Some years back, everyone following the goings on in the U.S. Low Carb community was made aware of the goings on in Sweden, surrounding the institutional trials and tribulations of Dr. Annika Dahlqvist, reminiscent of what Dr. Robert Atkins encountered in the early 1970s here. Since being vindicated, a rather substantial LC Community has burgeoned in Sweden. One of my readers and commenters is Swedish low carb blogger Per Wikholm, and I asked him to fill us in on what’s now going on in terms of that community’s awakening to the power of resistant starch.
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When I first began blogging on the subject of resistant starch this January, I did suspect that the s-word wouldn’t be well received. My first post was about Steve Cooksey and his N=1 experiment with RS. Steve is a type 2 diabetic on a low carb, high fat paleo diet that includes butter and some high fat diary products. In Sweden, Steve’s diet would without any doubt be labeled as a LCHF diet rather than Paleo.
That first blog post didn’t receive much attention, but a constructive discussion in a LCHF FB-group for diabetics did start. With my second post on RS in march—mainly based on Mark Sisson’s definitive guide to resistant starch—the RS issue was stirring up just like a tablespoon of raw potato starch in a glass of water. Good results on bloodsugar from diabetics who tested RS were accumulating.
But the gut microbiota really hit the fan on the 16th of April. I was just about to press the publish button for my very long, third blog post, when I got a message from Margareta Lundström, one of the founding mothers of the Swedish LCHF-movement, that she had just come out of the closet on her blog, describing her N=1 experiment with raw potato starch. The results were amazing. Her fasting bloodsugar that had been borderline prediabetic had dropped significantly. So I had to rewrite the introduction to my blogpost called “The LCHF guide to resistant starch.” For all those of you that like the classic Monty Python Dirty Hungarian Phrase Book Sketch, here it is translated by Google into English.
(Notably ”LCHF” is randomly, sometimes translated to ‘carb’ by Google so in this translation, Tom Naugton is portraid as one of America’s best-known advocates for carbs. Maybe Google in cooperation with the NSA, is clairvoiant enough to predict Tom’s upcoming postings on safe starches.)
Anyway, this time it really took off. The Diet Doctor Andreas Eenfeldt wrote about it in his Swedish blog the very same day and later also on his English blog.
Dr. Annika Dahlqvist, who was the first to introduce the concept of LCHF in Sweden, wrote about it on her blog in Swedish and is now testing RS. Since then, multiple popular blogs and forums on FB has have had really long treads were RS is discussed. Most of what I write in my LCHF guide to RS is no news for the U.S. LC and Paleo audience; but I added a table to illustrate not only the total amount of resistatant starch, but also the accompanying amounts of starches that do elevate blood sugar. Admittedly, this table is a combo of data from different sources, so in a sense it is comparing apples to pears—or rather different brands of rye crisp bread.
The take home message of this table is that if you are diabetic or prediabetic, stick to raw potato starch…or maybe occasionally raw potatoes thinly sliced or grated (in moderation, there are some nasty antinutrients present in uncooked, raw potatoes). If you are more carb tolerant, fry some grated potatoes with butter, olive- or coconut oil in an small frying pan and flip it. Don´t overcook. The potato should still be be mainly raw inside. You can eat it as is or use it as a pizza crust adding tomato, cheese and whatever topping you like to it. If you put it in the fridge overnight, a fraction of the starch will retrograde and become resistant. Here’s the table:
RS measurements from: https://freetheanimal.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Resistant-Starch-in-Foods.pdf
Total starch measurements from the Finnish food database Fineli: http://www.fineli.fi/index.php?lang=en (A really good food database worth bookmarking)
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Thanks to Per for the reportage. It will be interesting to see how things go. One thing that strikes me, is that it appears there are actually LC docs in clinical practice taking a hard look over there in Sweden. Perhaps they can all leapfrog the LC docs in the U.S., who have 3-4 decades more entrenchment into the idea that they know all the answers already and there’s nothing to see here.
