I bet your asking what the heck is Resistant Starch? Good question... Resistant starch is a form of dietary starch that is resistant to digestion in the small intestine and instead reaches the large intestines. "WHAT?! So what happens to it if we don't digest it?" Great question again!! These types of starches in the diet offer fuel for our microbiome (gut bugs) rather than ATP for energy production. When broken down by our microbiome they produce short chain fatty acids, the most important being butyrate. Butyrate helps to reduce the pH in your colon, & reduce inflammation in your gut. Resistance starches when broken down support healthy digestion and protect against infections and dysbiosis.

Resistant starches can improve your body's ability to respond to insulin. The higher your insulin sensitivity, the better your body will be able to handle high blood sugar.

Since resistant starches are harder to digest, your body will use up more energy trying to break them down. This means you won’t get hungry as quickly and as a result you’ll be eating less. Resistant starches have only two and a half calories per gram, while regular starches contain four calories per gram. Therefore it’s a great addition to your diet if you’re looking to lose or maintain weight.

The CSIRO recommends intakes of resistant starch of 15-20 grams per day are recommended for supporting bowel health.

The following foods are particularly high in resistant starch:

• Rice or potatoes that have been cooked and cooled
• Whole grains such as barley and oats
• Plantains
• Green bananas (not yellow or ripe bananas, which have regular starch)

Here are some ways you can add more resistant starches to your diet:

• Using uncooked oats to make overnight oats, which consists of soaking the oats in milk or yogurt. Overnight oats have more resistant starch than cooked oatmeal.
• Cooking potatoes, pasta, beans, and rice and allowing them to cool in the refrigerator before eating. Reheating these items after they have cooled off won’t affect the levels of resistant starch.

When someone decides they want to improve their health, they first begin with an exercise routine, maybe add in some more cardio or meet with a trainer to help guide them to their weight loss goals. This will be followed by working on getting the nutrition part in check, things as simple as not eating fast food or leaving dessert out of the meal or taking the next step and meeting with a nutritionist to get a plan to follow. 

While these steps are great and are needed there is always one important element that most people leave out of the equation, and that is looking at their sleep habits. Sleep is often the forgotten but integral part of a healthy lifestyle, without proper sleep it can be hard to lose weight and you can even lose muscle mass and tone due to poor sleep habits. 

Reduced sleep time has been linked to an increased risk of being overweight or obese. Continuing poor sleep, or a lack of sleep, increases signals to the brain to eat, and decreases signals telling the brain that enough food has been eaten. When we get less sleep the hormone cortisol increases which can increase cravings for food. Lack of sleep can play a role in hormone release, glucose regulation and cardiovascular function, as well as being a risk factor for obesity and type 2 diabetes. 

Sleep supports healthy growth and development. It boosts muscle mass by helping repair damaged cells and tissues. During sleep, growth hormone, testosterone, and insulin-like growth factor are all released to aid in protein synthesis. With sleep deprivation, these hormones decrease and myostatin and cortisol increase. Testosterone increases strength and sized of skeletal muscle, increases force production potential and muscle mass, and promotes protein synthesis. Cortisol on the other hands converts amino acids into carbohydrates and inhibits protein synthesis. This increase in cortisol and decrease in testosterone results in protein degradation and muscle atrophy. 

With a lack of sleep, you also see a drop-in muscle recovery, with human growth hormone being released later in the sleep cycle those who do not reach this stage will not receive the same aid in recovery as someone who does reach appropriate levels of sleep and therefore training at peak capacity is limited and muscle recovery is cut short.
With an increase in your daily sleep habits, your body has time to replenish and recover. This will allow you to maximize your results on your journey to overall health and fitness. 
Aim for 7-8 hours of sleep each night, and you will realise the changes in energy & eating habits.

We can help you develop healthy habits & improve your sleep!  
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