Huh?! Do you lose weight if you eat cooled potatoes?
You may have heard it before: carbohydrates are supposedly making you fat. So if you want to lose weight, you should avoid potatoes as much as possible, for example. After all, they contain a lot of carbohydrates. But now it turns out that you should actually eat potatoes if you want to lose weight—but they should be cooled potatoes.
That’s because when potatoes cool, they convert their regular starch into resistant starch. And that is precisely the magic trick in this whole story.
Resistant starch
Starch is a form of carbohydrate, just like sugars and fiber. It is a complex carbohydrate. You get it from foods such as potatoes. Starch consists of chains of glucose. Those chains contain branches. When starch is broken down in your body, this can happen quickly and easily or more slowly and with greater difficulty. That has to do with the number of branches in the starch. If there are many, your small intestine can easily convert the starch into simple sugars. If there are few, the process is slower and more difficult.
Starch that cannot be digested properly—or no longer can be digested—in the intestine is also called resistant starch. It ends up in your large intestine, where it is fermented. Because the breakdown in the small intestine did not succeed earlier, little or no sugar has been released into the blood. What does happen when resistant starch reaches the large intestine is that more butyric acid is produced. According to various studies, this has several health benefits.
Butyric acid does good things
Butyric acid is a short-chain fatty acid. It nourishes the lining of your own large intestine, making it stronger and healthier. There are also indications that butyric acid has anti-inflammatory effects. And—and this is where it gets really interesting—it suppresses appetite, reducing the likelihood of becoming overweight. Research also shows that it improves insulin sensitivity and optimizes glucose metabolism, which also lowers the risk of type 2 diabetes. Wow!
Retrogradation
What do cooled potatoes have to do with this? If you boil potatoes and let them cool overnight—first on the counter and then in the refrigerator—part of the potatoes’ starch changes. It changes in such a way that it is barely broken down or digested in your intestine, if at all. In other words, it turns into resistant starch. This is called retrogradation. The amount of resistant starch in the cooled potato increases by as much as 2 to 3 times compared with the boiled potato. Pretty incredible, right?
Bring on the potatoes!
Cold potatoes are delicious in a potato salad or a Russian salad. Also delicious: in a classic hussar salad. But of course, you can also fry your boiled and cooled potatoes again. They will still contain plenty of resistant starch. They’re delicious that way too—those crispy fried potatoes.
By the way, there’s no point in eating kilos of cooled potatoes all week, and it isn’t necessary at all. Simply make cooled potatoes part of a nutritious and balanced diet. That way, you’ll get the most benefit from their health advantages.
Also read:
- Life questions: how many potatoes are in a bag of chips?
- This is the secret ingredient for the creamiest mashed potatoes
- Trying to lose weight? Go somewhere tropical!
Sources: Het Voedingscentrum, gezondr.nl, A Healthy Life, NTR Wetenschap
