A Simple Trick for Handling Carbs

By Dr. Mercola

While fiber is crucial for optimal gut health, what makes certain types of fiber even more important than others is its potential for fermentation. Unripe tropical fruits such as banana, papaya and mango contain digestive-resistant starch¹ — indigestible low-viscous fibers that slowly ferment in your large intestine. These resistant starches feed healthy bacteria, essentially acting as prebiotics.

They also bulk up your bowel movements for easier, timelier disposal without making you feel bloated or gassy. Best of all, they don’t spike your blood sugar the way completely ripened fruit and other starchy foods do, so they actually help improve rather than worsen insulin regulation.^2,3 In many ways, resistant starch could be considered a third type of fiber (in addition to soluble and insoluble fiber).

Unripe fruits aren’t the only foods with this ability, however. Researchers have discovered even high net-carb foods such as potatoes,⁴rice, bread and pasta become more digestive-resistant when prepared in certain ways.

Specifically, the process of cooking, cooling and reheating these foods appears to trigger this beneficial change in composition, so the leftover mentality can be quite useful in more ways than one. Not only will you save money by eating yesterday’s leftovers, starchy leftovers will actually be healthier and less calorie-dense.

As mentioned earlier, green bananas and mango are great sources of digestive resistant starches. They also contain a number of valuable vitamins, and all three make for tasty “green” fruit salads. Unripe mango, for example, is exceptionally rich in vitamin C. A single green (unripe) Langra mango contains as much vitamin C as 35 apples, nine lemons or three oranges.²⁴ In India, green mango is used as a natural remedy for:

• Gastrointestinal (GI) disorders: Green mango, eaten with salt and honey is used to treat a range of GI problems, including diarrhea, dysentery, piles, morning sickness, indigestion and constipation.
• Liver problems: The acids in unripe mango increase bile secretion and act as an intestinal antiseptic. It also helps purify your blood and acts as a liver tonic. Green mango with honey and pepper is used for stomach ache due to poor digestion, hives and jaundice.
• Blood disorders: The high vitamin C content of unripe mango helps improve blood vessel elasticity and increases formation of new blood cells. It also aids absorption of iron and decreases bleeding. According to the Indian magazine Deccan Herald,²⁵ “Eating an unripe mango daily during the summer season prevents … infections, increases body resistance against tuberculosis, cholera [and] dysentery …

It tones the heart, nerves and cures palpitation of the heart, nervous tension, insomnia and weakness of the memory … Eating raw mango with salt quenches thirst and prevents loss of sodium chloride and iron during summer due to excessive sweating. It tones up the body and helps one to tolerate the excessive heat.”

There’s one caveat, however: Avoid eating more than one unripe mango per day, as it may cause throat irritation and/or indigestion when eaten in excess. Also avoid drinking cold water immediately afterward, as it coagulates the sap, thereby increasing the risk of irritation. Recipes for green banana salad, green mango salad and green papaya salad can be found in my previous article, “The Surprising Health Benefits of Unripe Banana, Papaya and Mango.”

Fiber Differentiates ‘Good’ Carbs From the ‘Bad’

Bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, fruits and vegetables are all carbohydrates. However, from a health standpoint they’re not created equal, and it’s primarily the fiber content that differentiates “good” carbs from the “bad.” Most vegetables and certain fruits are very high in fiber, which means they’re very low in net carbs, and when it comes to carbs, it’s the net carbs you need to pay careful attention to.

To determine the net carb content of a food, simply subtract the fiber amount in grams from the total carbohydrate amount. Vegetables typically top the list in terms of high fiber content, but certain unripe fruits score high as well, while adding novelty to your diet. As for rice, pasta, potatoes and bread, which are common staples among carb addicts, remember that cooking, cooling and reheating can rather dramatically improve their nutritional profile by increasing the amount of resistant starch they contain.

Potato salad would be one way to indulge in potatoes rather than eating them hot, either cooked, roasted or baked. Alternatively, you could whip up a batch of roasted potatoes, chill them overnight, then reheat them in a pan. Purple potatoes are my new favorite and a great addition to most of my salads.

Reheating cooked and chilled rice is also far preferable to eating fresh cooked rice. With regard to bread, the greatest benefits were seen when the bread was frozen, thawed and then toasted. Just beware of the fact that toasting creates harmful acrylamide, a carcinogenic substance, and the more burnt the bread, the more acrylamide is created. So, if toasting, take care not to brown it excessively.

Overall, most people do not get enough fiber in their diet. Boosting your fiber intake by eating more soluble and insoluble fiber from vegetables and organic psyllium will benefit your health. And, by preparing high-starch foods like rice, potatoes and pasta in such a way as to boost the digestive resistant starch content in the food, these may at least be rendered less harmful. While there are individual differences, as a general rule, most people could benefit by:

• Restricting net carbs to less than 50 grams per day (if you exercise a lot or are very active, you might be able to increase it to 100 grams. However, this is a general recommendation and once you are metabolically flexible it would be wise to increase this level a few times a week, especially when you’re doing strength training
• Increasing fiber to approximately 50 grams per 1,000 calories

Sources and References

• ^1, 4 Digestive Health Institute May 10, 2013
• ² Advances in Nutrition November 2013: 4; 587-601
• ³ Complementary Therapies in Medicine 2015 Dec;23(6):810-5
• ⁵ Lancet 2014 Mar 22;383(9922):1068-83
• ⁶ Science 2 August 2013: 341(6145); 569-573
• ⁷ American Heart Association, Eating Probiotics Regularly May Improve Your Blood Pressure
• ⁸ Archives of Internal Medicine 2005 Jan 24;165(2):150-6
• ⁹ CBS News March 4, 2005
• ¹⁰ Scientific American December 14, 2017
• ¹¹ JAMA 1996 Feb 14;275(6):447-51
• ¹² American Journal of Clinical Nutrition January 1, 1998; 67(1): 136-142
• ¹³ Curr Opin Gastroenterol. 2013 Mar;29(2):190-4
• ¹⁴ Carbohydrate Polymers March 2000; 41(3): 285-292
• ¹⁵ Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety November 20, 2006; 5(1)
• ¹⁶ Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2015;24(4):620-5
• ¹⁷ Nutrition Research and Practice 2012 Feb;6(1):16-20
• ¹⁸ American Journal of Clinical Nutrition July 1, 1992; 56(1): 123-127
• ¹⁹ American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1994 Oct;60(4):544-51
• ^20, 21 International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition 2009;60 Suppl 4:258-72
• ²² ACS.org March 23, 2015
• ²³ European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2008 May;62(5):594-9
• ^24, 25 Deccan Herald June 18, 2011

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