Good news for people who love potatoes, but try avoid them because they have a high glycemic index. Foods with high glycemic indices should be avoided by people with diabetes or other blood sugar problem because the sugars in the foods are quickly and easily broken down and absorbed. This can cause hyperglycemia. But potatoes, in addition to being starchy, are highly nutritious. And they are delicious and easy to cook with. What to do?
The good news is that, according to a recent Washington Post article, there is a trick that can be used to cause starchy, high glycemic foods such as potatoes, pasta, and white rice, into food high in “resistant starch”.
What is resistant starch? It is “a cousin of dietary fiber”, in that it is made of carbohydrates that are not digested in the small intestine, but feed microbes in the large intestine. Foods that naturally contain resistant starch are “beans, peas, lentils, nuts, seeds, green bananas (!), potatoes and some whole grains”.
So how do we change simple starches to resistant starch? Refrigerate them. This is one more way which left-overs rock! Apparently, the process of heating and then cooling starches causes them to bind together to become more stable and “resistant” to digestion by our enzymes. One suggestion is to cook potatoes, then refrigerate them, and then cut them up to put in salads, omelets, or serve with another “favorite protein”. I suggest use in tacos too!
This trick of cooking, then refrigerating works for rice and pasta as well.