranges for the most part of the day. I am talking about normal or pre-diabetics here.
Also, I am noticing that my visceral fat pad is getting thinner. Abs are getting more visible without flexing and no change in food intake or activity. But as you can imagine this is a much slower process but a very nice side benefit to me.
T-Nat
I’ve also noticed that I’m still able to sleep through the night on 4 tbs of PS dispite having a cold. Wondering if taking PS will able quicken the healing process as well.
From Steve Cooksey’s post:
“Yes, she did have a couple of lows that are worrisome…. but this is due to the INCREASED Insulin sensitivity or Glucose Processing. She can (and will) adapt to this by adjusting her basal insulin rates!”
The above plan is in addition to cutting her bolus dose by half.
Bernhard, that’s really very interesting about the 5% CO2.
I’d like your view on the 10 year old with cerebral palsy: when she gets a fever she gets a seizure. If she’s overheated she gets seizures. The CP resulted from lack of oxygen to the brain during birth. She’s done better with sleep since I recommended to raise the head end of the bed to facilitate ease of breathing and to permit her to sleep in her preferred position: prone. The damaged brain appears to have difficulties when, I’d assumed, O2 sat scores go down with elevated body temp. What you are claiming is that O2 therapy would make things worse at these times?
Henk, if type 2 diabetics have oodles of intra-abdominal and neck fat, then this would restrict diaphragmatic movement. They’d have no choice but to upper chest breathe which increases sympathetic tone, increases adrenalin, increases glucose dumping from the liver when blood levels go down. Same with the night time O2 sats: apnea will reduce O2 sats considerably and for prolonged periods of time. I’ve seen sleep study reports with 55 second apneas. So yes, then there is overbreathing to compensate, high heart rate, high BP, more adrenalin, more blood glucose………….around and round we go. Atrial fibs, the heart throws clots to the brain, stroke…….
Not sure though that Type 2s are routinely mouthbreathers. A person can be shallow breathing and still breathing through the nose.
Vagal stim results in nasal congestion and etc. GI dysbiosis affects the vagus nerve. Let’s get back to the gut microbiome.
I’m not diabetic, but I’ve had a HUGE improvement in my blood glucose control since starting raw PS. Am now finding I don’t need to eat as often, and don’t get the hypoglemic “Must eat NOW’ feeling.
Also, as another commenter experienced, I am losing weight without consciously trying to. I’m pretty happy about that side-effect! That said, I don’t believe resistant starch is any sort of weight-loss magic bullet.
Diabetic on insulin here, checking back in with an update. I am continuing to have the best FBG I have ever had in the 20 years since I was first diagnosed! I have dropped from fasting numbers in the 140’s or 130’s to low 100s and even high 90s. Due to the dawn phenomenon I have NEVER been able to get a FBG as low as 97 before, no matter how few carbs I ate or how much insulin I injected. This is just amazing!
Warning: I have gone hypo several times since starting the potato starch, not first thing in the morning, but later in the day. I am monitoring carefully and making adjustments in my basal and bolus insulin doses. If you are on insulin and decide to start experimenting with potato starch, PLEASE be careful and monitor your bg frequently!
Anyone notice big changes from RS in their poop? I think I’ve got a big volume increase and a noticeable temperature increase also. I assume these changes are both due to increased bacterial activity in the lower intestine.
She reduced a “bolus” shot after a meal — *not* the basal insulin from the pump. The significance of that is that she had an expectation of a BG spike in the 200 range but the actual spike was in the 110 range.
I was one of the early adopters on this whole resistant starch and potato starch thing. And posts like this still get me super excited about it. Excellent job, both Richard and Tim.
@bornagain – I’m hoping to see changes in bowel movements, that’s my reason for trying RS. I don’t have blood sugar problems.
Definitely having change of Bristol type, color, and timing. I’m also using VSL#3, Prescript-Assist, and psyllium so it’s impossible to know which one or which combination is having the effect.
Is the temperature increase you mention overall body or colon?
@Bob R,
Not sure if your comment was in response to mine, but the quote I posted did not say she had reduced her basal insulin; it said she “planned” to because of some hypoglycemic responses she had. Fine tuning and all that.