We’ll just see about that. …In the meantime I have this strange urge to head over to the IKEA caf for some meatballs & sauce, lingonberry jam, and mashed potatoes.
I await the debunking.
The efforts to try and debunk RS in Sweden mainly comes in two flavours:
1. This is just a new fad and since LCHF is already perfect and works fine for me there is reason to test it.
2. The resistant starch isn´t resistant and will turn into glucose, only slower. Never mind all those diabetics testing RS and showing lower blood sugar readings… and never mind that anecdote with the girl who added two raw potatoes to her strict LCHF diet and went into stronger ketosis.
Why a pretty (yes, she is very pretty) young girl spends so much time following the goings-on of a middle aged man I’ll never know.
You’re wasting your time, Christopher.
She’s 30. Her mind knows literally everything, can’t be changed. You’ll have to wait until she hits her 40s and knows far less.
+1. The older I get the less I think I know but the wiser I get (I think :)).
Hey Richard,
I have a quick question for you- I’ve been taking resistant starch for about 6 months now and still fart quite a bit in response to it. Are there any specific probiotics you’d recommend to help get rid of all this fartage?
Alexander
Funny you should mention that. The probiotics info is in here, with a link to a specific post.
freetheanimal.com/2013/12/resistant-primer-newbies.html
When I was doing just the PS, I would after a time get pretty gassy. If I stopped for 2-3 days, things would normalize and then build again upon reintroducing. However, since I started the three SBO probiotics, nothing but normal occasional tootage. The way I did the probiotics was two per day of all three for about a week, one per day for another week, and now it’s one of one brand per day, rotate. So, you’re taking one of each brand every three days. They are pricey so after the first couple of weeks, you’ll get the benefit of all three and they will last a long time.
Yes, Richard, moore docs are now recommending low carb for their patients in Sweden but there are still a huge majority that clings to traditional, low fat diets.
And Richard, if you do visit IKEA, have a look at their deli counter. If you´re really lucky they might have both the low fat, high protein dried reindeer meat and jam of the golden cloudberry. Then you could preform your own N=1 experiment to test if this Sami and Inuit diet will throw you into deep ketosis ;-)
About a month ago I started the Prescript Assist and RS protocol inspired by your writings. Then, something strange happened. I got this nasty contact dermatitis that just wouldn’t heal. I had contributed it the OFF Bug spray, but the doc told me something else was going on – that my immune system just wasn’t fighting it the way it should. The only thing I’ve changed in the last month is the RS and probiotics. Is there ANY possible way this could have done something funky to my immune response? Thanks!
Rita,
The food industry uses sulfites to bleach potato starch. Health Canada lists sulfites among their top 10 food allergens. hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/pubs/securit/2012-allergen_sulphites-sulfites/index-eng.php
They list one of the symptoms of allergy as: Flushed face, hives or a rash, red and itchy skin.
You might want to try a different source of resistant starch. We’ll all be better off if we can convince the food industry that there’s a market for unbleached (I’m guessing grey) potato starch.
Rita:
All I can say is that I want to make sure I get as many different strains as possible.
See this:freetheanimal.com/2014/05/resistant-problems-ignorance.html
If cost is a factor, do what I did. I took two of each for about a week, then 1 of each for another week, and now, I take one of one each day, so you’re only taking any particular brand every three days and they’ll last good and long like that.
Thanks – I’ll try that out. I will be experimenting with my response to RS and probiotics separately now – to rule them out. The only other thing it could be is that damn organic shampoo I spent $16 on.
The symptoms are exactly as I experienced. However, can’t we rule out sulfites if I’m used to drinking copious amounts of wine without side effects?
Rita:
Take the plunge. 5 years now without a drop of soap or shampoo.
freetheanimal.com/2013/10/doctors-still-shampoo.html
It might be interesting to make a batch of home-made potato starch (which would be grey maybe with no sulfites added) and simply check whether this would induce the same problematic symptoms. Just to rule out sulfites.
Rita,
For most people RS works just fine but have also recieved reports with on adverse effects from Swedes trying it. Candida blooming again and aches in the neck returning.
