Sorry. Resistant Starch is Unlikely to Miraculously Cause Weight Loss and Body Fat Loss

Update: Videocast THE SCOOP ON YOUR POOP at 3pm PST Thursday. Please continue to submit questions and I'll answer live and 1-2 that are posted. Thank you!



What's In Your Gut Zoo? Missing Leanness and Longevity?

If you are plateauing on fat loss, consider the gut microbes that can hijack and hamper your health success. The 5 mass extinctions of the gut microbiota lead to the loss of 'the limbs of the microbiota' that are attributed to leanness and longevity.

Consider that we co-evolved with them for millions if not billions of years and it is a relationship that requires nurturing, replenishment, and proper attention. Consider that for optimal body fat recomposition, the bugs residing/missing in the gut may be more important than the fuel. You may be feeding empty zoo cages in the modern age or worse, caged vipers, rogues and renegades.


Resistant Starch is Highly Unlikely to Miraculously Lead to Fat Loss

Recently Dr. Nett at Kresser's office did a post about how raw starch RS2 may improve weight loss. How resistant starch (RS) can help is very very very indirect. Let's talk about the entire community of the gut and c-o-n-t-e-x-t.

I have not seen raw starch RS2 miraculously induce fat loss in obese human animals. I can list the people who are still 'challenged' (like I was for a while!).  Unfortunately there are few anecdotes, human RCTs, human cases or internet stories that back up instant weight loss with raw starch RS2 -- yes -- because I've looked.  RS is just a fiber. Digestible complex carbs are fiber too -- 10% escape into the colon and feed the microbiota quite well. If the diet is 150-200 grams carbs, then 15 to 20 grams will be pure fuel for the colon flora. Nice, eh? That's half of our 'fiber quotient'.

If you want to lose weight and break body fat plateaus, the fuel and fibers for the flora that have evidence of successful human trials and RCT outcomes are:
--arabinoxylan (psyllium, whole GF grains)
--pulses (legumes = rich in phytochemicals, RS3, fibre, protein, minerals and vitamins)
--oat bran
--beta glucan (carrots, celery, radish, oats, mushrooms)
--glucomannan, konjac, etc.


RS has none ...and coprophagic rodent studies don't count. So much promise, no teeth.

All fiber is not created equal.



Sorry. Raw Starch RS2 Alone So Far Has No Weight Loss Results in Human Studies

These researchers Johnston et al found "Resistant starch consumption did not significantly affect body weight, fat storage in muscle, liver or visceral depots. There was also no change with resistant starch feeding on vascular function or markers of inflammation. However, in subjects randomized to consume the resistant starch, insulin sensitivity improved compared with the placebo group (P = 0.023)...Unlike in animal models, diabetes prevention does not appear to be directly related to changes in body adiposity, blood lipids or inflammatory markers. Further research to elucidate the mechanisms behind this change in insulin sensitivity in human subjects is required."

Low (15g) and high dose (30g) RS2 for 4 weeks didn't induce fat loss either but improved insulin resistance in obese men, not women (Maki et al, 2012).

Neither did 25 grams refined RS3 supplementation (Novelose330), but high-protein/40% carbs resulted in all body fat parameters pivoting: improved insulin sensitivity, body fat loss and weight loss in human subjects with metabolic syndrome (Lobley et al, 2013).

Neither did 40 grams RS2 supplementation for 12 weeks in T2 diabetes (Bodinham et al, 2014). Strikingly, this study also showed that HAM-RS raised triglycerides in a statistically significant manner and failed to lower body fat, Hgba1c, blood glucoses or improve central insulin resistance at the liver.

(However, a whole food supplement which contains a broad spectrum of microbial superfoods, native banana starch flour (NBS) 24 g/day induced 1.2 kg weight loss, improved waist-hip ratios and insulin sensitization in T2 diabetic, obese females after 4 weeks, contained only 8 grams RS2 (Ble-Castillo, 2010). Version B of BIONIC FIBER in the 7 steps. Green banana and plantains have been shown to heal ulcers and infectious colitis.)



Root Causes of Excessive Fat Gain and Obesity

What does work is getting to the root causes of obesity, fat gain and dysregulated metabolism. Humans are complex. Obesity and evolution are intertwined. For all life on earth including plants and insects, we are superorganisms living in symbiosis with an entire community of microbes. The microbial community can actually hijack and hamper health when it is diseased. OTOH the microbial community can be epically collaborative in optimizing longevity and health in our co-evolved microbe-host interaction that has been ongoing for literally hundreds of millions of years, if not billions.

Many examples of a collaborative community exist where mutual support and mutual exchange of energy and spirit co-exist. Local, sustainable, organic farms that bring our livestock, eggs and produce are my favorite examples. The paleo/primal hood and the ancestral AHS14 are others.

Fighting Obesity With Bacteria
Hat tip: M

Body Fat Reduction: Mice Cohousing and Ancestral Core Bacterial 'Invasion'

I talked about the cohousing experiment by Ridaura et al at AHS. They took gut microbiota from human twins that were discordant for obesity (one twin lean, one twin obese) and put them into GF (germ free) rodents. Later they cohoused lean with obese mice and observed the changes after a fat inducing diet (high saturated fat) v. high fiber, low fat diet. The results were not surprising and showed the compelling power of poop. Why did cohousing work?

