March 10, 2008

Resistant Starch: Diet Potatoes??

[By Crabby}
C'mon, How Can You Resist Me?


So Prevention Magazine, the folks who told us all about the Flat-Belly Diet , have just alerted us to a new nutritional discovery: Resistant Starch.

This new breakthrough is in some ways similar to the "Mufa's" they were just telling us about. ("Mufa" is Prevention's hopelessly uncool nickname for monounsaturated fats, the secret to acquiring a Flat Belly). The good news is that yet again, you get to eat more of the stuff you like anyway but thought was too fattening.

This time it's certain starches--like corn, potatoes, rice, beans and bananas that are supposed to have slimming properties.

Yep, you heard right: corn, potatoes, rice, beans and bananas are now going to help you lose weight. And not only that: Resistant Starches are also supposed to fight heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Plus they'll boost your immune system.

Researchers at the LSU AgCenter can explain how resistant starches work better than I can. To summarize, unlike refined grains and sugars, resistant starches aren't broken down into sugar in the small intestine. They "resist" this digestion and pass on into the large intestine, where they act more like dietary fiber. Not only that, resistant starches are fermented in the large intestine, a process which in itself consumes energy.

So what's not to like about eating more spuds and other starches without guilt?

Well, this wouldn't be Cranky Fitness if we didn't have a few concerns, gripes, and random questions. Like:

1. If, as the Prevention article claims, "more than 160 studies have examined this little known nutrient's remarkable health and weight loss benefits," why the heck are we just hearing about this now?

You'd think a phenomenon this robust would have been more obvious. After all, we're a spud-lovin', starch-addicted culture. Why didn't anyone notice the awesome benefits to these good starches until recently?

Hmm... Is it just a coincidence that we're just starting to see commercial products featuring these resistant starches? (Look for "Hi-maize," a resistant starch powder made from corn).

2. The slimming effect is way more powerful if you eat the starches cold.

Oh goody.

I mean sure, cold's fine for potoato salad and bananas. But corn on the cob? Burritos? Paella? Still sounds more appealing than brussel sprouts, but not quite as enticing as piping hot garlic mashed potatoes.

3. And, um, not to be skeptical, don't we all know people who eat a lot of these starches and are anything but slim?

4. Potatoes? Really?

We already knew whole grains and legumes were really good for you and well worth the calories. It's the potatoes and corn that are surprising. They always seemed like kind of a lousy nutritional bargain, didn't they? Technically produce, but without all the antioxidants and bonus points you get for eating a "real" vegetable like cauliflower. Plus they've got a fair amount of calories you could be saving up for an actual treat, like chocolate ice cream.

But if it turns out we're not really getting all the potato/corn calories, then it's a whole new ballgame isn't it? What if you get to eat your ice cream for a treat but have your potatoes too?

I have to admit to some skepticism, but I do notice this information is already affecting me. I let my last burrito cool to room temperature, secretly hoping this simple step was both fighting disease and making more room for future cupcake consumption. However, I'll probably forget about the whole thing in a couple of weeks unless we really do start seeing a slew of studies confirming this whole resistant starch notion.

What about you folks--any thoughts on resistant starches, or are you finding yourselves resistant to the whole idea?

51 comments:

  1. Funny — I was just researching this whole topic (thanks to a new study that came out in Feb) for an upcoming issue, and was having a lot of similar questions pop up in my mind. As of this moment, I'm still resistant to the hype.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Did the study say whether the potatoes have to be cooked? The Bag Lady actually rather likes raw potatoes (with a little salt, of course). The other thing about potatoes - it isn't the potato itself that is all that fattening, it's the toppings...

    ReplyDelete
  3. We used to have the ever-popular "Mr. Potato Head." Now we can have the new "toy", "Mr. Potato Body!"
    Sweet! (as in potato) Did I spell that right?

