Here’s a fantastic breakfast filled with resistant starch to support your child’s mood, skin, blood sugars & gut!
Starches are a type of carbohydrate found in food like pasta, potatoes, beans & rice - they are made up of long chains of glucose and they are typically digested very quickly, & cause a spike in our blood sugars (which means we may feel hungrier again faster, can increase inflammation, and negatively affect our children's mood, skin, & a host of other things!).
However, not all starches are processed the same way inside the body. Regular starches get broken down this way into glucose and absorbed quickly. (Which is why your blood glucose, or blood sugar, increases after eating them.)
Resistant starch, however, passes through our small intestines without being absorbed by our body. This means it has less of an impact on our blood glucose levels. When the resistant starch reaches our large intestine, it provides important fuel for our beneficial bacteria living there - who then produce health promoting compounds for us called short-chain fatty acids.
Resistant starch can support better blood sugar control, optimal microbiome health & even work to alleviate constipation.
How do we get resistant starch?
One of the easiest ways is to cook, then cool our starchy foods like rice, potatoes, pasta and beans. When these starches are cooked and are then given time to cool down, they undergo a process which transforms them into resistant starch. (This process takes up to 24 hours.)
In the case of oats, the best way to form resistant starch is to simply soak the oats. We can do this before we make porridge (& as a plus, it also makes the oats cook faster which is tops for our busy mornings!), but we can also form resistant starch by making overnight oats or bircher muesli. And as the weather warms up, this is a fantastic breakfast which contains prebiotic fibre to keep our gut microbiome happy, supports more stable blood sugars which supports stable moods & a more regulated appetite, and also contains lots of vitamins and minerals - let me know if you try it!
APPLE & CINNAMON OVERNIGHT OATS
1 cup whole rolled oats
1 cup plain yoghurt (full fat Greek or coconut)
1 cup milk or mylk of choice
1 cup shredded coconut
3 tablespoons chia seeds
3 tablespoons mixed seeds (hemp, sunflower)
1 large apple, grated
1 heaped teaspoon cinnamon
cinnamon
optional: protein powder (depending on your protein needs, but recommended if making it with coconut yoghurt) & a small dash of sweetener like maple syrup or honey (depending on your sweet tooth!)
To prepare: add all ingredients to a container with a lid, &stir to combine. Secure lid & leave in fridge for 24 hours to develop resistant starch &serve with fresh fruit.
Enjoy! 😊
