No introduction necessary.
~~~
Mr. Nikoley,
You and Tatertot Tim have stumbled, if that’s the correct word, onto something having more repercussions of which we “resistant-starchers” may be aware. The following is of course anecdotal, strictly an N=1 experiment.
Some relevant background: I am 61 years old, weigh 240 pounds (still obese but 60 pounds less so), and my menu is 99% very-low carb, less than 20 gm/day. In the past I ate sugar and its variants with abandon, to the point of gluttony; I love the stuff. As a result I had very high blood pressure and I was on the verge of becoming a full-blown T2 diabetic. My sugar cravings are now under control, my blood pressure is way down, the diabetes threat is non-existent, and blah, blah, blah, you know the story. However, a couple of things have continued to bother me.
Diarrhea has been a curse for many years, due no doubt to my pre-paleo menu, and any amount of sugar would result in an impressive blood glucose spike with an attendant spike in my blood pressure. Even if I spent the day completely avoiding carbohydrates, a single cookie or sliver of pie would result in the spikes and a bad night in bed with heartburn and small regurgitations of stomach contents. It’s been this way for the past few years.
Until your posts about resistant starches…
I have a degree in geology—part of my course of study was paleoarcheology—and I have been interested in our evolutionary ancestors’ diet since those days forty years ago, though I’m more a dilettante than an actual student of the subject. Your post on resistant starches, like Mark Sisson’s book Primal Blueprint, opened doors in my mind that had heretofore been invisible. I immediately saw the implications on blood glucose, the gut biome, etc., including the reason why a lot of people, such as modern “primitives,” can eat primarily fruits and such with no apparent ill effect. (The fiber content, supposedly blunting the sugar effect, has never fully explained, to me, the lack of damage that might be caused by a fruit diet. Are there resistant starches in fruit? Is there such a thing as a resistant sugar?)
I immediately purchased two bags of potato starch. I have been using milk kefir for many months and while it did reduce the diarrhea, the problem was not cured. Adding your proposed two tablespoons of potato starch twice per day helped a bit more but the curse persisted. The almost immediate effect of the potato starch though was the blunting of my blood glucose spikes if I ate any sugar. Another effect was a minor lowering of my blood pressure.
I have a self-imposed upper limit of 90 mg/dL (5 mmol/L) blood glucose. If it rises above that I get mad, obsessively tracking down the reason. I feel really, really good when my blood glucose stays between 73 and 80 mg/dL (4 to 4.4 mmol/L). Pre-paleo my blood pressure was in the area of 140/105 mmHg, post-paleo the pressure had stayed around 118/80 mmHg. About a week after starting potato starch my blood pressure dropped to an average of 113/75 mmHg and my blood glucose averaged 80 mg/dL (4.4 mmol/L) daily. But, as I said, my diarrhea continued to be a problem.
The Monday before Thanksgiving I got pissed off about my diarrhea situation and decided to double the dosage of the potato starch. That morning I put four tablespoons of starch in my usual pint of kefir and again Monday night before I went to bed. And Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, no more diarrhea; and the problem has not returned in the 2 1/2 weeks since.
Now to the point of this story. On Thanksgiving Day I ate cornbread dressing, ONE roll with butter, and a SLIVER of pumpkin pie with whipped cream. My blood glucose did spike of course but not as high as my history indicates. I figured it was one of those anomalies one gets from day-to-day and ignored the reduced numbers (four measurements over four hours). What did get my attention was sleeping soundly that night with no regurgitations at all; I slept the entire night, not awakening once.
Damned interesting that, and my attention was heightened. I’ve continued the protocol of 8 tablespoons of potato starch—4 in morning and 4 before bed—since Thanksgiving, wondering whether or not I’d meandered into something meaningful but I couldn’t figure out how to test it. Two days ago, Friday, Dec. 5, I decided to just do my usual stupid act of a full-speed-ahead experiment. I fixed a large amount of white rice, about three cups, and ate the entire amount. This meal should have put me in a light coma, spiking my blood sugar into the heavens and elevating my blood pressure. Well, my blood glucose did of course rise but only to a max of 140 mg/dL (7.8 mmol). My blood pressure did rise but since I didn’t log it I can’t report the number but it didn’t go as high as I expected. Friday night I slept like a dead man, rising only once to urinate but immediately returning to sleep, and NO regurgitation.