    Dr. J

    ReplyDelete
  4. Bag Lady, you eat potatoes raw? Wow! I thought that potatoes being a nightshade made them impossible to eat raw (nausea inducing, like elderberries), but glad to hear I'm wrong! :)

    I recently read on That's Fit that potatoes, if not overcooked, have tons of vitamins and minerals. I'm still sticking with sweet potatoes though.

    I'm not totally convinced about rice. So many different people recommending different things, it's hard to know which way to go. But previously, I've read that rice is high glycemically, so I try to stay away from it unless I'm eating Indian or Asian food.

    Yay corn! Next time my mother tells me not to eat so much corn because it turns into sugar, I can proudly hold up this study (I'll just take what I like from the study and not what I don't) :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I would think cooking would break the potatoes down so that this effect wouldn't happen. So that means raw potatoes or corn. I've never had raw corn but raw potatoes are OK (really crunchy).

    From a google of "raw potato glycemic index":
    When we boil potatoes, the heat and water expand the hard compact granules, (which make raw potatoes difficult to digest), into easily digestible swollen potato granules. Some granules actually burst and free the individual starch molecules, and this is the reason why potatoes have a high glycemic index – they are easy to digest and absorb.

    A study on the effect of cooking potatoes on blood sugar levels:
    http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/7/3/221

    I can imagine Prevention left this important tidbit out on purpose if it is indeed the case.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I can't help being affected by personal history. When I was twelve my mother got allergic to potatoes and we stopped having them with the pot roast. I stopped gaining weight. I grew three inches in the next four years without gaining a single pound, and I have the stretch marks to prove it. (I caught up later.) This sample of one isn't exactly a study, though.

    Mary Anne in Kentucky

    ReplyDelete
  7. Echo Bag Lady. I love raw potatoes.

    Lethological Reader, tomatoes are also a nightshade, as as bell and hot peppers. They can be eaten raw without fear. Eggplant is too, but I don't think anything could induce me to eat it raw.
    Back to potatoes.
    This is the Year of the Potato. Anything that causes me to eat more spuds is good.

    That said, I'm sure we'll be treated to a contradictory study shortly.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh my goodness, you guys are so much better informed than I am on the potato question! Great questions, too.

    Josh, thanks for all the research!

    I'm a big fan of blue/purple potatoes, which I figure have the good potato stuff plus the purple antioxidant boost--but I'm not sure I want to eat them cold.

    And Bag Lady and Leah--you Canadians always impress me with your hearty, healthy diets. Raw potatoes? Never would have thought to eat them that way. (And can't say I'm going to start either!)

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm generally of the opinion if it's found in nature it's probably not horrible for us. So yes, I'll eat potatoes and corn occasionally...and now I'll start looking at french fries and popcorn differently...

    (and raw potatoes? Are you guys serious?)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Crabby,

    as a diabetic, I can tell you that except for a very young, very new potato, like fingerlings or small reds, I will get a blood sugar elevation from eating potato. have to try a potato salad and see what that does.

    Gotta run over to Josh's link on Diabetes Journal now.

    Terrie

    ReplyDelete
  11. Yay.
    I LOVE mashed potatoes. Baked Potatoes. Mum used to give us raw poatoes as a snack...OK, all potatoes really.
    Hmmm...And I've always had a flat tummy, when when I was bigger.
    OK then, I am choosing to think there is a link...and then I can have more potatoes.
    Yum.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I think that unless one has an insulin or metabolic disorder of some kind, whether or not one eats potatoes and whether or not they are cold is irrelevant.

    I tend to go on long-term food obsessions where I make one particular a staple for anywhere from a few months to a few years. I've done this with cream of wheat, baked potatoes, corn, oatmeal, and frozen yogurt, to name a few. In each and every case my weight remained constant as long as I stayed within my calorie threshhold relative to physical activity.

    It's all about the calories, baby!

    ReplyDelete
  13. BL - My mom can eat an entire raw potato, like an apple with a little salt. :)

    My problem with this is that I am one of those folks who just eats a ton of those things. Rice, potatoes, bananas. They are big binge foods for me.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Don't dis the Brussels sprouts! I love them.

