Are you eating enough resistant starch?

More and more research is showing that our health is very much linked to what we eat, specifically what fibre we eat and how much of it.

CSIRO Director of Health and Biosecurity Dr Rob Grenfell said; “After the brain, the gut is really the next most crucial and complex part of the human body. Maintaining a healthy gut can lead to enormous benefits. Beyond digesting our food, it is the coal face of the nutrients our body absorbs, regulates hormones used throughout our body, and is a frontline of our immune response system.”

Bowel health is obviously vital to our health and ensuring we eat the right type of fibre is key. This fibre is resistant starch. This makes it way through the system without being broken down, until it reaches the bowel and specific bacteria then work on it and as a result create an environment which is beneficial to other bacteria and therefore to our health.

According to CSIRO, the benefits of healthy gut bacteria include:

• Creating an environment that stops the growth of potentially harmful bugs.
• Ensuring the gut barrier stays strong to stop nasty bacteria from entering the body.
• Promoting appropriate immune responses via the 70–80 per cent of the body’s immune cells found in the gut.
• Keeping our gut cells healthy which help eliminate the DNA mutations that can contribute to colorectal cancer.
• Promoting hydration from fluid and electrolyte uptake in the large bowel.

CSIRO has recently developed the CSIRO Healthy Gut Diet, which includes meals based foods containing the resistant starch. These foods include the following;

• Sweet Potato
• Lentils
• Green peas
• Red kidney and Black eyed beans
• Chickpeas
• Cooked and cooled rice, pasta and potato
• Wholemeal pasta
• Rolled oats