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If you are in the process of losing weight, foods rich in resistant starch will help you. Learn what they are and how to enjoy them better.
If you’ve ever been in the process of watching your diet, you might be thinking by now that the words “starch” and “weight loss” hardly fit in the same sentence. You already know that when we say starch, we mean pasta, potatoes, cereals , i.e. foods with carbohydrates that are considered “fattening”, but as a rule they are also our favourites.
Starch is a “polysaccharide” of plants. It consists of thousands of glucose molecules, which the plant uses to produce energy. For the same reason, foods with starch, which is only one of the carbohydrates, also give our body energy . However, not all starches are the same. Some of them have glucose molecules that take longer to break down during digestion. These are called resistant and have benefits that you may not have known until today.
Foods with resistant starch
All starchy foods also contain resistant starches, but some seem to have them in greater amounts. These are:
- The oats
- Rice (especially rice that has been cooked and allowed to cool, and even better brown, which has more fiber)
- Beans and legumes in general
- Boiled potatoes that have cooled. Also, many people use raw potato starch powder instead of flour in cooking (e.g. gluten-free bread or smoothies)
- Unripe bananas, which “win” over ripe ones as they are richer in resistant starch .
Resistant starch and weight loss
According to a study published in the scientific journal Nature Metabolism , following a diet rich in resistant starch can improve the gut microbiome in people with obesity, and this can contribute to faster weight loss, as well as overall better health.
Specifically, according to the findings of the study, foods rich in resistant starch can improve glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, thus reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease in overweight and obese individuals.
As the scientists report, resistant starch is a type of carbohydrate that is not digested in the small intestine, but is fermented in the large intestine, acting as a probiotic . In this way it increases the amount of good bacteria in the gut, but not the glucose levels like ordinary starches.
It is worth noting that heat can affect the amount of resistant starch in some foods, for this reason experts recommend that we consume rice, potatoes, and pasta after they have been boiled and cooled.