I’m sure this has been said before, but it’s only a matter of time before those “one weird little trick” marketing people get hold of RS and fuck it up.
This is impressive. Maybe dividing the dose into four (yeah, four smaller gulps of near-flavorless starch in water) will work better for me too (type 1 since 1970).
Feces are different: bulkier, and defecation is less frequent but with heroic volumes. I’m going to keep taking the RS.
Great results, good graphs.
Speaking of which ;
can we get a 12-month graph of the price of Bob’s PS? … :O
DISPATCHES FROM THE WAR ON INSULIN RESISTANCE:
Well, I don’t know if the old bod just turned another corner or what, but here’s the deaL Wednesday evening I was at a potluck where I ate perhaps a cup of my delicious Cuban yellow rice w/ peas. When I got home two hours later, my BG was still over 140! Ouch.
Today I ate the leftover, 5 ounces, 38 grams of starchy carbohydrate. Fifty minutes later, which is usually my peak BG time, it was only 101!
Is that PS something or what?
Got some Asian store potato starch, “Product of USA.” Twelve ounces for $1.59. Half the weight of Bob’s per package, but far less than half the price. Effectively, $3.18 vs. $4.59 at Hole Foods. That’s less than 6 cents per tablespoon. Think Big Pharma will idly stand by? Cure diabetes for a few dimes a day?
Yup, I’m sure it’s starch. They also had a potato flour, so there was differentiation. The nutrition label showed zero vitamins etc., another good indicator.
The nutrional labels are a bit different. I think it’s because Bob rates it at 30 grams, Kim Tu Thap uses 50 grams. With Bob, anything under 1 unit of whatever, doesn’t have to show. That’s the way the standards work. But maybe at 50 grams, two things do: 1 gram of sugar and 2 grams of protein. Or, maybe just more accurate and/or honest.
Now, the taste test. Did what it should, just drop to the bottom of the cup. The flavor is very slightly different, and the grains seem to be smaller, smoother, or something. (The starch seemed to pack or stack a bit differently from Bob’s.)
A slightly better experience, I would say. Maybe that guy a few weeks back who found Bob’s “gritty,” would approve of this one.
I went to the Asian store, not so much to look to save money, but to be able to buy PS at all! Last time at WF, I got the only bag on the shelf. Previous visit, the last two. Bob owes you guys a commish!
Wow, wow, wow! The results folks have been reporting from RS are the best I’ve seen for any dietary therapy, including Paleo. My own blood glucose numbers are better than ever before (they worsened with LCHF). Thanks again Richard and Tatertot Tim for your tireless efforts.
Pzo, I’m curious to know of your BG testing with that PS. I’ve done with another Asian brand and there was a slight glycemic response; I can’t tell whether it’s significant. It was like this and it’s similar to Wendy’s experience with a kosher PS she bought. I’m curious.
Start: 86
15 min: 98
30 min: 107
45 min: 97
60 min: 86
I’ve been taking RS for nearly 3 weeks now, but haven’t been very diligent in recording my results. I did record a test similar to yours, however, and found that the spike was just delayed. I had the exact same weighed amount of turkey and potatoes one day and then the next after freezing the potatoes and reheating. I found that the spike was similar, but at 1 hour the first day, and at 2 hours after the potatoes had been frozen.
I’m a type 2 diabetic on Metformin. In general, I’d say my blood sugars are lower. Equally great is improved mood. Pretty much a lifelong depressive, usually the holidays are a time when I’m especially fighting the blues. This year when I take the PS at night, I wake up with an explicable sense of general well being. I’m hoping for more good effect yet when I start taking SBOs.
@pzo
Starch granules vary in size, structue and content depending not only on plant species (potato, corn, wheat atc) but also on variety/cultivar, tuber size, the soil it was grown in, time from harvest to processing (storage time) and many other variables.
So, the same brand of starch you buy a couple of months later may come from the same producer of starch, but is very likely to come from another farm, field, growing season etc. So it would be reasonable advice to stock on a package that “feels good” and the probability is high that it comes from the same patch of field or at least a production batch.
Some studies:
“Certain combined characteristics of cellular structure and starch properties provide distinctions between varieties of potatoes and bear strong relation to their culinary qualities. Larger tissue cells and larger average starch granules are associated with mealiness. Smaller cells and starch granules characterize the less mealy and “waxy” varieties.”