Okay cool, fine, I’m onto something maybe. Now for an acid test; lets really stress this N=1 theory. Yesterday, Friday, Dec. 6, I went to the grocery store and purchased a large-ish chocolate bar, a package of Nabisco’s Fig Newtons, and a small bag of sugar cookies. After returning home I settled into my chair, turned the TV to one of those bad, but hilarious, science fiction movies wherein a beast is killing young people and the lone survivor is a 110 pound, axe-wielding teenage girl, and proceeded to eat the chocolate, one sleeve of the Fig Newtons, and the whole bag of Snickerdoodle cookies. I then waited for the consequences.
Over six hours my blood glucose peaked at 160 mg/dL from 78 mg/dL (4.3 to 8.9 mmol) and my blood pressure went from 105/69 to 136/88 mmHg. Whoa! The BG should have gone to the moon and the BP should have popped an artery like an overfilled balloon. One weird thing though, my head felt inflated as if it were indeed a balloon; a really strange sensation. I did fall asleep but I didn’t pass out as I would have in the past. (Unfortunately I cannot report the number of pieces into which the teenage heroine chopped the beast.) My stomach was not happy of course but I wasn’t suffering the usual torments either, another really weird non-event. Of course I didn’t eat anything for the rest of the day until bedtime when I drank a pint of kefir with four tablespoons of potato starch.
Now for the final act. I went to bed last night at midnight, expecting a really tough night. The amount of sugar and flour and bad, cheap oils I had eaten should have put me through unmitigated hell, Dante’s Third Ring as it were. I should have lain there for a couple of hours with heartburn, eventually falling asleep but awakening after an hour with a mouthful of stomach acid. In the past I would have brushed my teeth, drank a potion of water and baking soda to alleviate the acid stomach, and fallen back into a restless sleep. But not last night. I was asleep within minutes, even after having napped for a couple of hours, and didn’t awaken until 7:00 this morning. I did not have the usual heartburn, I was fully rested, and the usual morning-after bout of diarrhea was absent. My stomach is still somewhat annoyed but what does one expect after such goings on?
The really big news though is my blood glucose this morning was only 78 mg/dL (4.3 mmol), my blood pressure was at 103/65 mmHg, and my resting heart rate was 67 bpm. Genuinely startling numbers in light of my history. There is definitely something else occurring with the resistant starch protocol other than helping the gut biome. If the good bugs are way down in the colon and the spiking of insulin/blood glucose starts in the stomach or the mouth, why did my various numbers stay low? Why did my usual heartburn stay away, allowing a restful sleep? Obviously a high population of good gut bugs effects the entire body but I cannot connect the dots of a healthy colon and bad food in the mouth or stomach.
Regardless, whatever is going on, my life has gotten much better thanks to your posts on resistant starch. I sleep very well, my blood glucose stays in the 70 – 80 mg/dL (3.9 – 4.4 mmol), my blood pressure is usually around 105/65 mmHg, and the diarrhea has disappeared, all in just three weeks of a large intake of a resistant starch. Simply amazing and astounding and all the other synonyms.
My kefir protocol.
Morning:
- 1 pint milk kefir (my fermentation of course)
- 4 tbls potato starch
- 2 tbls cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed)
- 1/4 tsp ascorbic acid powder (Vitamin C)
- 1 tsp (2.5 gm) ground Ceylon cinnamon (anecdotally said to lower blood pressure, which I believe has some veracity)
- 1/3-scoop veggie powder (Garden of Life’s “Perfect Food – Super Green Formula.” I am simply incapable of eating lots of vegetables, I don’t like them.)
- Occasionally 1/4-cup of heavy cream for taste and mouth-feel
- Occasionally 2 raw egg yolks for quickie protein
- Occasionally pureed raw liver for all the benefits (contributes no discernable flavor but the color of the final mix is, um, unusual)
Shake/mix/blend well and allow it to sit for 20 minutes to let everything get soaked or dissolved or whatever. (Immediate ingestion doesn’t seem to do have much effect in the gut except impressive flatulence. For me, allowing the mix to sit for a while eliminates the flatulence. NB: I have been using the starch for several months so reduced flatulence may be due to my gut bugs having acclimated but if I drink the mix without the suggested soaking time I will sing a different tune. This fact is very important at night. Sweet Thang, on some matters, is so narrow-minded she can look through a keyhole with both eyes.)
