Another post from the BJJ Caveman. I don't think he posted a follow-up, if he does, I'll try to put it here. Enjoy. -Tim
Resistant Starch and Cholesterol
Currently at the airport listening to Kiefer’s new podcast called Body IO FM where is first guest is Robb Wolf. One of the first thing Robb brings up is the topic of resistant starches. It’s something that he’s been experimenting with lately and he revealed that like me, he also has a sky high LDL-P while eating low carb and going in and out of ketosis. After doing the resistant starch thing he said that his LDL-P ‘plummeted.’Much of the resistant starch information has been championed by Richard Nikoley on Free The Animal, but I first got interested when I heard about it from Mark Sisson, Dave Asprey, and Chris Kresser, all within the span of 1-2 months.
I’ve been informally experimenting with it in the past few weeks checking my glucose, ketones, weight, and abdominal circumference intermittently. I tried to eat to establish full ketosis but fell off the wagon a few times and ended up eating carbs on days I worked out, in a sort of targeted ketogenic fashion, so I never quite got over the 0.5 mmol blood ketone hump to qualify for ketosis.
There were also a few days when the BJJ Cavewife and I went to visit her folks… and carbs were eaten.
As you can see, my weight and abdominal circumference took a hit from my trip to Italy, but I managed to get things under control.
Despite my weight going back up to 188.2 lbs, I was able to get my abdominal circumference back down to 33.75 in without every going ketogenic. From the times that I checked, my blood sugars were also in pretty good control.
I found that taking the resistant starch with food definitely gave bad bad gas. When I took it without food, I seemed to do ok… until my next meal when I would again get the bad bad gas again. The gas would persist for hours also…
This seems to be a common phenomenon and people report that it abates after 2-3 weeks. The thinking is that the resistant starch provides food for the good colonic bacteria and as they begin to multiply they generate tons of gas. It’s these good bacteria that also help people maintain better glucose control and at times even lose weight. Many people even report having better sleep.
In my case, my sleep was still terrible… but I think it was more of a function of my graveyard work than anything. I’m not sure anything will make my graveyard shift sleep better.
After hearing what Robb said, I’m definitely interested in seeing what my cholesterol looks like after a few more weeks on this.
I’ll be going out of the country for almost 3 weeks so I won’t have my batch of Bob’s Red Mill Potato Starch
with me AND I’ll be eating carby and gluteny things to fully experience the culture, but when I get back I’ll do be taking this stuff more regularly, and after a few weeks I’ll get a blood test.
with me AND I’ll be eating carby and gluteny things to fully experience the culture, but when I get back I’ll do be taking this stuff more regularly, and after a few weeks I’ll get a blood test.
If this can allow me to be ketogenic AND have a lower LDL-P then that would be perfect
