When it comes to eating a healthy diet, it can sometimes seem confusing to know the best way to go about it because of all the different types of diet-plans and all the information out there. In recent years, consuming carbohydrates has been somewhat maligned, with some diets telling you to ditch the carbs in order to shed pounds.
This includes foods such as pasta, rice, bread and potatoes.
But the reality is that carbohydrates are an important part of a healthy diet. They provide us with energy and essential nutrients that our body needs.
Between 40 and 60 percent of our daily calories should come from carbohydrates. This could equate to around 230 grams for women and 300g for men depending on how much you eat.
But one expert has revealed a specific way to eat carbohydrates in order to get the most benefit from them.
NHS surgeon and social media personality, Doctor Karan Rajan, took to video sharing platform TikTok to explain more.
Speaking to his more than 5.3 million followers, he revealed that eating leftover carbs could actually help your gut health.
He said: “If you want a very easy way to improve your gut health without doing anything, eat leftover carbs – leftover pasta rice, bread, potatoes.
“You can thank resistant starch and a cheeky chemical process known as retrogradation, when carbs like potatoes are heated, the starch granules absorb water and lose their crystalline structure.
“Then when you cool down the carbohydrate, the starch chains reform and realign in a way that’s more resistant to digestion so now they’re known as retrograded or resistant starch.
“It’s now resistant to digestion in your small intestine and less likely to be absorbed. Instead, it makes its way to your large intestine.
“This actually means your body gets fewer calories from the leftover rice, potatoes or pasta. That’s because resistant starch is more indigestible.”
According to Dr Rajan, this means the caloric density of your food is reduced.
He continued: “It feeds your gut bacteria, rather than you.”
It can also reduce the food’s glycaemic load, he said, meaning, it takes longer for your blood sugar to go up.
Dr Rajan said: “Great news for diabetics and those with insulin resistance, even something as simple as toasting bread, increases the formation of resistant starch.
“And if you freeze bread for it and toast it, that increases the resistant starch content, even more other sources of resistance, starch include oats beans, legumes and green bananas.”
However, he warned that any leftovers should be safely stored in a fridge quickly to reduce the chance of food poisoning.
“Just make sure you store your food in a fridge or freezer within a couple of hours of cooking and don’t reheat multiple times to reduce the risk of food poisoning,” Dr Rajan added.
In the comment section of the video, he said: “To reiterate – leftover rice is safe. Just refrigerate (within two hours of cooking) and reheat properly.
“My message on this has not changed.”
