Cold Cooked Potatoes and Resistant Starch
Cold Cooked Potatoes have more resistant starch (RS) than just plain cooked ones. They have a handy chart of RS content of certain foods at Free the Animal. It is going to be tough to determine the exact content of potatoes that you have cooked and then cooled. I suspect potato type and cooking method are just a couple of the variables at work when cooked potatoes undergo retrogradation. The process that causes RS to increase as cooked foods are cooled. The nice part is that the RS remains once the food is heated again.
How to Prepare and Eat
Prepare your potatoes in the normal fashion. I like to fill a 9 by 13 glass pan with spuds skin left on but stab them with a fork a couple of times. Then bake at 375 loosely covered with some aluminum foil for about an hour or until a knife sticks in easily. Then I store them in the refrigerator.
Using them is simple. I pealed and fried them in some bacon grease in the photo above. Or, peal, slice, and add some meat and vegetables and you’ve got a meal.
More
I must admit, I think RS is a pretty important part of our diet. It is food for our gut. Feeding the bacteria that provide our immunity and properly digest our foods. This is the not just a safe carb, but an essential carb. I feel this was a missing piece in my paleo style diet.
I don’t think this is an invitation to eat all the potatoes you want, but a reason to include some in your diet. Prepare the foods with RS in mind and pay attention to how you look and feel. Pay attention to your digestions and energy levels. I think since I’ve been adding RS to my diet my appetite has decreased, my mood has increased and it makes intermittent fasting easier.
Other foods high in RS I’ve been adding to my diet include dehydrated plantain chips, properly prepared black beans, loads of potato dishes like hamburger hash, potato salad, and curry. It certainly makes the food budget go a lot further for our family of six. And, I really think the RS is improving the health and wellbeing of me and my kids.
Follow the latest progress on RS at Free the Animal and I know I am looking forward to the book Richard and Tim are working on. If RS was a drug just the effects on blood sugar would make it a blockbuster. I really think this going to help a lot of people. Don’t take my work for it, try it your self.
