Atkins Journey Take two

**Lisa** · February 6th, 2021, 07:37 AM

Originally Posted by liv

So you are saying they are just theoretically amazing? LOL

Ha...no. I've made the basic cheese chaffle with nothing fancy. I'm holding off on making them and any variations because of these because I'm watching my dairy intake. However, being on my TOM, I'm thinking of trying one today...I'm craving chocolate.

**liv** · February 11th, 2021, 07:20 PM

Resistant Starch

I think what I want to know (for myself) is whether I should pay attention to this (or is it one of those flash in the pan theories that comes and goes)
And I want to know if all those new keto products full of resistant starch actually are zero or very low carb or what is up with them?
Internet is full of repeated junk info as usual.
I need to find out what some of the keto gurus have said

***********************
WHAT IS IT
It is a starch (amylose) that acts like fiber and is not fully digested in the small intestine but primarily (?) fermented in the large intestine.
The end product of the fermentation, short fatty acids like butyrate, feeds the good bacteria in the intestine
There are different kinds of resistant starches
classified as RS1 (certain grains), RS2 (potatoes, legumes, green banana) RS3 (produced when cooking and cooling like rice) RS4 (chemically modified)

Some natural sources of resistant starch
Raw potatoes or sweet potatoes
potato starch
green banana
rice, if cooked and then cooled
beans and lentils
uncooked and unrolled oats

CLAIMS

* Resistant starch allegedly feeds the gut bacteria (I am assuming more than any other fiber or food would)

** It is relevant for the keto diet because allegedly having a better stomach bacteria flora can improve insulin resistance and lower blood sugar after meals (which are things we aim for when cutting carbs)

***Because resistant starch is fermented in the large intestine it is not made into glucose like normal starch and therefore does not raise blood sugar (and also does not have to be counted as carbs but can be deducted like fibers)

**********

CAVEATS AND CONCERNS

However.all the natural sources of resistant starch also contains normal starch and carbohydrate so that makes it problematic for low carbers
So one raw banana will have 5 resistant starch grams but maybe 20 normal carbs
Uncooked oats (0.25 cup) may have 4.5 grams resistant starch and 5 normal carbs
. I need to figure out how people may balance those two things out or if this is just something to ignore totally.
I am leaning towards resistance starch is not worth pursuing when on low carb. (Maybe small amounts of steel-cut oats could be OK).

Early on (2014) some low carb bloggers (such as Diet Doctor and Sisson) were positive to trying potato starch but I think most people who went that route came to the conclusion that it had more drawbacks (carbs and gas build up) and not enough benefits or that the benefits from it, like low blood sugar, could be better achieved just staying low carb. Looking around I think this is where most people in the keto world still are. Not much buzz about resistant starches these days.

*******
Resistant starch and modified starches (RS4) in low carb products.... keto or not?

Resistant starch can be manufactured artificially from modifying normal starches
The product added to low carb breads etc is modified starch such as tapioca starch. This one is created chemically and not natural.
In April 2019 FDA allowed RS4s (Starches modifed to be resistant like the tapioca starches in low carb breads) to be counted as fiber on food labels.
(Other fibers such as inulin, amylose and polydestrose were recognized in 2018
So now we have a whole long list of ingredients that can be claimed to contain no net carbs at all (and many many practically zero carb keto products followed in the wake of this)

Zero carb bread
An example is zero carb bread sold by walmart or aldi for instance

ALDI Zero Carb Bread Nutrition:

Serving size: 1 slice | Total Carbs: 9g | Fiber: 9g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 1g | Net Carbs: 0g
Ingredients: modified wheat starch, water, wheat gluten, wheat protein isolate, oat fiber (chicory), vegetable fiber, wheat bran, soybean oil, yeast, vinegar, salt, and preservatives (calcium propionate, sorbic acid).

this bread contains modified wheat starches, chicory as well as some fibers from vegetable and wheat bran mixed in with gluten.
Many ketoers depend on these kinds of products.

I do not eat any of the breads but sometimes have whole wheat tortilla from LaTortilla with oat fibers

opinions on these kinds of products
The important criteria is maybe whether eating the low carb bread knocks you out of ketosis or not.

People writing about it on line have different experiences. Some found that one slice was too much and raised their blood sugar or lowered their keto readings and others could eat one but not two
The issue is likely that even if you can count the starch as fiber, some of it may still be digested as carbs.
And the other problem is the old "rounding down issue" or "hidden carb error" as FDA allows anything under 0.5 to be rounded down to zero. if you add a little bit of this and little bit of that all those half carbs may easily add up to significant numbers

Final thoughts
I think that resistant starches may be partially digested as carbs and therefore somewhat problematic.
People should probably think harder about using these products
my advice to people would be to be very careful.

I think I will start to add tiny bits of soaked oats to my diet for a once in awhile. I enjoy the soaked chia seeds currently

**liv** · February 13th, 2021, 06:13 PM

I think I sort of understand the resistant starch thing a bit.

In other news. It has been really cold. I am not running. Normally I would go to a gym to run but not these covid times. Weight up a little bit but has stabilized just under 113 lbs. I am fine would that. Hopefully next week it will warm up a bit. I have walked even if it has been really really cold (it was minus 40 two days ago).

Staying low carb though. Today i had eggs and avocado shake and a few snacks of cheese and pork rinds.

**Kathygirl** · February 25th, 2021, 04:38 PM

Hi Liv, (I’m back after a long absence, Back on Atkins 2/6/21 til now, lost 9 3/4 lbs.��)
Your post is extremely informative and right on! I was first introduced to resistant starch when reading “The Perfect Health Diet” by Paul Jaminet, & wife. I really enjoyed their way of eating, which included the resistant starch potatoes and rice, as you stated, cooked then put in the fridge, to create that resistant starch effect. Well, getting lazy I would just cook and eat, hahaha! No resistance on my part, LOL! Anyway, I was definitely over carbing, and that “looseness” encroaches to the point where I was eating bread, too. So naturally, the pounds came back for a visit. So I failed in my study of resistant carbs. However your post is so thorough I’m going to save it! Meanwhile I’m back on Atkins 2002 style. Very glad to see you here!