One reason I think potato starch has been positevely recived by many here in Sweden is that it has for long been used as a traditional, houshold remedy. Thinly sliced potatoes were left in a glass of water over night. The slices were removed and the RS that had precipitated at the bottom were stirred up in the water and drunk.
I get reposts on how peoples great grandma’s used it. This RS potatoe water was a remidy used agianst digestive issues (even in cattle), against arthritis and even to cure infertility (PCOS?). It´s about diseases all connected to gut health, leaky gut and inflammation.
So how come this old remedy does not work for everyone nowadays? Both todays junk food and LCHF will starve your gut microbiota, foremost the good bugs but also the ugly ones. A very low carb, animal based diet is excluding all FODMAP´s and many people with gut- and inflammatory related diseases will experience relief in syptoms.
While syptoms are reliefed, the real problem with a gut flora out of balance might actually worsen over time. And if you then, all of a sudden throws some tbs of PS in there will be som nasty, inflammatory critters in your gut that will also thrive from the RS and you´ll get adverse effects.
You got it 100% right, Per. We have crippled our guts to the point we can’t eat ancestrally appropriate foods.
Not sure if everybody is still even capable, but I think with fecal transplants and the uproar against antibiotics, RS will play a big part in making us healthy again.
Farts need to become the new sneeze.
A healthy gut will produce gas that will be expelled on a regular basis and it isn’t supposed to fumigate a stadium. A fart should be no worse than a sneeze in public acceptance.
I’ll bet in history, farts where not frowned upon until we started crippling our guts and made them smell of death.
Rita, I’ve been taking potato starch since last June. I added PA last fall and have experimented with various other probiotics as well as adding various soluble fibers. I have had two instances of localized skin rashes. The first was probably about 3 months ago, and took two weeks to fully resolve. The second is right now, about 4 days in. I’m 56 and have never had skin issues. Recently I had been experimenting with taking up to 4 PA a day. Maybe not a good idea, lol.
Thanks Kate. Did you have facial swelling, too, or just a rash? The part that scares me is that the doc said it looked like my immune system became compromised – how though? My only notion is that I was overwhelming my gut bugs with the PA, RS, and Kefir all-at-once. I’m pulling that theory out of my ass, though.
No facial swelling. This time about a six inch square area on the back of my neck. The first time was a similar size are on a different part of my body. I don’t think it is serious enough to see a doc about, nor would I think they had any answers. Yours sounds like a fear mongerer. I would stop PA, RS, and Kefir, wait for rash to resolve, and restart one at a time slowly. I’d go with the starch first.
Thanks again Kate. And I totally agree about docs not having answers. I asked the doc, the nurse, and the pharmacist for some insight and every single one of them was just like ” I dunno.” Frustrating. It has been quite the lesson in administering n=1 experiments, though. That is to say, everyone should research his/her own body and not rely on docs who have no holistic understanding. Ok. Off soap-box now.
Ikea meatballs?
nytimes.com/2013/02/26/world/europe/ikea-recalls-its-meatballs-horse-meat-is-detected.html?pagewante…
What’s wrong with horse meat?
My daughter moved to nyc two years ago for a job and adventure. She bought a rug at IKEA in brooklyn and they have a blue and yellow boat to take people across the river and help you load your stuff into cabs!!
Sorry, Per, this is great news. I like reading things like this. I hope you write more posts for Richard. I’m going to look at your links, too.
Thanks Cathy! If you click on my name above, yo´ll get to I lenghty post I wrote in English on the Sami diet (similar to the Inuit diet)
Per – This is great news that RS is catching on in Sweden. I really think that RS (and prebiotics in general) is going to be a game-changer on a world-wide level.
What we need is maximum exposure, then long-term studies to find perfect dosage and effects of different types of RS.
