How would resistant starch help our microbiome and how would that relate to our skin?

Most carbohydrates are starches but not all starches get absorbed and digested. As the name states, resistant starch is starch that resists digestion. Foods that are high in resistant starch, travel through your stomach and your small intestine to your colon, where it is met with welcome arms by your microbiome (healthy gut bacteria) and enjoyed as a feast. This is an important food group to add to your daily diet, helping with blood sugar levels, reduce inflammation, reduce colon cancer and helping balance the pH levels in your colon.

Resistant Starch and the Microbiome

Having a healthy gut microbiome means your whole body runs - from your immunity, digesting foods, central nervous system, weight, skin and well it is generally called your "second brain". There are over 1000 different species of microbes in your colon and these microbes love foods such as fiber, and resistant starch is another fuel they enjoy. Not only do the bacteria use resistant starch as fuel but they also use it to form butyrate - a short chain fatty acid. Butyrate is the fuel your cells in your colon need and what is not used it travels into your blood stream to your liver and rest of the body to help with other functions.

Cooking and Cooling

Changing the way you cook your resistant starches will help you get a higher amount as when you cook your foods, a lot of the resistant starch is destroyed in the cooking. So cooking and cooling before eating has a better effect on your body.

Adding foods to your daily diet such as

1. Cooked and cooled potato

2. Oats - overnight oats are even better

3. Legumes - making sure they are soaked to remove lectins

4. Green Banana

5. Cooked and cooled rice - brown rice even better

6. Raw potato

Benefits of a Healthy Microbiome and Skin

As we all are learning, a healthy gut bacteria has many, many benefits. When your healthy bacteria are thriving with the correct foods, they function but when too much refined sugars, fried foods and dairy end up in your colon, the "bad" bacteria starts to overtake your healthy bacteria and that is when you find these toxins starting to purge in areas on your face, like your forehead and upper cheeks, in the form of candida acne, eczema or inflammation. Another reason your want your healthy bacteria to thrive is when foods are sitting around in your colon from not being digested properly, you can come constipated, get a sluggish gut or other colon related issues and those toxins can start to purge in your chin area.

Looking at introducing resistant starch in to your daily diet could help your skin concerns indirectly by making sure your large intestine, which houses all those healthy bacteria, are being "fed". Of course there are many other ways to help heal or keep your colon happy which can help your skin as well, but don't over look resistant starch. By cooking extra of your starches in your evening meal and leaving over to have cooled for lunch the next day, would get them into your daily diet.