Digestive issues, gut bacteria and resistive starch

For many afibbers, digestive issues are a significant trigger.

I thought I'd post a bit about "resistive starch." This is starch that is not digestible by humans, but is fermentable by gut bacteria. Most know about pro-biotics to ingest. These can include bacteria in fermented foods as well as spores in capsules. In many cases, these bacteria never make past the stomach.

The idea behind RS is to feed well the "good" bacteria in our gut. Good bacteria do a number of positive things, including inhibiting "bad" bacteria (I use these terms reluctantly). When these bacteria are well fed, they can create short chain fatty acids, help with immune function, reduce inflammation, normalize blood sugar, help with diabetes risk, heart disease risk as well as neurological functions.

This TED talk <[ed.ted.com] describes how bacteria communicate and how the "new" antibiotics may disrupt intra and inter bacterial species communication, rather than just killing them. Very interesting!

This is a long (2 hr) podcast that describes many of the benefits of RS
<[www.latestinpaleo.com]

Here are the results of a T2 diabetic blood sugar testing with RS: <[www.diabetes-warrior.net] T2 testing exercise: <[www.diabetes-warrior.net] T2 testing eating a potato with RS: <[www.diabetes-warrior.net] T1 experiment: <[www.diabetes-warrior.net]

Another RS podcast <[soundcloud.com]

More with a T2:<[freetheanimal.com]

List of RS in foods: <[freetheanimal.com]

So the short answer is you can eat 4 tablespoons of potato starch (NOT flour) in water or something cold to get the benefits. In the US, Bob's Red Mill makes it and it is available in the baking section of many grocery stores. I understand it is also common in Japanese cooking, used instead of corn starch.

For most people, potato starch (PS) will not cause a blood sugar rise. In fact, eaten when you eat other, carby foods, it will blunt the blood sugar rise of the other foods. Not only that, but it has a "second meal effect." So it will reduce the blood sugar rise of carbs eaten at the meal 4 or 5 hours after the PS is eaten.

I've been experimenting with it, but digestion is not a trigger for me. I'd start slowly with it, especially if gas is a trigger for you. You may be gassier until your system adjusts. However I think this may be a help to some with digestive issues. It will help normalize the gut biome. Everybody may be n's of 1, but I wanted to put this information out there. The links I've listed and links on those links have a lot more info.

Remember 90% of what you think of as you is not you. The 10% that is you is just a container for the other 90%! One of the quotes is that we have something like 24,000 genes and the number of genes in all the bacteria in us is 42 million! These bacteria can be hugely beneficial for our health if fed well. At my store, 1.5 pounds of PS cost $4US. So this is not an expensive experiment.

George

Thanks George

For the interesting links and info. Makes plausible sense and without question gut related issues are a major factor for so many afibbers to one degree or another, not to mention impacting most other chronic conditions of aging. Will investigate further this angle with potatoe starch as a good endogenous probiotic support and stimulus.

Have a good weekend,
Shannon



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/25/2014 02:13PM by Shannon.

When I go to France I always bring back 'fecule', which is potato starch, and use it to thicken sauces instead of corn starch (cornflour in UK). Didn't realise that it was so good for me!

Gill

Gill,

When you heat potato starch, it blows up like popcorn and looses the resistant starch characteristic (it is 80% starch surrounding 20% water). Also, this is not potato flour, which is made from cooked potatoes.

George

Thanks George. Just checked and you are right as usual, fecule is potato flour not potato starch.

Gill

Thanks George, I will give that a try. Going low carb ( not in ketosis though) has helped my acid reflux significantly, but I still get periods of skipped beats about 30 minutes after eating. They are alleviated by about 500 mg of potassium gluconate in water.

John

John,

The people who have played with this suggest starting slowly. I (of course) did not. I've been on this 10 days or so, with some increase in flatulence - actually I had almost none before 'cause of my LCHF diet. Its reported that this is individual and and in many cases resolves in about 4 weeks. I got on a plane this morning and it was a bit uncomfortable as we rose in altitude and the cabin pressure dropped.

George

I will start slowly. I learned my lesson when I dropped my carbs below 25 grams a day, probably from 4-500 grams/day. That didn't go so well, so this time, I'll take it easy. I'm about 1/2 way through that podcast you recommended.