Before bed:
- 1 pint kefir
- 4 tbls potato starch
- 1/3-scoop veggie powder
Mix well, etc.
Thanks for your blog,
James
~~~
Nothing left to say. Your turn. Please share it. You never know who might be helped, a life veritably saved…just because you did, right in time and on time. …And to get caught up, here’s all the many posts on Resistant Starch.
doogiehowsermd 
Nick 
sootedninjas 
Aviel 
tatertot 
James
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My potato starch N=1 story involves coffee. I love the stuff but had to stop drinking it as it was wreaking havoc with my blood sugar. My energy would go through the roof for a few hours after drinking just one espresso in the morning and then by mid afternoon my energy would crash and I would find myself overeating to compensate for the energy loss.
Not so since supplementing with resistant starch. I can now have 2-3 espressos with no energy crash late in the day. More generally I am much more stable and level headed on the potato starch. I find it is better taken twice a day than once a day.
Also, I no longer dread the thought of skipping a meal. I know I’ll have the energy to make it to the next meal without getting foggy in the head.
Oh, BTW, I forgot to mention I a also started supplementing with amino acids, magnesium and ceylon cinnamon at the same time as potato starch so I cannot say which is having the most effect. However, I do notice the days I miss the potato starch more than the days I miss the other supplements.
And no, the butt-gas has not subsided. It’s as strong now as it ever was.
Okay, good.
Next week is blood letting for thyroid testing. So far blood sugar never goes over 100. It used to sit at 110 during the day, fasting 95. Now it’s about 95 during the day. Will check fasting in the tomorrow a.m. Don’t know about blood pressure.
For some reason I can’t understand, my body does not seem to want to let go of the potato starch. Maybe it’s in love….. know what I mean. Sort of TMI issue except there’s none to be too much about. No problems when it does but there’s no movement and no fartage. Just stayage. Maybe I need to eat some lentils or beets or something.
The dreams: Totally X rated. I don’t know if that says something about me or what, but it’s every night. Not problematic, just not the usual. I was really wondering if I should add this but what the hell, for the sake of slightly embarrassing accuracy it’s not just ‘vivid dreams’. Or maybe other people were using the term ‘vivid’ to mean the same thing. I was wondering if besides effects on neurotransmitters there’s an effect on hormones (besides possibly Thyroid.)
Here goes: tap the ‘submit’ button………….. crash, burn….
Gabriella,
U CRACK ME UP!!! Have you heard of the gut-brain-adrenal-thyroid-genitalia axis? LOL I think Spanish Caravan heard of it…
Oh good. I’m not the only one then? My brain is quite busy and inventive at night I’ll say that much.
@ GK. Are you sure it’s really just a dream that you’re having?!?
Doogie, I hope so. It’s a bit difficult somnambulating when a person sleeps in a hammock.
I haven’t read enough about this. Can someone explain to me why RS is so hyped compared to other prebiotics (e.g. inulin, FOS, pectin…)?
I’m wondering because I was just reading the following articles:
Press: bbc.co.uk/news/health-22458428
Abstract: pnas.org/content/110/22/9066.abstract
…and it seems like prebiotic FOS (oligofructose) can increase/stabilize healthy Akkermansia muciniphila and prevent obesity.
Incidently, Akkermansia is also increased by RS: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22909308/
But really that just puts RS on the same footing as FOS.
Anyways… I’m just thinking out loud here. Excuse me.
What I want to know is, why are the panties in a bunch for all the bulletproofexec.com members, over here: bulletproofexec.com/is-there-such-a-thing-as-bulletproof-resistant-starch/
Dave Asprey seems a sensible guy, always questioning, but definitely a science/evidence based N=1 type of guy. The forum members on the other hand…
“Totally X rated.”
Gabriella. Suspicions confirmed. :)
“Oh good. I’m not the only one then? My brain is quite busy and inventive at night I’ll say that much.”
