Resistant starch diet is best for diabetes

Written by Dr harold Gunatillake FRCS (UK), FIACS (US), dosage AM (Sing), FICS (US), MBBS (Cey)

There are carbs and carbs that people enjoyed right through from the time of the caveman diet referred to as the Paleo diet. Carbs in a way are of two varieties –the starchy and the non-starchy. In fact the typical Paleo diet is high in proteins, low in refined starchy carbs and packed full of vegies. Starchy carbs include rice, bread and other foods made from rice and wheat flour. Non-starchy carbs include non-starchy vegies like zucchini noodles, or spaghetti or cauliflower rice, potatoes, grains and all dark green vegetables including beans.

The discussion is about starchy foods that produce spikes of sugar in your blood when consumed, in contrast to resistant starchy food giving no sugar spikes that people having diabetes should be aware of.

The starchy foods are further sub-divided into resistant starches and the nonresistant ones as mentioned above. Non-resistant starches like processed rice and white bread after digestion gets into your blood stream in no time and you tend to get hungry sooner, whilst the newly discovered resistant starchy foods including  fibre seem to be the ideal starchy foods the diabetics can enjoy freely.

Most resistant starches are in naturally grown plant foods, and it is possible also to modify starchy foods into resistant ones through the process of cooking.

The benefit of resistant starch is that it does not get digested in the small intestines and functionally they act as dietary fibre and ends up in the large bowel.

Such foods includes unripe bananas, potatoes, grains and legumes

Unprocessed brown rice or brown bread could be considered as having resistant starch for this discussion. Even processed white rice when cooked and cooled becomes slower in digestion and absorption due to the starch becoming more resistant on cooling. People having diabetes should eat cooled rice and not hot rice to avoid sugar spikes in your blood.

Starch in the cooked rice could be further made resistant by adding a tablespoon of any cooking oil like olive oil into the water during the cooking process. If such cooked rice is kept in the fridge overnight the starch becomes more resistant and absorption will be so slower when consumed and glucose spikes in your blood are
unlikely to occur.

Such resistant starch travels all the way down to the colon and feed all your friendly gut bacteria (microbes), playing a part in the production of short chain fatty acids like butyrate and make the large bowel more healthy preventing common chronic diseases like ulcerative colitis and cancer. Resistant starch in rice also provides high levels of satiety and whole host of other benefits. So the slogan should be “Cook Rice, Cool it then eat” Frame it in your kitchen to share.

So eating fried rice, biriyani, and lumprai in moderate quantities are good for diabetics as the absorption is slowed down due to the resistant starch content through the process of cooking.

You could add butter into your cooked rice, cool it and eat. Butter is good for satiety and good for those who want to stay slim.

You may add a few drops of apple cider vinegar into your boiled rice and consuming it when cool enhances the benefits of your resistant starch rice-meal. Such rice will stimulate the production of butyrate by the colon gut bacteria. Taking a few drops of apple cider vinegar in your drinking water daily also increases the production of butyrate by the gut bacteria.

In the process of cooking rice, add 2 to 3 spoons vinegar to start and 2 tablespoons of grass fed butter and some sea salt to convert the starch into resistant form in -the meal. Instead of butter you may use coconut oil in the recipe.

Always add some salt into the boiling rice to create resistant starch in the grains. Some consider resistant starch as a prebiotic as it feeds the gut bacteria to produce short chain fatty acid-butyrate.

Other natural resistant starchy foods are green peas, potatoes and beans. Adding these pulses helps to make the starch in rice more resistant.

Potatoes get a bad rap as a fattening starch. But amazing new research puts spuds having fibre and considered as having resistant starch.

Resistant starch helps the body the ability to burn fat. It also fills you up and reduces overall hunger. It improves blood sugar control, boosts immunity through the friendly gut bacteria and considered to reduce your gut cancer risk. Resistant starc hy foods are bulky, so it takes up space in your digestive system. A  good example is just eating two boiled potatoes fills up your stomach, wanting no other food.

Resistant starch ferments in the large bowel

It is this fermentation that makes the gut bacteria happy. They digest the indigestible fibre in the resistant starchy food to produce beneficial short chain fatty acids, including one called butyrate. Butyrate has the ability to block the further digestion of carbohydrates. Janine Higgins, PhD nutrition research director for the University of Colorado states, “The ability to burn carbohydrates and prevent absorption prevents the liver from using carbs as fuel and instead, stored body fat are used for metabolic processes in the body. In your body, carbs are the preferred source of fuel that powers your body engines, and the butyrate seems to prevent such fuel getting into your blood stream, which normally would have turned into fat in the body cells. One study found that replacing just 5.4% of total carbs intake with resistant starch created a 20 to 30% increase in fat burning from the body cells after a meal”.

This news that people having diabetes can eat starchy foods by conversion into resistant starches is some exciting area of nutritional research for the future especially for those who crave eating biriyani, lumprai and ghee or butter added boiled rice. Please don’t go over-board Lastly, eat cooled milk rice (Kiri bath) with no guilt when cooked on special auspicious occasions and ceremonies. I love it when kept in the fridge for a few hours.