    You've probably only had them overcooked and mushy. Ever tried them steamed to what restaurant menus call "crisp-tender" with a nice vinaigrette?

    OK, so maybe you have and you still don't like them....

    ReplyDelete
  15. Potatoes, bananas, rice - this sounds like my type of diet. Now can I have the butter, cream and sweet and sour pork needed to accompany them?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Great post! And really interesting comments too. I am of the opinion, like Katieo, that if a food comes from nature (as opposed to in a box) then it's good for you. I love all plant foods! That said, I do eat potatoes, rice, corn etc. in moderation. But then these aren't binge foods for me either (helloooo ice cream!)

    PS> Raw corn is the BEST. So much sweeter than when it is cooked.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Breakthrough, my arse. I just love "studies." Mankind has been eating potatoes, corn and rice as a major dietary staple since we climbed out of the primordial ooze. Then scientists spent billions of dollars to tell us that the very stuff that has kept civilization going was suddenly bad for us. Now, billions more dollars later, they turnabout and say, oh, well maybe your primitive ancestors knew what they were doing all along. We need to stop researching, that's what we need to do. It just messes with everybody's head.

    Raw potato slices, salted. Yum.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I think this study sounds ridiculous, and is probably a ploy from the corn and potato farmers/distributors who have most likely been losing money due to the whole "low-carb" fad.

    Similar to when they introduced the Canada food guide to tell you how many servings or different food groups you should be having, and it was recently revealed that the proportions of certain foods (like bread) were overemphasized because they were in surplus in the Canadian food market at the time....


    Yes this comment makes me sounds like a paranoid conspiracy theorist... I know..

    ReplyDelete
  19. Hmmm... I'm a little skepty too.... I have a hunch that if I ate cold potatoes and cold rice I would puff out and pack on some poundage.
    I'd have to see some convincing evidence and decent 'before' and 'afters' to be willing to give this new concept a try....

    ReplyDelete
  20. McB, you're totally right that we've been eating potatoes and rice and corn for centuries and millennia. However, it's also true that we're much much more sedentary than our ancestors, so those same foods hit the midriff so much faster.

    I think I might have to try this raw potato thing, since everyone seems to think it's so awesome. Maybe raw corn too (I'm soo looking forward to corn season, but it won't be for months and months...)

    Going back to a previous Crabby/Merry post, I did make beets recently, with balsamic and salt and they were very tasty :)

    ReplyDelete
  21. I'm sure potatoes and corn are fine in our diets - but not processed into chips and topped with cheese. What you'll never read in a mag like Prevention is that if we would cut all the processed crap out of our diets most of us wouldn't have a weight problem. Or health problems. But then Prevention would have no advertisers.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I don't know about the starch thing, but the whole MUFA and Flat belly diet thing from prevention has worked great.

    ReplyDelete
  23. The Bag Lady urges all of you to go to your kitchens, peel a potato and eat it raw (with a little salt)!! C'mon people, live on the edge...
    (Just make sure if there's any green parts, to cut that off, 'cause it tastes bad, and it's not good for you...)

    ReplyDelete
  24. Mmmm, raw spuds! I try to limit myself to just one or two bites when I am cutting them up to cook them. As for the study coinciding with the sudden availability of products containing resistant starch - that is too much of a co-winky-dink for me.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Bag Lady, I just tried it.

    It was gross.

    ReplyDelete
  26. It's a Bag Lady family conspiracy and I'm with Katieo.. raw potatoes are gross.

    ReplyDelete
  27. This sounds more like propoganda from the grain industries most notably the corn folks. Almost everything is made from corn now. I found that when I cut out/down the corn foods and corn based sweeteners in particular, weight fell off me faster.

    On a side note, can I get that potato picture on a t-shirt? That would be so cool.

