Literatus: The third anticipation

“IF YOU cannot bite, do not show your teeth,” Jennifer Roberson advised in her Highlander book, Scotland the Brave (1996). Biting is one thing; throwing off the bad that comes with the biting is another.

We covered the resistant starch in a previous article but have to leave off on its health benefits.

First, the Anderson study in 2010 found out that resistant starch can specifically protect against colorectal cancer. It has also been found to reduce the intestinal crypt length so that after an average of 29 months of intake developing cancer cells in the gastrointestinal tract, even those lesions that been already cancerous, disappeared.

Second, resistant starch helps in managing excess weight through different processes such as fortifying of food with fiber, reducing caloric content of foods, initiating satiety fast, degrading fat and impact on stored fat.

When added to foods, such as bread, biscuits, sweet goods, pasta, nutritional bars and cereal, it increases the fiber content of the food without affecting taste or texture.

The World Health Organization announced in 2003 that dietary fiber was the only dietary component that had convincing evidence showing a protective effect against weight gain and obesity.

Resistant starch also lowers the caloric content of foods when used to replace flour or other rapidly digested carbohydrates in cooking foods. It only delivers two to three kilocalories per gram, instead of the usual the 40 kilocalories found in most foods.

Naturally occurring resistant starch, such as in high amylose corn and barley kernels, increases the speed of satiety, reducing food intake within a few hours and even 20-24 hours later.

Resistant starch also helps burn fat, preventing it from accumulation in body cells.

Lastly, the Anderson team found that resistant starch (particularly that found in high amylose corn) had been observed to improve fatty acid metabolism within the fat tissue. It has increased levels of various enzymes, such as lipases, that hasten the digestion of fats for proper disposal from the body.

Simon Green wrote in his novel, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991): “A little anticipation was good for the appetite.” Perhaps even anticipation cannot neutralize the effect of resistant starch on satiety, even if it does not lose the taste that normally increases the appetite. Who knows? Perhaps you can find out for yourself.

(zim_breakthroughs@yahoo.com/http://breakthroughs.today.blogspot.com)