Thanks,

John

John,

I only had a few tablespoons of coconut oil for breakfast at 5 AM. Then, as is my habit, nothing until evening (which hasn't happened yet). I checked my blood sugar and urine ketones, out of curiosity at 4 PM. My blood sugar was 80 mg/dl and the ketones 15 mg/dl. Eating nothing but a little bit of fat for 11 hours, after fasting prior to that for many hours, I would have expected a blood sugar reading in the 60's. I'm not sure what to make of it, but interesting.

Good luck!

George

Ground psyllium is insoluble fiber.

______________
Lone paroxysmal vagal atrial fibrillation. Age 62, female, no risk factors. Autonomic instability since severe Paxil withdrawal in 2004, including extreme sensitivity to neuro-active drugs, supplements, foods. Monthly tachycardia started 1/11, happened only at night, during sleep, or when waking, bouts of 5-15 hours. Changed to afib about a year ago, same pattern. Frequency increased over last 6 months, apparently with sensitivity to more triggers. Ablation 6/27/13 by Steven Hao.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/2014 06:37PM by Iatrogenia.

For this purpose, the operative characteristic of the fiber is whether it ferments or not. The fermentation "feeds" the bacteria in the gut biome.

All types of fiber ferment, see [chriskresser.com]

______________
Lone paroxysmal vagal atrial fibrillation. Age 62, female, no risk factors. Autonomic instability since severe Paxil withdrawal in 2004, including extreme sensitivity to neuro-active drugs, supplements, foods. Monthly tachycardia started 1/11, happened only at night, during sleep, or when waking, bouts of 5-15 hours. Changed to afib about a year ago, same pattern. Frequency increased over last 6 months, apparently with sensitivity to more triggers. Ablation 6/27/13 by Steven Hao.

For this purpose, Chris was describing soluble fiber as having the benefits of resistive starch: primarily the feeding of "good" bacteria and their subsequent production of short-chain fatty acids like butyrate, proprionate, and acetate.

Just curious: How is it that this stuff feeds only the "good" bacteria and not the "bad"? Glad that's the case, but just wondering why. Is it an aerobic/anaerobic difference, or what?

Thanks!

--Lance

Thanks George.

In your research, did you find support that resistant starch does not promote or support SIBO? I seem to recall there was a cautionary statement about using resistant starch when SIBO is suspect.

BTW - Life Extension has a resistant starch product and has written a current article on Mung beans as a source.
[www.lef.org]

Jackie



Iatrogenia: A portion of psyllium husk (fiber) does not ferment according to this and other reports online.
[ajcn.nutrition.org]

Jackie,

I believe you are correct. I'd not paid much attention since I don't have it. Anyone with SIBO should look into it in more detail.

I looked for the LEF product, and not sure I found it. The two fiber supplements they promote had servicing sizes in the 3-7 g range. As I understand it, 3g is the minimum necessary to be labeled a "prebiotic" from a federal labeling standpoint. However, I also understand that this is not enough to do hardly anything toward the goal of feeding bacteria along the whole lower intestine. For those in the US, the Bob's Red Mill Potato Starch is dirt cheap by comparison. I've seen it priced between $3.60-$4.00 per 1.5 pound package.

Lance,

That is a good question. I thought about it myself. I'm guessing everything in the gut is anaerobic as I'm not sure there is much of an oxygen source. In some of the links I posted, they show results from the American Gut project. The proportions of bacteria change very quickly with changes in diet and, as I understand it, when the diet is changed to much resistant starch, the proportion of "bad" bacteria gets very small. I'm not sure why it works this way and would have to do more research to investigate further.

Just pure speculation on my part, but the benefits of a whole food veg. diet may be related to large amounts of resistant starch in the various whole veg foods. Of course, a refined food veg. diet would be a whole other story.

George

This topic is interesting. I just read the book "The End of Diabetes" by Joel Fuhrman. He talks a lot about the benefits of resistant starch. His approach to resistant starch is to eat beans. This resistant starch idea is something I want to explore.

His diet is much too extreme for me. It is basically beans and veggies. I did like his discussion of resistant starch.

I'm rereading "Wheat Belly" by William Davis now. I feel his approach to diet is something I could live with.

Debbie

Debbie,

Certainly getting RS from food is a good thing.

The potato starch approach doesn't require you to change other aspects of your diet. There are some who try to get 40g/day of RS through their food.

George