The entire concept of prebiotics has only been around for less than 20 years, our understanding of the gut biome increases on a daily basis. Up until now, prebiotics have not worked because the dose has always been too low, when the dosage is increased, gut bugs benefit, but gas will also increase and people with severe gut dysbiosis may do worse. These two reasons are, in my opinion, why manufacturers are not interested in seeing people take a meaningful amount of prebiotic fiber. A tiny dose will ensure no farts and minimal uncovering of gut problems, but it will do nothing for the people taking the small doses. 20-40g per day seems to be the sweet spot.
Like you, I live very far north and could see that what people were being told about the indigenous people’s diets were not quite true. The multitude of berries, mosses, seaweed and mushrooms found up north is phenomenal.
Love your blog! Keep us posted on the RS scene in your part of the world.
Tatertot, I agree it will be a game-changer.
Concerning Arctic climates. Where ever you see a herd of reindeer strutting around, you know that there will also be eatable plants that man will eat. No eatable calorie will be wasted and the reindeer will be eaten head to tail.
Per,
very nice article. Love to see Angelica eaten everywhere. By the way, have you come across some lily bulbs eaten by Sami? It seems the whole Eurasia has been eating some. I have noticed it in old books about Kamtschatdales as well. Nice research on sarana here:
“Sarana in Eurasian folk botany”
sgr.fi/susa/91/stahlbergsvanberg.pdf
And one more paper worth reading:
“Gathering dog’s tooth violet (
Erythronium sibiricum
) in Siberia”
sgr.fi/susa/93/stahlbergsvanberg1.pdf
Per, you absolutely have Stachys palustris growing in Sweden.
“Marsh woundwort, Stachys palustris, an overlooked food plant
academia.edu/1442356/Marsh_woundwort_Stachys_palustris_L._Lamiaceae_an_overlooked_food_plant
“.. why did one of the most productive and tasty wild indigenous root crops never become established as a domesticated plant?”
Conclusions for Gemma: Rewild your garden!
Thanks Gemma for the links.
No, I haven´t specifically seen anything on lilly bulbs in the litterature on Sami food but there is a long list of veggies they were using and if the found some ateble bulb I´m sure they would use it.
“Conclusions for Gemma: Rewild your garden!”
I’m getting ready to plant Tiger Nuts in my garden…it’s on the list of the ‘world’s most invasive weeds’ LOL
Thanks as always for the info Richard. What is native potatoe starch? Is that the same as unmodified potato starch? And Hi-Maize corn starch – I’m curious if this is different from Waxy Maize corn starch? I have some of the waxy maize starch from NOW, haven’t seen a hi-maize corn starch product yet. I noticed in the full RS PDF there is Hi-Maize corn starch and Waxy corn starch, so I’m assuming they’re different. Do you recommend a Hi-Maize corn starch product?
Thanks
I’d suspect that “native” is analogous to “unmodified.”
Again, everyone who hasn’t search YouTube on making your own PS. Tim has done it. I have not, but it works. It’s easy. Pretty damn unprocessed.
Per,
Best post yet on resistant starch – I’m including the linked blog where the google translation refers to carb-loving Tom Naughton. Seriously though, I’ve been using PS + soil based probiotics and I’ve had nothing but good results.
This was a great post because for me it provided a critical moment of clarity: eat LCHF and your colon lives on glucose (i.e. HCLF). Add resistant starch and the colon lives on butyrate (LCHF).. Brilliant! To be fully LCHF you need resistant starch.
Hallelujah! You got it.
Thank you, Ward.
Now, why is this so hard for so many people to understand?
S-word. There’s no such thing as a starch deficiency; and moreover, there’s no such thing as an essential carbohydrate.
So saith the Lord.
sayeth
Or was my version different from yours?
King James British vs King James American?
Ward,
Actually the LCHF-means-HCLF-in-your-colon-analogy comes from an interview on RS that Tom Naughton did with Richard, Tim and Grace so they should have credit for that one. It´s a great analogy.
.. .. .. then there’s the Oirish alternative spelling: “Seth the lord”.
Here’s where that line of thought originated: url-removed/2013/11/fat-burning-beast-sugar-burning-gut.html