My experience. I can create a whole new story in my head every night and on the edge of sleep, write on the fly unlike I can ever do fully conscious. It’s so good sometimes that I don’t even care about going to sleep, the darkness, stillness and slight chill are enough. I like to sleep slightly chilled, ie, just less than enough covers.
Nick, there are like a dozen posts and over a thousand comments. Do your own fucking work and don’t ask anyone to explain it to you.
You are not excused.
wish I get those “vivid dreams” I sleep like a dead rock.
it’s a good night sleep BUT it’s boring.
Richard, have you posted anything about discerning the difference between Potato Flour and Potato Starch?
I am currently in Thailand and have to my surprise found Potato Starch in the supermarket, but I cannot read the entire back label and am worried it has been processed incorrectly and I am perhaps just taking in dried mash potatoes all day long.
@ Evolutionary! OMG! Bad question dude. Richard is going to get so mad at you.
Amazing success story!
I’m neither obese nor sick, but I decided I wanted to try this to improve my general health etc, but I have started and stopped a few times already (trying to increase the amount of Potato Starch gradually). The reason is that I get terribly bloated. Fartage isn’t as much of an issue since I didn’t take more than 1 tbsp per day yet and today I’m supposed to increase to 2 tbsp / day, but I feel like my digestion suffers greatly even from such a small dose.
Could there be something wrong with my starch source? Is it something I just have to suffer through until the good gut bacteria prevail?
I’m grateful for any help. I’m gonna try to soak the starch for 20 minutes just like James said, maybe it will do the trick. Cheers!
Hey Nick
Have you seen this from Conway, it’s one of the best comparing RS v. Oligosaccharides/etc?
foodandnutritionresearch.net/index.php/fnr/article/viewFile/1784/1691
Our overall health might really be about SIBO and rectal health…it’s not just RS but the whole ecosystem (kinda like how we are all interconnected like webs)
drbganimalpharm.blogspot.jp/2013/10/giq-and-distal-gut-microbiome-as-driver.html
Hey Grace
Thank you for the links. Nice paper and some very good information on your blog.
What I’m most intrigued by is RS ability to enhance the survival of probiotics.
(Wang X, Brown IL, Evans AJ, Conway PL: The protective effects of high
amylose maize (amylomaize) starch granules on the survival of Bifido-
bacterium spp. in the mouse intestinal tract.)
Could other prebiotics also have this mechanism…? From your paper you linked:
“The culture protagonist activity of oligosaccharides has not yet been explored, however, it has been reported that fructo-oligosaccharide improves the resistance of a Bifidobacterium animalis strain to bile acids when compared to glucose and fructose.”
Nick,
I think there occurred co-evolution between highly densely coiled r-starch and our beneficial synbionts. They synbionts reside in the soil and eventually they want to return to their breeding grounds. R-starch is coiled up in double helices. Sound familiar? They are very dense, sophisticated, energy molecules. Can you imagine eating your ride…? LOL ahah. The release of energy from R-starch is also very exothermic, I think, too. In an ecosystem, various ‘exchanges’ of energy occurs, no? It all starts with the sun (photons) and gets transferred up and down the food chain and throughout the soil and plants. This happens in the gut too except somewhat more elemental where there are transfers of just one or two carbons (methane) or fatty acids of 2-4 carbons (acetate, proprionate, butyrate). Different species cross-feed, fertilize and nourish one another other. It’s all so fasinating!
Evolutionarily
Yep, it’s in previous posts and comments. Starch is just the granules from raw potato, about 80% RS with the other 20% being water locked inside the granules, like popcorn. Heat it, they burst, forming regular starch. Flour is made from cooked potatoes, so essentially just like eating regular cooked potatoes.
I would be interested to know the effect RS has on people with the opposite weight problem. My girlfriend can eat anything and never gains weight. She is a petite 100 pounds. She is also hyperthyroid and this makes her even thinner, which is not fun in the current cold weather.
Aviel,
I would try taking one of the SBO probiotics like
Prescript Assist. I had headaches and cramping from RS and even a diet of high RS foods.
But after only one day of the PA, no problem , and am now enjoying better sleep, though perhaps not much fun as Gabriella’s, but
–hardly any waking,
— and lower blood sugars with fasting in the 90s
both things I could not achieve on years of PHD. While I did great on PHD with improvements
In both areas, after a while, just came to think that further improvement for someone my age (71) was just asking too much. Not so.