    ReplyDelete
  28. LR - you're right about the sedentary lifestyle, but we consume too many calories overall. Carbs are not evil (excepting for those dealing with diabetes). We've been through it all before. Everyone jumps on the high fiber, no fat, no sodium, no this, more that bandwagon and then science says ... well actually some this is good for you and even necessary, and too much that can cause other problems entirely.

    Moderation is the key, as in all things.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Katieo - I'm sorry you didn't like it. I suppose raw turnip would be out of the question for you then, eh?
    (Hilary, how could you say that!!?)

    ReplyDelete
  30. "Mankind has been eating potatoes, corn and rice as a major dietary staple since we climbed out of the primordial ooze."

    This is not even remotely true. Corn and rice are seeds and were only available seasonally, and then only in small quantities, until the advent of agriculture and storage about 10,000 to 20,000 years ago. The date on which we climbed out of the primordial ooze is somewhat open to intepretation, but it was on the order of millions of years ago. Before year-round availability of seeds, we ate primarily fish, game, and the other (non-seedy) parts of plants.

    Poatoes, of course, are native to the Americas, and when we did crawl out of the primordial ooze, we did it in Africa. Again, the date of human arrival in the Americas is somewhat controversial, but the earliest I've ever seen is about 50,000 years ago.

    ReplyDelete
  31. You might talk to a diabetic (and there may well be some among the readers/responders to this post) about the effects of white potatoes on their blood sugar levels. A good friend who is diabetic says that a baked potato negatively impacts (i.e., raises) his blood sugar levels far more than a Snickers bar or other high-sugar food item. If it sounds too good to be true....

    ReplyDelete
  32. OK -- I posted a little too quickly. Terrie indicated that she is a diabetic and mentioned her blood sugar elevation after eating potatoes.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I think what needs to be really stressed about the benefits of eating resistant starches is that the food must be cold!!!

    Once you re-heat the food the benefits are reduced largely.

    I eat resistant starches (which are cold), and I've seen some benefits. Also, I feel I am not as hungry. I generally don't eat a lot of meat, and eats lots of green vegetables with my starches. I also take it with a digestive enzyme (which have been a life save - my digestion has never been better).

    I really don't think of resistant starches as a diet - rather, it is how everyone should eat. My father is a diabetic, and since eating digestive enzymes, pre & probiotic foods, and taking fish oil - his blood sugar readings have been more or less normal.

    In sum, I think the key is to eat a balanced, whole food (and as raw as possible to maintain as much of the enzymes as possible) diet (which include resistant starches) that can be properly digested where any waster/toxins are eliminated regularly from your system.

    ReplyDelete
  34. It is amazing to me that so many people can read and comment on this article by Prevention and totally miss the fact that it is only cold potatoes that have enough resistant starch to make a difference. So potatoes in your stew pot, mashed with garlic and butter, or cut into sticks and fried are all still out! I've been doing this for a couple of days now (not a long time, I know), but I've already noticed that I eat a lot fewer calories and have not had the blood sugar spikes and subsequent plummets that I normally do when I eat potatoes or pasta. In addition, I've found that at room temp I can enjoy many of the foods that I normally consume heated. But I've been reading the research on resistant starch and wanted to mention another caution: if your meal also contains high amounts of fat, the benefits of resistant starch are substantially lower.

    Anyway, I hope it doesn't turn out to be just hype because I have five kids to feed and low-carb can get really expensive!

    ReplyDelete
  35. Have any of you guys being paying attention. For goodness sake. You are all responding as if we are supposed to eat RAW potatoes. Anyone with half a brain cell would have read it properly and done a little research themselves...you cook the potato, let it cool, out it in the fridge and eat it over the coming days.,..COOKED BUT COOLED...not raw. You can have it with a tuna pasta salad..just add in the diced cooled potato. It's not rocket science guys. Gee, no wonder this world is full of illinformed people. Annie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All true, but seafood is also supposed to be avoided, like -- tuna. Right?

