30 Amazing Resistant Starch Foods for Better Digestion

Chances are you might have heard of resistant starch by now, but do you know all of your food options when it comes to working it into your diet successfully? Here’s an update on the science behind the power of resistant starch, and some new ways that you can get more of it into your diet starting right now.

What is Resistant Starch?

Let’s dive into today’s discussion with a brief overview of what resistant starch is, and what it can do for you. Some of the most healing foods that you might be able to imagine are good carbs, so let’s start off by dismissing the idea that we need to avoid carbohydrates altogether.

The bad thing about “bad carbs” is that they absorb really fast, and they make your body work harder in order to juggle your blood sugar. What this does is gives us a good clue about what we might be able to do with “good carbs” in our diet.

What we can see from good carbs is that they absorb slowly, they are easy on your blood sugar, and they feed a super important group of probiotics in your intestinal tract. This is especially true for the group called the anaerobic protective bacteria. Resistant starch is fuel for these bacteria, which are not typically as influenced by probiotic supplements.

The Truth About Energy and Body Weight

When it comes to this concept of energy and body weight, it all comes down to your blood sugar being in that “good range” and not being high or low (while not moving fast, up or down). What we know about resistant starch is that it stays longer in that curve, more than any other known food.

Here’s how it works. Basically, starches are made of two polysaccharides:

1. Amylopectin – highly branched (lots of surface area and quickly digested)
2. Amylose – straight chain (less surface area and slowly digested)

The long, straight chain of amylose, because there is a long single straight chain, it becomes harder to break down. Your body basically has to cover it one bite at a time, which leads to slower digestion.

With the branched versions, like amylopectin, you can take many bites at once – leading to faster digestion, but more surface area being covered overall.

The Benefits of Resistant Starch

What are some of the overall benefits of resistant starch in our diets. Well, the key benefits are that we begin to make more short chain fatty acids in our body. When we have more of these, we are better able to:

• Feed good bacteria in our body
• Reduce inflammation throughout our body
• Heal our all-important intestinal tract

Ultimately, the things included here are called:

• Acetate
• Butyrate
• Propionate

Resistant starch also improves:

• Blood flow to the colon
• Helps with our overall nutrient and mineral absorption
• Binds with toxins in our body to get rid of them (1)
• Feeds the good bacteria in our body

How much resistant starch does it take?

In a modern diet, all you might need is 2 – 4 grams of resistant starch per day, but many traditional diets had 20 – 30 grams of it per day. Data has shown that it is completely safe, for all ages, with no problems at all. Resistant starch is safe, because of the fact that it is so good for you. It works to help mitigate future risks, while being a safe option in the present. But what more does resistant starch do for us?

Resistant starch also has the ability to lower triglycerides and LDL, as well as lowering the whole glycemic load of the meal involved (2). We have also seen that more resistant starch in your diet can lead to less instances of inflammatory bowel diseases, while improving insulin sensitivity and allowing you to recover from infections faster. It can also:

• Make you less apt to have digestion problems
• It can help your body composition and immune response

How does resistant starch work?

The interesting thing about this is that it works both as a prebiotic and a synbiotic. The synbiotic role is where these kinds of foods help the bacteria interact better amongst themselves (rather than just feeding them).

What are the main types of resistant starch?

There are different types of resistant starch that we can find (3). They are:

• RS1 – This type of resistant starch is actually bound up and physically protected.
• RS2 – This type is ungelatinized.
• RS3 – This is otherwise known as retrograde starch, and typically involves cooking and cooling something. In fact, the more times something is cooked and cooled, the higher they get in resistant starch.
• RS4, RS5, RS6 – There are more than just the ones listed, but these are synthesized forms of resistant starch that we might be able to see at one point or another.

The Sources of Resistant Starch

I want to take the time to really flesh out a list that can work for you. This is a comprehensive guide of where we might be able to find resistant starch in our diets…

1. Raw oats
2. Navy beans
3. Northern beans
4. Cannellini beans
5. Peas
6. Adzuki beans – also the densest source of magnesium (4)
7. Kidney beans
8. Lentils
9. Black beans
10. Garbanzo beans
11. Lima beans
12. Pearl barley
13. Green bananas
14. Banana Peels
15. Potatoes
16. Sushi rice
17. Pumpernickel bread
18. Rye bread
19. Yams
20. Plantains
21. Muesli
22. Corn tortillas
23. Sourdough bread
24. Cooked millet
25. Brown rice
26. Rice pasta
27. Corn
28. Chickpeas
29. Pinto beans
30. Hi-maize flour

Are there higher concentrations of resistant starch in certain foods?

Of course, we can find varying levels of resistant starch in a variety of different foods. Remember how I mentioned how cooking and cooling can increase the amount of resistant starch? Well, there are some foods which are naturally inclined to have more in them.

The kind of common foods which have the highest concentration of resistant starch, by far, has to be beans. Although all types have some, white beans – including navy, northern and cannellini – have the most.

There are other foods that have lower amounts than beans, including:

• Cooked and cooled potatoes
• Raw oats
• Unripe bananas
• Cashews

When it comes to products that are super dense in resistant starch, one of the best ones available is pea starch. It is commercially available, entirely flavorless, and has been used primarily in meal replacement products. It can be easily absorbed in water, is free of plant toxins, and is hypoallergenic.

What’s the best dose of resistant starch?

Ideally, we would like to get 20 to 30 to 45 grams per day of resistant starch into our diets. Overall, it is better to find it with food and to get it with food sources. The important thing to do is to raise the dose gradually when it comes to your consumption.

If you have the opportunity, slowly plan to increase your resistant starch intake by the week. If you notice a bit of discomfort, bring it down to a point where you stay feeling good and then bring it up again. Deal with it at your own pace, so that you can be completely comfortable with the new products that you are bringing into your diet.

Resistant Starch & Your Health

What do we know about resistant starch? Well, it should be pretty clear that there are so many different ways that we can get it into our diet – and it has so many radical health benefits for us in our lives. When it comes to getting more, it’s about making the small changes which we can use to benefit our bodies – without stressing ourselves out and giving up halfway through.

In order to stop yourself from decision fatigue, I would definitely suggest trying a couple resistant starches with a meal replacement strategy (5). This way, your brain has less changes and considerations to deal with and make, so that you can stick to resistant starch so that it can work its way into your life in more impactful ways.

Feel Better Today

Have you been thinking about more resistant starch in your diet? Is it because you have been feeling less energized, or that something might not be right. While you might want to start considering how to get more resistant starch on your plate, also consider some of the other steps you can take to improve your health. Start by taking the Adrenal Quiz (6) today, and see the kind of steps you can take to take back your health and start feeling better today.

Dr. Alan Glen Christianson (Dr. C) is a Naturopathic Endocrinologist and the author of The NY Times bestselling Adrenal Reset Diet.

Dr. C’s gift for figuring out what really works has helped hundreds of thousands of people reverse thyroid disease, lose weight, and regain energy. Learn more about the surprising story that started his quest.