Thanks Tim and Richard.
Went to the Korean supermarket today.
5 pounds of potato starch $11.99.
ASSI brand,
Imported by Rhee Bros. Inc. and Korean Farm Inc. http://www.rheebros.com
@Nick – You are making the same mistake everyone has made for the last 50 years since the invention of ‘fiber recommendations’
This is what clenched it for me:
‘ ‘Short-Chain Fatty Acids and Human Colonic Function: Roles of Resistant Starch and Nonstarch Polysaccharides’ Topping et al. described the role of RS on the health of humans and also discussed a ‘carbohydrate gap’. In calculating the need for SCFA in the human gut, they discovered that non-starch polysaccharides could only provide 25% of the SCFA requirement for optimal gut health and posited that oligosaccharides (OS) and RS were needed to fill the gap. They noted that humans need approximately 32-42g/day of fermentable fiber for SCFA production, and that FOS and other OS’ could only be utilized up to about 5g per day.”
It’s all in here: physrev.physiology.org/content/81/3/1031.full
Haven’t been eating the potato starch but I’ve been eating beans like crazy and also enjoying great sleep/vivid dreams.* I’ve had problems with chronic insomnia in the past so a good night’s sleep is always appreciated.
*Had one last week where in the dream I knew I was dreaming, those are always strange, like “The Matrix.”
@tartertot
“They noted that humans need approximately 32-42g/day of fermentable fiber for SCFA production, and that FOS and other OS’ could only be utilized up to about 5g per day.”
I guess that answers my question to Heisenbug on what is the optimal FOS dosage.
Another question I have tho is what is the difference between NutraFlora FOS and NutraFlora scFOS ?
Unless the makers of NutraFlora decided to just brand their own FOS.
@ Test Subject “James” – I would bet the missing link in clearing up your diarrhea might be dairy. Have you ever given a serious try at completely giving it up for at least 12 weeks? Just as gluten is hard on the digestive tract for many people, so are dairy proteins difficult for some to digest. It is a common cause of constant diarrhea. Nobody likes to give up their creamy goodness, but the fact that you are pushing the pro-biotics so hard and still having such invasive diarrhea tells me that you are still ingesting something that doesn’t “agree” with you. I would target milk next. I had the same problem with daily diarrhea, and as soon as I stopped the dairy (I had already given up gluten, most grains, and nightshade veg) the diarrhea stopped.
There are so many of us that reach our middle years, and start having these kinds of problems, but since we have “always” eaten something, seemingly without problems, we deny that it could be that food. Most likely, it’s not that those foods weren’t damaging us all along, its just that the damage is cumulative, and we have finally hit a point where our systems are too damaged to continue processing those foods. Even if you can “tolerate” the diarrhea, for those of us seeking optimal health, having constant diarrhea interferes with the absorption of nutrients as it pushes our food and supplements through too quickly for proper assimilation and absorption.
Something to think about.
FYI… interesting snippet form NutraFlora brochure
“NUTRAFLORA consists of ß 2-1 linked linear chains of
fructose bound to a terminal glucose. The chain length,
or degree of polymerization (DP), varies from three to
five. ScFOS is also found in a variety of fruits, veg-
etables and gains.”
