When I first started keto a long time ago, I loved the keto promise of never being hungry again. That eating keto naturally stops hunger, then a person starts eating less and less and the weight melts away.
Unfortunately, this lack of hunger never manifested itself for me. I’ve always struggled with hunger, whether keto or low carb. There never was enough food.
Many would claim I wasn’t doing things “right” but I’m here to tell ya, they’re wrong.
There are many who never seem to reach that miraculous state of never being hungry. I got to the point where I accepted I would always struggle with hunger. Which is a miserable state of being.
Then recently I learned about resistant starch. The impact has been huge! Hunger truly has faded away, finally! I still have hunger pangs but not this gnawing hunger.
But wait, resistant starch is mostly found in high carb foods. How does this help low carb people?!
We need to go back to the basics and build from there.
The first thing eliminated when starting a keto or low carb diet is high carbohydrate foods. Which also means fiber is removed from the diet as most fiber-rich food is also high in carbs.
But how does this lack of fiber impact your digestive system, and why do I care? Why should you care?
Hint: this ties into why the new diet medicines are highly effective.
Come to find out, our digestive system has a high impact on the hormones that regulate our feeling of fullness and reducing the feelings of hunger - beyond a full belly of food. The type of food, and how it is processed, is a large driver of these hormones.
Think of it this way - in the past I've eaten a whole cake along with a massive bag of chips and still. felt. hungry. The food eaten was low fiber (and low protein),
My stomach could have a food baby and I would be close to running to the bathroom from nausea but it didn't matter. I was still. hungry. I think many of you could relate to this as well.
Yet if I eat food with massive amounts of fiber, I will feel very full and satisfied. Same with protein - one of the reasons low carb is so effective.
The key is when food slowly empties from the digestive system it keeps us feeling full longer.
This is where the push for eating oatmeal at breakfast and whole grain foods comes from - the proven fact that fiber makes you feel full for a longer period of time. These foods are high in fiber. High fiber food has resistant starch.
This is one of the ways the new diet drugs Ozempic and Wegovy help. One primary function of these drugs is to slow down the food moving from the digestive track.
"Ozempic and Wegovy are in a class of drugs called glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists, or GLP-1 agonists. GLP-1 is a hormone your body makes naturally, one of several that helps regulate your appetite. It also decreases gastric emptying time, meaning food passes through your gut much more slowly, and stimulates and improves the release of insulin, which helps manage your blood sugar.” [3]
So how does a person who follows keto and low carb diets incorporate resistant starch into their diet without ruining their carb macros? And why the focus on resistant starch?
The types of resistant starch and its health benefits.
The Four Types of Resistant Starches
Resistant starch (RS) is any starch or starch digestion products that are not digested and absorbed in the stomach or small intestine and passed on to the large intestine. RS is categorized into four types:
RS1 – Physically inaccessible or undigestible resistant starch, such as that found in seeds or legumes and unprocessed whole grains. This starch is bound within the fibrous cell walls of the aforementioned foods.
RS2 – Resistant starch is inaccessible to enzymes due to starch conformation, as in green bananas, raw potatoes, and high amylose corn starch.
RS3 – Resistant starch that is formed when starch-containing foods (e.g. rice, potatoes) are cooked and cooled, such as pasta. Occurs due to retrogradation, which refers to the collective processes of dissolved starch becoming less soluble after being heated and dissolved in water and then cooled.
RS4 – Starches that have been chemically modified to resist digestion. [4]
The resistant starch best to incorporate into your low carb diet is RS1 and RS2.
Health benefits of resistant starch for weight loss:
Appetite Regulation: Gut bacteria can affect hormones that regulate appetite, like ghrelin and leptin. An imbalanced gut microbiota might disrupt these hormones, leading to increased hunger and potential weight gain.
Inflammation and Obesity: Chronic low-level inflammation, which can be influenced by gut health, is linked to obesity. A healthy gut can help reduce inflammation, thereby potentially aiding in weight management.
Mood and Behavior: The gut-brain axis means that gut health can impact mood and mental health. Stress and mood can influence eating behaviors, which in turn affect weight.
How to incorporate resistant starch into your food plan.
Now that we know the incredible benefits of resistant starch, how can we incorporate this into our lives?
Candidly, if you eat a keto food plan, it will be tough. Low carb is much easier to do this with, but you still have to be careful not to ruin your macros.
Looking at the options, here is what I recommend:
Lentil beans, cooked and chilled - small but mighty, easy to incorporate this into salads and warm into soups.
Beans - small amounts, cooked and chilled first.
Cashews - easy to incorporate as nuts are foundational in low-carb
Plantains or green bananas - green banana powder in smoothies is delicious.
Tip: cooking and chilling the food increases the resistant starch of the food.
Start incorporating this into your food plan in small amounts. Sudden dramatic changes can cause digestive stress.
Start slow, track your macros and look forward to feeling much less hungry!
Let me know in the comments how this works for you. I would love to hear from you!
Hugs,
Jami
Further reading: