The Scotty's Everyday Team

Resistant Tapioca Starch
and the Keto Diet

Starch—good for you?? Really? Isn’t starch supposed to raise your blood sugar, and isn’t tapioca starch a carbohydrate that keto eaters should strictly avoid?


Actually, no. Not all starches are created equal, and a type called resistant starch has been shown to be powerfully beneficial for your health, even if you’re keto. We’re here to break down why resistant starch belongs in a keto diet, and more specifically, what resistant tapioca starch is doing in our keto bread mix. Spoiler: it’s not the tapioca starch you think you know.

First off, what is resistant starch?

Most starch is broken down into glucose inside your body. But resistant starch is so named because it’s resistant to digestion; it doesn’t get processed by the stomach and small intestine. Because of this, it doesn’t raise your glucose levels. Instead, it passes through to the large intestine, where it gets fermented as a prebiotic to feed the good bacteria in your gut. (1)

And this comes with a whole range of health benefits. Adding resistant starch to your keto diet can help support healthy weight loss and keep you feeling full—without knocking you out of ketosis. Here are some of the ways that resistant starches can be a major plus for your health:

Improved insulin resistance. This nifty type of carbohydrate functions as a soluble fiber. It doesn’t raise insulin levels and can actually improve insulin sensitivity and glycemic control. (2) And that means it helps you become more tolerant of the carbs that you can digest.

Weight loss. Resistant starches have been shown to decrease your appetite and increase satiety, or your feeling of fullness, after you eat—theoretically leading to fewer calories consumed throughout your day. Further, it’s been shown to increase your metabolism and decrease your fat storage by causing your body to burn fat, which leads to more calories spent. (3) It’s a win-win in terms of weight loss.

Improved gut health. Acting as a prebiotic (a substance that feeds the good probiotic bacteria in your gut), resistant starches are great for your microbiome, the center of wellness in your body. They increase biodiversity of your gut flora (the type and number of good bacteria) and yield the production of short-chain fatty acids like butyrate. (4)

These short-chain fatty acids help keep the lining of your gut intact, soothe inflammation, and balance pH levels. They’re essential for brain, metabolic, and immune health. Bonus? Your gut and mind have a strong connection, so a happy gut really can equal a happier you.

Lower risk of disease. Because of its therapeutic effect on your colon, resistant starches may aid in the relief of conditions like Crohn’s disease or leaky gut. (5) Further, it improves your insulin sensitivity—and having low insulin sensitivity is considered a major risk factor for a number of diseases, including type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and heart disease. The health benefits of resistant starch are ones that should also help lower your risk of colorectal cancer. (6) And in animal studies, resistant starch has increased absorption levels of minerals like calcium and iron that are vital to human health. (7) (8)

For a keto eater, these things are important. Essentially, resistant starches are carbohydrates that can actually keep you in fat-burning ketosis longer while they keep you feeling fuller. Meaning? Not only do you get to eat these carbs, you should eat these carbs! (9)

Examples of resistant starch

 
Now that we’ve covered what resistant starches are, it’s important you know how to find it in your foods! Examples of resistant starch include:

-Beans, lentils, peas and chickpeas (especially white beans and lentils)
-Raw oats and barley (try making some “overnight oats” in your fridge!)
-Cooked then cooled potatoes or rice (leftovers, anyone?)
-Green (unripe) bananas or plantains (we recommend freezing them in chunks to throw in your smoothies)

Of course, you need to take care with how you prepare these ingredients. Just eating a potato isn’t going to ensure that you reap all the benefits of resistant starch with none of the carb load. When we were formulating Scotty’s Everyday Bread Mix, we were careful to make sure that the ingredients we used would be the very best for our keto eaters. Which brings us to the tapioca starch that we chose. 

What is “resistant” tapioca starch?