      Delete
  36. I purchased a big bag of HI-MAIZE 260 resistant starch from Honeyville Foods (http://store.honeyvillegrain.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=640) and am just using it for the first time in a peach smoothie - one 3-serving size can of peaches in reduced-sugar pear syrup (I did not drain the syrup) one cup of 2% milk, 4 tablespoons HI MAIZE 260, 1/4 tsp ground ginger, 1/8 tsp ground clove, and 1/4 tsp + a little more of ground cinnamon.

    The three spices supposedly assist in lowering blood sugar, according to NUTRITION AND HEALING newsletter, and I like the taste.
    So I'm sipping this smoothie as I type, and it's good.

    Backing up a little, when I opened the package of HI MAIZE the first thing I noticed is that it isn't as grainy as I assumed it would be, but is the same texture as cornstarch - very fine and smooth if rubbed between the fingers. And with that revelation I remembered smething I read on a website or a book about insulin resistance, which was that the addition of raw cornstarch to our diet (in cold milk or drinks, I presume, since it is not to be cooked), it lowers blood sugar.

    So we may ask is HI MAIZE "just" cornstarch wearing a different label?
    I haven't researched that question but I will.

    I do know that in many cases products that look alike aren't alike chemically, though they may appear so. And since HI MAIZE is called maize instead of corn, it probably is not corn. This maize may be, or have some genetic link with, the maize that nourished the ancient peoples of the Americas, and since their populations flourished over tens of thousands of years, the maize is pretty (no pun) amazing.

    So I'll assume it's maize starch, not cornstarch. But I'm still going to do more research on the question.

    Returning to the description of my smoothie, I can detect the uncooked starch, which reveals its presence in the same way uncooked cornstarch does --miniscule grains of grittiness that don't intrude on flavor and (to me) aren't unpleasant, but I know they're there. That's no problem for me as long as the starch does what it's supposed to -- it isn't digested in the small intestine but moves through it and acts in the large intestine as fiber, not digested starch. Now that IS amazing, and because fiber keeps blood sugar from rising, so they say, that means my considerable fat deposits for that rainy day that I'm sure is coming are being used for energy. Sounds good to me.

    I checked some online sources for more info about what this stuff is.
    If you want to look, the links are:

    http://www.healthyeatingclub.com/info/articles/nutrients/resisstarch.htm

    http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/nutrition/a/resistantstarch.htm

    http://us.f831.mail.yahoo.com/dc/launch?action=folderv

    http://www.crankyfitness.com/2008/03/resistant-starch-diet-potatoes.html

    For more about healthy eating club (I'm not associated with it, just discovered it in my starch info search):

    http://www.healthyeatingclub.org/who-are-we/index.htm

    Now, to the question "is there any discernible effect that I notice after drinking less than 1/2 of the smoothie?"

    Yes, I feel extremely full. That may or may not be the starch, because this morning I made a breakfast strata with the remains of a homemade blueberry cake, 4 eggs, and 2 cups of milk (2%). We each ate about 1/4 of the result. We'll give 1/3 of the remaining portion to the raccoon that visits us every day, and will split the rest for dessert after supper.

    My hope is, of course, that HI MAIZE will be my silver bullet, but slimming down is still about portion size.

    One thing that I gleaned from my minimal research today is that the beneficial effect, if I use HI MAIZE every day, will be that my body will continue burning fat constantly around the clock, whether I use HI MAIZE at EVERY meal or not. Now that's quite a claim and I hope it's true. I'm not sure who much one should use per day. That may be an open question at this time.

    We'll see. I've just examined the remnant of the smoothie: it's thicker than when it was 10 minutes old, so there is some increase in the size of the fiber granules from the liquid in the drink, and that may be part of the fat-burning stimulus too -- if I can't hold anymore due to having consumes lots of fiber, I'm not consuming calories. If that's what's happening, and I think it may be because I'm VERY full, the raw starch trick works for me, whether corn is maize, or maize is corn.

