Soylent: Resistant Starch

I just discovered something today.  There is a classification of starches called "resistant starch."  These starches cannot be metabolized by the body, but they can be metabolized by colon bacteria.  These bacteria produce fatty acids as a byproduct.  There are several benefits of consuming resistant starches.  First, they feed gut bacteria, which keeps the good bacteria thriving.  This improves your digestive health.  Second, evidently they improve insulin response.  This is potentially useful for people with type 2 diabetes.  They also make you feel fuller, which may be useful for weight loss.  There are some other potential benefits it may have, but the evidence is not yet strong enough to consider authoritative.  There is one downside.  Taking large amounts can cause gas, at least initially.  When the gut bacteria are not used to being fed this well, they will initially produce a lot of gas.  The gas takes a week or two to go away, but it eventually will.

This has some interesting implications for soylent.  This is essentially a carb that will reduce blood sugar.  I am not certain what the glycemic index is for resistant starches (no sources provided this information), but it is possible that it could have a negative glycemic index (is this even possible).  For soylent, this is a way of increasing calories without substantially increasing nutrition.  This is great for cases (like mine) where a recipe is getting close to the tolerable upper intake levels, but you still need a lot more calories.  Most starches break down too quickly, which will lead to blood sugar spikes, then drops that lead to extreme tiredness.  Resistant starches do the exact opposite, and their effect on insulin response may even allow a little more sugar to be added without causing harmful blood sugar levels.

So where do you get resistant starches?  Ironically, the best source is raw potato starch.  Bob's Red Mill sells this (I am sure there are other sources).  There is one catch.  Avoid heating this starch.  Raw potato starch has a very low glycemic index.  Cooked potato starch is worse than eating pure sugar though.  In fact, it has been measured to have a glycemic index higher than pure glucose!  I do not know what temperature is required to start the conversion, but warm water would probably not cause problems.  I'll look into this more, and if I can find the time, I will create and test a new recipe with higher calories than my previous ones.


One source of information on resistant starch
http://www.dietdoctor.com/potato-starch-lchf-resistant-starch

Bob's Red Mill Potato Starch (note that it does have a small amount of Phosphorous, so do not forget to count that)
http://www.bobsredmill.com/potato-starch.html?&cat=2&gclid=CLaFkoKxqb4CFQpgfgodHGMA5w