“However, to get one teaspoon (~ 3
grams) of scFOS, one would have to eat the equivalent
of 15 onions, 22 bananas or 383 garlic cloves”
sp.ingredion.us/foodinnovation/en-us/RegForms/Documents/2013%20NUTRAFLORA%20Brochure.pdf
Health Canada approves Ingredion’s NUTRAFLORA prebiotic fiber as dietary fiber source
foodnavigator-usa.com/Suppliers2/Health-Canada-approves-Ingredion-s-NUTRAFLORA-prebiotic-fiber-as-di…
@Heisenbug (I love that name, BTW),
“In humans, RS and OS could close the carbohydrate gap (274), but consumption of OS appears to be self-limiting due to osmotic effects and may contribute only 5–10 g/day. Direct evidence that a physiologically significant amount of starch reached the terminal ileum (and could enter the colon) was shown in intubated volunteers (283). Substantial quantities of starch (and other macronutrients) were found in ileal effluent after consumption of certain foods such as beans and high amylose starch. Thus, in a highly digestible food such as white bread, only 2.8% of available carbohydrate (i.e., starch) appeared in the effluent compared with 13.8% with lentils and 22.6% with high amylose bread (279). The fiber content of the food was found to be an important determinant of digestibility, and greater fiber content also increased ileal protein losses. Muir et al. (209) compared high and low RS meals and showed that of meals containing ∼52 g of starch, ∼4% (1 g) was undigested with low RS food and 48% (25 g) with high RS food”
Also, in study, do a ctrl-F search for ‘potato’ then look at all the references to how raw potato starch is a superior butyrate producer than the other starches…
I’m pretty sure it will turn out the RS, specifically RS from potatoes and plantains, is needed more than any other fermentable fiber.
Imo the difference is whether we are talking about linked chains of FOS in which case 25g is overdoing it, or unlinked chains of sfGOS in which case you are just scratching the surface, you have to consider the nutrient partitioning effects of the RS-FOS protocol which provides that no more than 10g shall be ingested in a post-GOS state which means that if you are ingesting 15g prior to BOS then you are making the biggest mistake of your life, you cannot possibly achieve your result, am I talking to children or what? Are you guys making it up as you go along?
Ellen~!
What a great response and that mirrors mine. I haven’t been able to tolerate dairy or gluten but after the SBO probiotics (on a diet already highly RS-enriched — red/black/brown rice, whole soaked Chinese grains, Chinese heirloom tubers) I was able to drink milk again and even eat gluten without immediate and unrectifiable problems (eg epic bloating and brain fog).
GOOD JOB and thanks for your sharing of amazing observations.
The besides Prescript assist, others soil based organism probiotics that I’ve used and love are listed below
iherb.com/O-Donnell-Formulas-Flora-Balance-Bacillus-Laterosporus-Bod-Strain-60-Capsules/6078
drbganimalpharm.blogspot.jp/2013/11/how-to-cure-sibo-small-intestinal-bowel_16.html
RS helps to maintain everything. The ecosystem can be somewhat frail if one has had problems earlier.
Nick
I’m not a physicist (maybe I should call my buddy Taubes?) but RESISTANT STARCH are DNA shaped carbs. Does that make quantum sense? The energetics and molecular shapes are extraordinary. I don’t get it but I know it is inherently what sets it apart from ordinary fiber NSP and obviously glucose/fructose/FODMAPs and our own endogenously produced fucose which we make on the tips of our microvilli for the microcritters to graze on when food is lacking (between meals? when our genotypes fail to dictate like I’m FUT2(-/-) non-secretor).
The oligosacs prebiotics are NOTHING IN COMPARISON to double helices of amylose+amylopectin. And our co-evolved dirt based creatures that live in our gut know that. They ride these dirt-covered tubers and whole grains as spores or live bacteria, traverse protected like nomads on their camels or horses across the harsh desert terrain (pH2, gastric acid, pepsin, trypsin, enzyme breakdown, harsh bile acids, detergents threaten), then finally arrive to the large intestines which lacking in oxygen like the moon however it is teaming with their desert tribes, synbionts, many lifeforms and co-feeders, grazing grounds, water and lush food everywhere…. After feasting, they go back to the soil, their home returning to their dirt tribes and land of roots, shoots, moist dirt until the next generation’s journey. It’s a circle, no?
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1541-4337.2006.tb00076.x/pdf
It’s a food science article with great visual diagrams. Richard put up an electron micrograph earlier of the bugs which ‘ride’ the starch granules, much like exotic Arabian knights LOL. OK Lawrence of Arabia movie over.
Grace, in re: the Korean fermented soybean paste (mine is plain, not with red pepper): there’s only so much a person can eat. The potato starch really blunts the appetite as well. I know in some parts of Japan people eat natto for breakfast every morning but is that really necessary? I’ve got both the natto and the soybean paste at home (always) but don’t eat either that frequently. What would you suggest as reasonable? Once per week, twice per week? For some reason, natto really blunts appetite as well. Not because it’s gross. Probably same reason as potato starch: the beans are not heated and have been frozen.