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02863154
“Starches from different sources vary from one another in the following ways–each of which may affect performance:
Granule size and shape. Starch granules come in a wide variety of sizes ranging from 3 microns to over 100 microns. With some starches the granule size is polymodal, meaning the granules can be grouped into more than one size range. Wheat starch, for example, has a distribution of both large and small granules. Granule shape also can be diverse. Granule shapes include symmetrical spheres, asymmetrical spheres, symmetrical disks and asymmetrical disks. Some granules exhibit their shape smoothly, while others are polyhedrons with a faceted surface.
Amylose:amylopectin ratio. All starches are made up of varying proportions of amylose and amylopectin. This ratio varies not only among the different types of starch, but among the many plant varieties within a type. Waxy starches are those that have no more than 10% amylopectin.
Structure of the amylose and amylopectin molecules. The length of the amylose molecules in a starch – known as its degree of polymerization – can vary tremendously. In amylopectin, the length and number of branches on the molecule are just as variable. ”
http://www.foodproductdesign.com/articles/1996/01/understanding-starch-functionality.aspx
“starch granule degradation during potato storage”
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02358726#page-1
“Storage of potato tubers at 4 C causes degradation of starch and accumulation of free sugars (sucrose, glucose, and fructose). These changes are minimized when the tubers are stored at 25 C”
http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/47/4/465.full.pdf
@caravan: On either this thread or another RS one, someone observed the same thing. I’ve not done what you’ve suggested, maybe because I’ve assumed all along that there will be some minor, short term response. Using the Asian brand’s nutritional info, my usual 4tbsp dose will include 2 or more grams of sugar and 4 or more of protein. Not a lot, but there.
And I’m not convinced that 100% of the starch is resistant. For reasons like you point out.
@ Gabriella Don’t know much about CP. Do know about seizures. Seizures actually, I got to understand, are a “friend”, a body reaction to prevent worse (which would be cell death large scale). Temperature does have an important role in seizures, one obvious reason being heavier breathing (breathing off too much CO2). It is easy to control temperature but, in sleep – going through sleep cycles – adjusting/ lowering covers. In fever use wet compresses applied to feet, soaked in cool water with a good dash of vinegar, change and re-soak when fever rises too high again. Prone position. Of course this can be a good positioning for sleep. I for my part am concerned when people with nocturnal seizures sleep on their belly unless there is a sleep companion highly alert to wake on every seizure incidence to take care the patient continues breathing. O2 therapy wont do much good unless you use partial CO2 re- breathing (Bohr effect, vasodilation) and then you don’t need O2 in the first place. I would like to invite you to friend me on facebook, my surname is Rohrbeck. There is a highly knowledgeable group called “diets for epilepsy” I will also invite you to join this group, you’ll find documentation of a group working with kids having CP (and obviously working successfully so, think they recently expanded to the US).
Breathing re- training makes a lot! a sense. To be short, nose – belly, diaphragmatic breathing, it is a huge difference whether the diaphragm pumps the lymph 20k a day or not, whether the intestines are physically “massaged” 20k a day or not.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoracic_duct#Function
Spent a year or so, watching how people breathe (wasn’t always funny when “staring” at chests, esp. some women gave me bad stares back, lol. Thing is, we breathe wrong, next to all of us.
Of course, back to topic of symbiosis :-)
@ Henk Do agree.
Peace.
Well, I checked my Amazon shipping history. I purchased a 4 pack a few months back (Amazon Prime shipping eligible). The 4 pack were 24 oz. bags. The total cost was $13.56. Now, the only potato starch I could find Amazon Prime eligible (it’s not sold by Amazon, only fulfilled by Amazon) is $10 for ONE 24 oz. bag.
“Storage of potato tubers at 4 C causes degradation of starch and accumulation of free sugars (sucrose, glucose, and fructose). These changes are minimized when the tubers are stored at 25 C”
@Gemma – Interesting. I’ve been storing my PS in the refrigerator. Looks like that’s not good for the starch. What are others doing?
My PS is on the kitchen counter in big Ziploc bag.