(Coprophagy = PROBIOTICS)

On the fat inducing diet, lean mice didn't get as obese and the obese mice become super obese.

On the higher plant polysaccharide diet (LoSF-HiFV), both the obese and lean controls naturally had improvements in body fat recomposition. The lean controls loss fat mass (and some lean mass). The obese controls loss fat mass and gained lean mass.

See below. The cohoused animals had notable changes which make this study an epic study for the gut: the lean cohoused mice got jacked by eating the poop of the obese mice, eg they gained fat mass on the high fiber diet. The obese mice however upon cohousing, high plant fuel diet, and attaining the 'lean core microbiota' (mini fecal transplant) via coprophagy/cohousing GAINED LEAN MASS AND LOST SIGNIFICANT BODY FAT MASS.

I think the true beauty of the Ridaura study is that the shift in microbiota + diet reflected in metabolic changes, insulin sensitivity and body fat recompositioning. The gut shifts were tracked and the invasion of the ancestral core microbes from the lean mice into the obese mice was directly related to the body fat changes.

Ridaura et al 2013
LoSF-HiFV, low fat high fiber diet

Healthy Invasion of the Core LEAN Human Gut Microbiota

Fig 3A and 4C shows the shift in the gut that correspond to the lean phenotype. The roadmap to healthy body fat recomposition is shown here. An 'invasion' of the lean 'poop' (mini fecal transplant) into the obese mice are dissected into just a handful of species, of which two are part of the ancestral core that I talk about at AHS. All the species below are great when they are coming from a 'healthy community' eg happy, healthy, horny/hormonally-young mouse.

Enriched in mice colonized with or  invaded by members of a Ln microbiota
Bacteroides uniformis*
Bacteroides vulgatus* -- one of the 7 ancestral core
Eubacterium desmolans* -- E. rectale is one of the 7 ancestral core

Parabacteroides merdae*

Alistipes putredinis* -- one of the 7 ancestral core

Ruminococcus callidus

Ruminococcus bromii -- one of the 7 ancestral core

Clostridium symbiosum

Roseburia unclassified -- one of the 7 ancestral core

Clostridium ramosum

Akkermansia muciniphila ~~ high in hawwt, high lean mass rugby players w/low inflammation

Ruminococcus obeum

Ruminococcus sp. 14531

Eubacterium ventriosum

Betaproteobacteria unclassified

Burkholderiales unclassified

etc

Here's the 7 core ancestral microbiota based on Julien Tap's work:

Actinobacteria 

Bifidobacteria longum

Clostridia cluster IV

F. prausnitzii

Ruminococcous bromii 

Clostridia cluster XIVa

Roseburia intestinalis

Eubacteria rectale

Bacteroidetes

Bacteroides vulgatus

Alistipes putredinis

To Lose Epic Body Fat: My Top 10 E≠MC2

1. Fix your lovely gut (1/3-1/2 will do well with my 7 steps which both Dave Asprey and Mark Sisson have tried)

2. Introduce lean-gut-like probiotics (Prescript Assist, Body Ecology, ThreeLac, smoothies with organic dirty beets, letting your lean dog lick you, working at organic farms, etc)

3. Raise your metabolism
--exercise, yes move your cute *ss instead of standing on body vibrators, consider ten thousand steps daily

4. Raise your metabolism
--fix your adrenals and anabolic hormones (both men and women need progesterone and testosterone and titrated estrogen; get the anabolic up, get the estrogens down. detox xenoestrogens that make your moobies grow and cause cancer, inflammation and difficult to battle body fat)

5. Raise your metabolism
--lowering mental/emo inflammation by embracing being happy, optimistic, and grateful; flooding yourself with oxytocin (hug, hold, kiss your family and friends)

6. Raise your metabolism
--fix hypothyroidism (iodine, selenium, exercise, remove mercury, don't over-exercise, sleep well, avoid ketosis if increasing peripheral insulin resistance)

7. Feed your gut well
--plant fibers, the whole spectrum of ancestral fibers (roots, onions, leeks, tubers, beets, carrots, legumes, gluten-free soaked grains)

8. Plant polyphenols lower inflammation as well as tighten up gut epithelium and tight junctions (bilberry, citrus, pectin from legumes and apples, etc)

9. Lower non-ancestral stress

10. Weed your gut
--probiotics
--fiber, complex carbohydrates (low glycemic index), resistant starch
--in obesity, several overgrowths have been detected with consistency and reliability. Get ride of these. The species are listed in Ridaura's article and my AHS14 slides. The lean mice (from human discordant twins) do not have these strains and when they were invaded, they gained body fat even on the high fiber low fat diet. In human gut sequencing studies, overgrowths of yeasts, protozoa, parasites and pathogenic bacteria are found. Fix these by seeing an integrative and functional medicine practitioner for stool/urine testing and appropriate care