Gut Healing Salad, your next flight lunch box idea for you… Maybe you might already know how to increase your good healthy gut bacteria thru supplementing probiotics or eating probiotic-rich food like those fermented foods…Yet, do you know how to maintain the bacteria colony thru building up the terrain via providing a “comfortable home and provide food” (prebiotics) they needed to not just survive but to thrive. And see how your energy levels soars and life changes! Before diving into how to make it, allow me to tell you a little bit about why building up the terrain is essential…
What is Prebiotics?
Prebiotics will affect your gut bacteria colony. Prebiotics are:
- Food that contain polyphenols found in blueberries, green tea, and other fruits and vegetables. The phenolic compound and our gut bacteria consume the glycan bonds holding the polyphenols together and render them available for better absorption. The glycans are prebiotics for the bacteria. And the liberated phenols are more bioavailable to us.
- Dark chocolate, a combination of gut supportive polyphenols and prebiotic fiber! Great stuff. Click here for dark chocolate recipes, like Flourless Probiotic Chocolate Cookies, Guilt-Free Chocolate Cheesecake, Irresistable Chocolate Avocado Mousse.
- Pistachios are another special package of fiber and polyphenols with potent prebiotic power. It beat other nuts in head-to-head match up because it is able to produce a biome richer in butyrate-secreting bacteria.
- Resistant starch, that we cannot digest, travels through the digestive tract into the colon where the colonic bacteria is, who can help digest the stuff for us and reproduce. RS is not a fermentable fiber but it acts like it. Multiple studies indicate that RS consumption generally leads to an increase in beneficial colonic bacteria and a reduction in pathogenic colonic bacteria, including a boost to bifidobacteria (good bacteria) and a decrease in firmicutes (bad pathogenic bacteria).
In this blog post, I choose resistant starch as my prebiotic food choice to put into my salad using guest recipe from Caitlin Weeks, a holistic nutritionist, author and creator of the wellness hub Grassfedgirl.com. It is so yummy to eat and enjoy that I must share with you here!
What is Resistant Starch?
Starches are long chains of glucose that are found in grains, potatoes and various foods. But not all of the starch we eat gets digested. Sometimes a small part of it passes through the digestive tract unchanged. In other words, it is resistant to digestion. This type of starch is called resistant starch, which functions kind of like soluble fiber. You will not see spikes in either blood glucose or insulin after eating RS, and do not either obtain significant calories from RS. Once RS reaches the large intestine, bacteria attach to and digest, or ferment, the starch. This is when you receive the benefits of RS.
Top Reason To Consume RS
Resistant starch selectively stimulates the good bacteria in our intestines, helping to maintain a healthy balance of bacteria. These good bacteria “feed” on RS and produce short chain fatty acids (through fermentation), the most significant of which are acetate, butyrate, and propionate. Of these three short chain fatty acids (SCFA), butyrate is of particular importance due to its beneficial effects on the colon and overall health, and RS appears to increase butyrate production more when compared with other soluble fibers.
Butyrate is the preferred energy source of the cells lining the colon, and it also plays a number of roles in:
- increasing metabolism
- decreasing inflammation
- improving stress resistance
How Many Types of RS Food Been Found?
Below are the 4 types of RS and which food found to have RS:
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RS Type 1: Starch is physically inaccessible, bound within the fibrous cell walls of plants. This is found in grains, seeds, and legumes.
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RS Type 2: Starch with a high amylose content, which is indigestible in the raw state. This is found in potatoes, green (unripe) bananas, and plantains. Cooking these foods causes changes in the starch making it digestible to us, and removing the resistant starch.
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RS Type 3: Also called retrograde RS since this type of RS forms after Type 1 or Type 2 RS is cooked and then cooled. These cooked and cooled foods can be reheated at low temperatures, less than 130 degrees and maintain the benefits of RS. Heating at higher temperatures will again convert the starch into a form that is digestible to us rather than “feeding” our gut bacteria. Examples include cooked and cooled parboiled rice, cooked and cooled potatoes, and cooked and cooled properly prepared (soaked or sprouted) legumes.
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RS Type 4: This is a synthetic form of RS that I’m including for completeness, but would NOT recommend. A common example is “hi-maize resistant starch.”.
Which Type To Eat and Where Do You Get RS?
You can get RS from food. The richest food sources are raw potatoes, green bananas, plantains, cooked-and-cooled potatoes, cooked-and-cooled-rice, parboiled rice, and cooked-and-cooled legumes.
You can also get RS from supplementary isolated starch sources. The best sources are raw potato starch, plantain flour, green banana flour, and cassava/tapioca starch. Raw (not sprouted) mung beans are a good source of RS, so mung bean starch (commonly available in Asian grocers) will probably work, too.
But… The Most Reliable Way To Get Lots of RS, Fast?
Is with raw potato starch. There are about 8 grams of RS in a tablespoon of the most popular brand: Bob’s Red Mill Unmodified Potato Starch. It’s also available at Whole Foods. Yet, not everyone feel comfortable or good after consuming it. Hence, you need to take RS the right way. You may find out more about how to take RS the right way in my next upcoming blog post. And now… without further ado, let’s get started in How To Make A Yummy Gut Healing Salad together below.
Above is excerpt from Chris Kresser & Mark Sisson blog post.
How To Make RS Salad?
Resistant Starch Potato Salad
Author: Caitlin Weeks
Servings: 4 to 6
Prep time: 20 minutes plus 8 hours inactive
Cook time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- Sea salt and pepper
- 8 medium potatoes
- 1/4 to 1/3 cup Primal Kitchen™ Mayo or homemade
- 2 tablespoons mustard (gluten free)
- 1 bunch green onions
- 4 boiled free-range pasture-raised eggs
How-to:
- Peel the potatoes if desired. Cut into bite sized pieces. Boil them with a few pinches of salt until barely cooked and then drain. Set potatoes aside until cool. Place them in a bowl, cover, and chill overnight (must do this step for resistant starch to occur).
- In the morning, add the salt and pepper liberally with the mayo and mustard. Slice the green onions and chop the eggs and add them. Mix everything together and adjust seasonings to taste.
- Serve and enjoy!
LOOKING FOR MORE?
If you want more anti-inflammatory, sustainable energy-generating foods recipes like this one, or you want to get on track to a healthier eating lifestyle to take any confusion out of the equation, follow my blog!
Remember, Your Energy Matters! –KayChong
About: Kay Chong is currently an energy-based food, constant jet-lag recovering & healing food researcher,blogger, healthy eating lifestyle strategist, and a community pharmacist. Kay shares healthy, healing & recovering food recipes, energy boosting food recipes for flight attendants who travel frequently across different time zones and combating with constant jet lag health issues every day. Every recipes that Kay choose, she will make sure that all the ingredients in each and every recipes that are being shared here is the best, healthiest, toxin-free and contain the most healing energy in it. Why? Because Kay believes that the REAL FOOD INGREDIENTS are the most powerful DRUG that can CURE and PREVENT ANY CHRONIC DISEASES on earth!
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Disclaimer: The techniques, strategies, and suggestions expressed here are intended to be used for educational purposes only.The author, Kay Chong is not rendering medical advice, nor to diagnose, prescribe, or treat any disease, condition, illness, or injury. It is imperative that before beginning any nutrition program you receive full medical clearance from a licensed physician. Kay Chong claim no responsibility to any person or entity for any liability, loss, or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly as a result of the use, application, or interpretation of the material presented here.
KAY CHONG 