    Should someone try to duplicate this experiment using cornstarch? Probably. Will I? Not until I've gone through this bag of HI MAIZE that I bought as a substitute for some of the flour in Peter Reinhart's wonderful recipes so that I can eat bread without guilt!

    ReplyDelete
  37. Well, after reading about the potatoes and resistant starch, I can now say that explains why my father ate literally mountains of potatoe salad (cooked & cubed potatoes cooled & mixed with radish slices, hard boiled eggs, mayo & mustard) - still does - and was the thinnest man I had ever seen for the amount he ate! Apparently he was doing something right!

    As for the raw potatoes - has no one EVER heard of Rutebaga or Kohlrabi? Raw potatoes are VERY similar in taste & texture as those are. And - no - I'm not from Canada, raised from an infant to my current mid 40's in Michigan.

    ReplyDelete
  38. I didn't know about this until AOL did an article on it. While the article doesn't say whether it HAS to be cooked it states that if you do cook them wait until they cool to eat them. It also stated that once you've cooked and cooled the resistant starch food DON'T reheat it because it causes the resistant starch content to plummet. here's a link to the page... http://www.aolhealth.com/diet/basics/carb-resistant-starch/page2

    ReplyDelete
  39. Never have so many sounded off so vociferously about what they seem to know so little about -- and resist knowing about (pardon the pun). Resistant starch is not hype, it's about getting back to the starches the human body is best equipped to metabolize. What y'all are resisting is the way it currently is being discussed in the media. For the best book on the human body and starch metabolism, read Dr. Mark Anthony's "Gut Instinct: Diet's Missing Link." Dr. Anthony is retired from the human nutrition research labs at the University of Texas where he used to run the lab for Dr. Karl Folkers (discoverer of CoQ-10 and co-discoverer of vitamin B-12). Dr. Anthony was a vegetarian for 30 years and vegetarian for decades. He's also a survivor of near-fatal colon cancer, which drove him back to the beginning of what we know and teach about nutrition -- and how most of it is wrong. (As Dr. Anthony says, when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.)
    Resistant starch is not a panacea -- no one food is, but it is real, it does work and it works because it is a form of starch that hearkens back to before we ate our potatoes deep fried, before we Westerners decided beans were for "unwashed foreigners" and all flour had to be refined and bleached and stripped of all nutrient value.

    My recommendation is that you actually read the science before jumping onto the mockery bandwagon. Don't be that which you abhor!

    ReplyDelete
  40. I checked with the company that is now making Pasta replacing a lot of the flour with the RS and they tell me that there are 4 types - RS1, RS2, RS3 and RS4. RS4 which they use in their pasta is resistant to any change from heat, therefore can be eaten hot. Check it out at http://www.fibergourmet.com/Default.aspx

    ReplyDelete
  41. The thing you are all missing is that this is RESISTANT STARCH, a method of taking corn starch and making it resistant to digestion. It has nothing to do with starch as a whole, RS is the key word here. Some foods have soluble and insoluble fiber and the more insoluble the better - RS is INSOLUBLE. For instance - a whole cup of whole wheat flour that you use for making bread has 14 grams of fiber. Thats good. But Resistant Starch flour, found as Hi-Maize flour has 63 GRAMS per cup. So using it for making bread, pancakes, etc. by subbing some of the flour for this will add incredible fiber to your meals. You can find this flour at http://www.kingarthurflour.com/ and it is called Hi Maize fiber.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Hi-Maize brand of corn starch is genetically modified. It is a GMO, it is not similar to the ancient grain our ancesters ate. If you want a non-GMO source of resistant starch, use unmodified (must say that word on the package) potato starch - several brand of unmodified potato starch are on the market. This type of potato starch must be eaten uncooked, (or cooked and cooled without being reheated) to preserve the resistant starch. Must say unmodified, and must say potato starch, not potato flour. Eat that raw, it has as much resistant starch as the over-advertised GMO HI Maize brand of corn starch.