I’m pretty sure (like 100%) that storing PS in fridge is OK. The deal with starch changing to sugar is an adaptation of living potatoes to create an enery source to prevent freezing and continue living. Same as putting potatoes in the sunlight–they turn green and concentrate their poisions to prevent their starch from being degraded by the sun–putting potato starch in the sun is no problem.
But, I keep mine in the pantry or on the cupboard. There’s no reason to refrigerate it.
Bernhard, will do. I’m going to communicate with the parents. Possibly the mother will take on board some new information.
Bernhard, there are two people on Facebook with same name.
@Gabriella The one with the two people seated (and their heads cut off) in the pic.
@Tatertot – Thanks Tim! I put it in the fridge because the instructions on the bag say to do so. I believe all the Bob’s say this, I have tapioca, arrowroot, almond, etc… and they are all in the fridge. It would certainly be nicer to not have to put them in the fridge.
Regarding the price of the starch on Amazon: there’s a great site called Camel Camel Camel that shows you the price history of any product on Amazon (plus NewEgg and Best Buy). The starch has been pretty stable when sold by Amazon itself:
http://camelcamelcamel.com/Bobs-Red-Mill-Potato-24-Ounce/product/B004VLVCGU
Good link Anthony, $13 for 24 ounces. That’s a pound and a half.
I’m getting 500g of Kosher Farina potato flour, which is potato starch for £1.39 = $2.28
so for 24 ounces that’d be $3.10 …
that makes Bob’s look like a real moneyspinner!
Doh! 4-pack.
Same price as here, as near as anything.
I’ll get me coat.
be careful potato flour does not necessarily means potato starch
I hope this is as huge as it sounds. My daughter has been struggling with T1 diabetes for almost 14 years and she is excited to try the PS. Questions: How much did Allison’s Total Daily Insulin drop–how many units/day did she use before and after PS? Also, did she take her 1TB 4x/day on an empty stomach or with meals and does this matter? I assume that taking PS after meals wouldn’t be as effective as before.
Note:
1) Allison’s been traveling out of town long distance (in a van) with a sick family, she’s also been sick. Her numbers were not as ‘pretty’as in the original post.
2) Due to her previously mentioned hormonal issues her doctor asked her to increase her carb intake. She typically very low carb and she’s bumped them up somewhat. (I’ll try to get more solid info)
3) I spoke to her yesterday and she was back ‘on track’ with her BG/Insulin and was running 70-90 mg/dl all day yesterday.
Having said all that, here was her reply to a similar question a couple of days ago.
“I am a type 1 and had a C-Peptide run just for fun a couple months ago and I make absolutely ZERO insulin so I’m pretty sure my insulin levels aren’t up. I have decreased total insulin by an average of 3 units a day.”
She took a couple of TBS one at a time, I think after the first she no longer had a ‘bump’ so she now takes them (2) TBS at a time. She was taking them with cool water and a splash of lemon/lime for flavor.
Steve
PS – I’ll send this to her and see if she will reply.
Allison agreed with my reply.
Once she gets back home and settles down, she will provide data regarding her consumption and insulin levels etc.
That was in the works anyway, the timing for all of this wasn’t the best but she was desperate to try something to help her.
I want to take this opportunity to thank Richard (and Tim) for staying on top of this iss (Resistant Starch) and making sure it didn’t just ‘fade away’.
Steve
Steve, thank you so much for your reply. I’m sorry to hear that Allison and her family have been ill and hope that they recover soon. We will be very interested in any follow up data and information that she provides.
Hey thanks for the great info!
Would you recommend potato starch in the 2-4 tbspn daily to start out and bump up or down based on reaction?
This is great but as a Type 1 diabetic myself (I too can graph my BGs) I don’t see any info on her daily exercise/movements or even what exactly she is eating and when. I don’t doubt that there is benefit to resistant starch, but there are also other things at play here. I can’t see the whole picture just from that graph…
I cannot do paleo. But I can do resistant star he’s to keep my type 1 (jevenile diabetes) in check. I have been using whole grain and nut breads for just over 2 weeks and substituting califlower and spaghetti squash as my pseudo foods for rice and pasta. And I have seen a huge change in only one day. I am beginning to disagree with the theory wire The strip Paleo diet. It is too restrictive on how you eat to live and too expensive.