Potatoes can help you get to your optimal weight? Yes, they’re great, real food, but aren’t they super high in carbs?
Yes, white potatoes are high in carbs. However, depending how you cook them, they can break down into sugar and get stored as fat if not utilized for energy OR they can actually help your body release fat!
If you make a regular baked potato or mashed potatoes or potato chips or fried potatoes, the body will break it down in the small intestine and gets digested there. That’s the fat-storage method of cooking potatoes.
However, if you cook and then cool potatoes, they go through a process called retrogradation. In simple terms, this means the structure is changed enough so that some of the sugars bind together creating a stronger bond. This is what makes them resistant to being digested in the small intestine.
So it passes straight on through to the Large Intestine where it converts to Short Chain Fatty Acids.
And guess what LOVES to feast on Short Chain Fatty Acids (SCFA)? Your GOOD bacteria. These are also known as prebitoics (the FOOD for probiotics).
We actually have more bacteria in our bodies than we do cells and we want to keep that balance of having more of the good guys (probiotics) as opposed to the bad guys (yeast, candida).
We keep our good bacteria happy by feeding them well with those potatoes in the form of resistant starches, as opposed to adding the potatoes to our thighs!
It’s the perfect win-win. We get the benefits of feeling full which is great for weight control and even blood sugar. They improve our gut health by feeding the good bacteria. And most importantly, you still get to enjoy the goodness without the guilt of eating your beloved spuds:).
How do you make these super spuds?
The same way you normally would make them. You can boil, bake or steam the potatoes. Then simply put them in the fridge over night to create that resistant starch magic.
Then, you can eat them cold in the form of your fave potato salad or reheat them. You can even mash them (after they’ve cooled) and reheat to make great mashed taters.
HOWEVER, for you sweet potato lovers, the conversion to resistant starches only works with the white-on-the-inside potatoes. So, it’s a no-go for the sweet potato.
By the way, reheating the spuds creates even more resistant starch, making them even more beneficial for your gut.
As you can see here, I quartered a purple heirloom potato (which is one of the best types of potatoes to convert to resistant starch) and baked it for about 45 minutes at 400 degrees.
Then, I simply placed it in the fridge overnight and reheated a quarter to eat for lunch. I may even mash some of the other quarters for dinner and then heat those up also.
You can also enjoy other forms of resistant starch such as:
- cooked and cooled rice (not a fan due to bacteria that forms in rice after cooled)
- beans and legumes
- oats (not the processed kind, try steel cut)
- green bananas
So, if you want to feel full, help release weight, regulate blood sugar and make your digestive system happy, try out some resistant starches.
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All material in this newsletter is provided for information only and may not be construed as medical advice or instruction. No action or inaction should be taken based solely on the contents of this publication;instead readers should consult appropriate health professionals on any matter relating to their health and well-being. The information provided has not been approved the Food & Drug Administration and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any illness or disease.