Mind you, today when I was at the Korean supermarket my focus has shifted to ‘hm, does that have resistant starch? Does that have fructo-oligosaccharides? ….. Nameko mushrooms… mushrooms, mushrooms….’ OMG I’ve been assimilated!
@ sootninjas: maybe that’s why the 30 Bananas a day freak is still alive: his guts make short chain fatty acids. LOL!
@Ann
Great food for thought on dairy. Thanks.
@ Ann:
Yes indeed, I did give up dairy. I literally do not remember the last time I drank a glass of milk and it’s only since April have I added the occasional bit of heavy cream to my morning kefir and the occasional slice of real cheddar to, say, an omelet or a breadless burger. I believe my gut was badly damaged due to the copious amounts of bad food I ate for many years. My robust rotundity required almost five decades to complete, a work of art requiring more than a few months to undo.
I will now start reducing the amount of potato starch, the green powder, etc., to see at what point I still need such supplementation, if any at all. It is probable the potato starch I have been ingesting has actually been working and it was just taking time to show the results; the sudden doubling of starch may only have been that spark needed to take the process over the finish line.
The data on Nikoley’s blog says up to 60 gm of starch will be metabolized by the gut bugs but with no apparent increase in utility if larger amounts are used. The 8 tbls (approx. 100 gm) I’ve been using for the last three weeks represents 80 gm of usable starch so 25% is basically wasted. Heck, it could be the excess starch may result in constipation.
FYI: I’ve got three experiments running. One is some pinto beans in the process of being sprouted, re: Sally Fallon’s “Nourishing Traditions” book. Experiment 2 is pinto beans, soaked and cooked, sitting in a fermentation broth of water, salt, and kefir whey. The third experiment is a cup of cooked rice fermenting in water, salt, and kefir whey. I’m interested in the effects these foods will have on my blood glucose and if there will be any noticeable effect on my gut. (I know sprouted pinto beans are delicious because I tried some several years ago. What I don’t know is if fermented pinto beans or fermented rice is edible. I’m sure other societies have used them but I don’t know if my American tongue will find them palatable.)
“am I talking to children or what? Are you guys making it up as you go along?”
Oh go fuck off, rob.
Don’t try to channel me. I am very precise when I go off on people. It’s about shit they ought to know as competent humans, like brute force and all manner of other things where people submit to authority.
You’re all on about a huge bunch of acronyms involving Fructo Oligosacharides, which you didn’t spell out once.
Don’t be like that. You can’t shit on people for all ignorance, only ignorance they objectively ought not be ignorant about,
Be just, Rob, even when using the c-word.
Gab,
I don’t know what exactly blunts appetite but for certain the microbial by-products and microbes themselves alter the gut hormone, GLP, leptin and post meal insulin, no?
We eat the gochukang couple times a month when we are doing bibimbap (not much in the summer) but the Koreans seriously eat all kinds of fermented pickles, meat, seafood at nearly every meal. Real kim chee has RAW SQUID IN IT ;)
Our guts are like compost — did you see this my lady (Hey Richard??!) ?
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3521025/
Tito RY, Knights D, Metcalf J, Obregon-Tito AJ, Cleeland L, et al. (2012) Insights from Characterizing Extinct Human Gut Microbiomes. PLoS ONE 7(12): e51146.
Will love to blog soon about fossilized feces, dino doo, petrified poop~~!!!!!
Goes along well with RS enriched dirt covered tubers, pollen and other yummmy ancient nibbles…
lol
For Bea and you, did you see this one?
“Man’s best friend? The effect of pet ownership on house dust microbial communities — dog owner’s housedust more enriched and diverse”
Dust from households with dogs was significantly richer (p=0.04) and more diverse (p=0.04) compared with those without pets… while the majority of D [DOG OWNERS] and some C samples resided in G1. G1 samples were significantly richer (p=0.008), more even (p=0.002), and more diverse (p<0.001) compared with G2 samples and exhibited the presence of 757 taxa in significantly higher abundance (Table E3), representing the phyla Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteriodetes, Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Spirochaetes and Verrucomicrobia.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2956425/
Nick,
Gut 101 — the barriers to survival of bacteria/fungi in the gut are gastric acid, enzymatic degradation and the detergent action of bile acids. Actually this is true for many proteins like insulin too. We never give patients who need insulin a pill for insulin, right? It’s because insulin is a small protein and will instant get broken down by either acid, enzymes or bile. We’re omnivores — we eat everything. Protein, fat, carbs. We are thoroughly equiped to harvest the energy bonds out of each and all of these nutrient energy sources (which ultimately are from the sun’s energy= photons, right?).