      Delete
  42. raw corn is awesome. when my kids were young we'd go to the farms and pick our own corn in the fields. Fresh stripped from the plant it is tender sweet and delish. What we get in the supermarket is maybe several days old and the sugar is already turning to starch. If we're lucky it's only a few hours old at a farm market.

    ReplyDelete
  43. I just recently heard about possible toxic raw potatoes. Hmmm. I've eaten raw potatoes on many occasions. My mom would be slicing and dicing them up and she'd get upset that I would eat them before they hit the pan and she'd have to cut up some more. I'm in my mid 30s and still alive. I haven't eaten raw potatoes in a long while and I've gained 25 lbs. I used to be really skinny. At one time I was 90lbs at 4'9"...my final height. I'm can't grow anymore. Never thought about a connection. Maybe I'll just start eating them again. :)

    ReplyDelete
  44. Has anyone thought about the possibility that this is just a scheme by the corn industry giants to sell more corn? Michael Pollan in The Omnivores Dilema gives this concept the name of Elastic Industrial Eater. The companies selling us our food are no longer bound by the limits of our stomachs if we continue to eat all these 'empty' calories. What's the point???

    ReplyDelete
  45. I have been looking in to the potato thing and now I'm more confused than before. My Doctor (internist not nutritionist) says potatoes are just BAD. I disagree and we go for round 3. Now raw potatoes!! Love em!! I eat all potatoes unpeeled!! And use almost no toppings but I still hear they are too high in calories to eat. A quick check shows that a potato only has from 75 to 100 calories...but too high a glycemic index....why? I feel fuller and stay alert longer when I eat potatoes. Still can't figure this one out. Enjoy your raw potatoes with a little salt.

    ReplyDelete
  46. It's not raw potatoes. It's cooked potatoes and then cooled down. During the cooking process the starches break down and then during the cooling process they become "resistant". Beans are the best source. Sweet Potatoes and firm bananas also have a larger amount. Brown rice. Regular potatoes have it too but in smaller amounts than these other items. All of the items (except the bananas) should be cooled down to get the resistant starches.

    ReplyDelete
  47. You may think this is part of a marketing ploy, but it isn't. I've been researching HDAC-Inhibitors for some time now --- specifically an enyzme called Butyrate.

    The hottest field in cancer research right now is the development of HDAC-Inhibitors. These are inhibitors of enzymes that can awaken a bad gene -- like a cancer gene or an autoimmune gene. Inhibiting these enzymes can turn the bad gene off -- or keep it from waking up in the first place.

    But our own bodies can make these anti-HDAC substances too, such as Butyrate. But they can only be made IF you eat a good supply of resistant starches and insoluble fiber. When those foods get to the colon, bacteria in the gut then can start to break down those foods, and the by-product is Butyrate.

    So avoid antibiotics and eat a good hunk of potatoes and brown rice. And you might just keep those genes turned off.

    It's not a ploy.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Eating RAW potatoes -- a wonder food, for me at least.

    Many years ago I had a chronic problem with burning gums. I tried everything, including hydrogen peroxide advised by my dentist, but nothing --- nothing worked.

    Someone told me that I should eat raw potatoes (I used to eat them at times with a little salt when I was a kid because I liked them). She said that potatoes had a chemical in them that my body needed. So I tried it, for a few days eating a few pieces of raw potato every day (with a little salt like I did when I was a kid because I LIKED it). My chronic gum burning disappeared, and has yet to return! It's been at least 30 years. I rarely eat them raw anymore, but occasionally when I am cutting one up for boiling to make potato salad or something, I do. I wonder what other great effects these RAW potatoes have on our health that we don't know about yet.

    ReplyDelete
  49. You might want to consider reading the studies instead of basing your opinion on one magazine article. Just a suggestion.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for commenting, Cranky Fitness readers are the BEST!

Subscribe to comments via RSS

(Note: Older Comment Threads Are Moderated)