Feeding the Gut

It turns out that not all of what we eat feeds our gut well.

To start, it is important to know that our gut has three basic segments: stomach, small intestine, and large intestine or colon.

Our colon ‘eats’ by absorbing nutrients released when the bacteria living there ferment nutrients not digested earlier in the GI tract.

Enter resistant starches.

Resistant starches are prebiotics. Prebiotic is a term that simply refers to a food (or ingredient) that is good for feeding bacteria in the colon.

Studies on the effects of prebiotics often use amounts of prebiotic that aren’t realistically found in the diet. (Who wants to eat 6 slightly green bananas as a snack??) To get reasonable amounts of prebiotics, like resistant starches, it is important to eat a variety of foods that contain them regularly.

Here are some options:

- Bananas, slightly underripe so they are still starchy

- Lentils

- White beans

- Chickpeas

- Green peas

- Apples

- Rice, preferably brown but white has some as well

- Rolled oats

- Potatoes

A neat way to get resistant starch in your diet is to cook, then cool rolled oats or potatoes. Cooling leads to the formation of resistant starches and reheating does not break them down.

Check out our Cool Potato Salad recipe to incorporate some resistant starch into your diet. Regular and low sodium versions are linked below.

https://www.sagestrong.ca/side-dishes/cool-potato-salad

https://www.sagestrong.ca/side-dishes/cool-potato-salad-low-sodium-version