Resistant starch, also known as fermentable fiber, is found in oats, peas, beans, cooked and cooled potatoes and rice, and slightly green bananas.
Resistant starch is different than regular starch. It isn’t digested in your small intestine — instead it ferments in your large intestine, feeding beneficial gut bacteria and acting like dietary fiber in your digestive system. Resistant starch also has fewer calories than other starch —2 vs. 4 calories per gram.
It turns out that resistant starch has very powerful health benefits.
A recent scientific study, just published in the journal Cancer Prevention Research, found that resistant starch reduces a range of cancers by over 60%.
The effect was especially pronounced for upper gastrointestinal cancers.
“This is important as cancers of the upper GI tract are difficult to diagnose and often are not caught early on,” according to Professor John Mathers, professor of Human Nutrition at Newcastle University who helped lead the study.
The study involved more than 1000 people with Lynch syndrome, a hereditary condition that increases the risk of cancer. The preventive benefit was seen in those people who took resistant starch as a daily supplement in powder form, taken for an average of 2 years.