Insulin can only be adminstered only two ways — IV or snort. Well the snorting didn’t work. The breathing of insulin particles caused a host of reactions and immune triggering as you can imagine. This was an example of one of the shortest lived, stupidest Pharma experiments ever.
We’d have the same problems with our microflora too if it werent for spore-based bacteria/fungi and RESISTANT STARCH GRANULES from those dirt-encrusted potatoes, roots, rhizomes and tubers. lol Well we do snort a bit of this if you’re gardening and working in fields. Otherwise if you are eating them (or licking my butt) the oral by mouth route of administration do work. Want to stand in line? JK
Dr.BG, you win the internet. :-)
“’ OMG I’ve been assimilated!”
What did I write in my very first post? Resistance is Futile.
Prepare…
Heisenwhatever
I won’t take you seriously until you you give me the slightest hint of accounting for the roughly 50 studies I’ve summarized in the series. About 12 in one blog, about 35 in another. I’m guessing you’ve not read either.
You are wasting people’s time and I’m ignoring you until you come to account.
I firmly believe that you do not care about anyone but toppling what has been accomplished here.
You have an enemy.
I love how you stir the pot sir, and always enjoy the results. ‘kraut on the go, kombucha in the fridge. trying RS next.
well, given what I’ve read about microbiome=brain health…. how are your air miles? heh :)
Hey!
I’ve had trouble wrapping my had around this resistant starch thing for a while now… I mean, I did not doubt that it works, I just had a little trouble with questioning it why it would make sense from a evolutionary stand point… i mean… sometimes tubers were not so easy to find and were not around all the time and everywhere – also, some populations, like some of the Inuit tribes, get no fiber whatsoever and seem to be faring very well…
well, I’m not the smartest dude around, so I just stopped questioning and settled with the theory “that are microbiomes in modern times are just so out of wack because of the chems, antibiotics and other nasty stuff and RS is the fastest way to fix them”…
this means I’ll try with 1TBS first week, then 2TBS second and so one till 4TBS or maybe more… I kind of have history of experimenting with food and my body so I guess this will be fun… Will report my findings here! ;D
Oh… I also have one question now… I’m from Slovenia and d*mn – I just can not find “potato starch” anywhere… I found some thai-imported tapioca flour, but i guess this is not OK, as it probably went through same processing as potato flour? I don’t know… Also I am not very fond of paying 20 bucks for shipping of Bob’s Red Mill stuff to my godforsaken country… So any help here would be appreciated. Haha.
OK, that’s it. Thanks for the awesome blog! Keep it up!
Nenad Kojić
I finally found Bob’s Red Mill unmodified potato starch in Holland and I ordered it two days ago. I got a call today and, get this, they told me it’s on back order :D !
Regarding the milk being a contributing factor to the dhiarrea or not. I”m wondering if James used raw milk for his milk kefir. I was never able to tolerate milk at all. One glass of milk would make me cough up mucus for about half an hour. As a child I was allergic to milk and it induced bronchitis.
Then I started consuming raw milk from a good, local, organic farm, either it’s in pure form or via milk kefir. No problemo. Nothing. Not even one cough.
I sometimes wonder if people who are really lactose-intolerant are simply intolerant to pasteurized milk full of antibiotics, puss (there is about one thimble puss in one litre of milk from chronically inflamed udders yummy) and without the enzyme lactase, or that they are really intolerant to milk. The farm I get my milk from also puts unrefined sea salt (no joke!) in the feed of the animals which improved their health considerably.
Greetings from Holland! ;-)
“Otherwise if you are eating them (or licking my butt) the oral by mouth route of administration do work.”
Most bestest comment by anyone, anywhere, ever.
I’m trying to get my girlfriend to understand that she needs my healthy gut bugs – its a win/win situation :)