We had a great discussion about resistant starches in lecture last week and I thought I would share the information here. You may have never heard of resistant starch before because it is a relatively new area of research. Basically it is a type of dietary fiber found in many carbohydrate rich foods. It is called resistant because that is what it does, it “resists” digestion in the body. It is because of this property that it has such a big impact on overall health as well as weight loss. Its effects are three fold for weight loss: it can increase your body’s ability to burn fat, fills you up and reduces hunger by increasing satiety hormones. Usually carbohydrate is used for energy first but when resistant starch is present, it alters digestions and the body uses fat as the main fuel source. As far as other health benefits go, it can improve blood sugar control since it skips the normal digestion patterns, increase immune function by boosting the growth of probiotics and reduce your risk for certain types of cancer such as colon cancer.