By Hold your breath — it’s a cheap and completely portable fruit you need daily!
I’m really excited about this news!
I have mentioned this type of fruit in many posts — but I know people do not like the flavour or texture.
Unfortunately, we’re so used to sweet and mushy varieties that eating another variety is very hard.
Well, what If I told you that eating this helps reduce your risk of some cancers? Wouldn’t it be worth trying?
It works so well because it’s filled with resistant starch.
Resistant starch is not only available in this fruit I’m going to talk about.
It’s also in other delicious and healthy goodies like oats, certain cereals (not the sugary kind!), pasta, rice, beans, legumes and peas.
A study was conducted with 1000 participants with Lynch syndrome.
This inherited disorder increases the risk of some cancers, focusing on the rectum and large intestine.
All participants were given a dose of resistant starch — the same you would get from eating a banana that isn’t overly ripe.
In other words, it was the green version.
The study revealed that whilst the starch didn’t affect cancers in the bowel.
It managed to reduce the incidents of cancers in other parts of the body by half!
In case you may be wondering — the cancers it did have some effect on were upper GI tract, biliary tract, pancreatic, oesophageal, gastric & duodenal cancers.
That’s pretty good results from one green banana (and quite possibly a very high in resistant starch) diet.
What’s this thing called resistant starch
Resistant starch is something I’ve been chiming on about for a long time!
It’s very powerful because it feeds good bacteria in the gut.
We all need good bacteria, considering the rise of disease and cancer — even in very young people.
Resistant starch is a carb that differs from the standard variety because it doesn’t get digested in the small intestine.
Instead, it ferments in the large intestine, feeding the good guys in our gut.
This particular starch may reduce cancer development by reducing the number of bile acids in the gut, which may damage DNA and eventually cause cancer.
Further studies need to be verified of this, although this has exciting potential & was proven in a study I’ll mention below.
Previous research of the same trial revealed that aspirin reduces the risk of cancer in the large bowel by 50 per cent.
I’d prefer not to take aspirin, but oats and rice are my things!
Another long-term study has further positive findings.
During this study, 1000 participants took either resitant starch or a placebo every day for two years.
At the treatment’s end, no difference between the resistant starch and aspirin users.
However, researchers anticipated that the protective effect of these two ingredients would take a bit longer to develop and needed a follow-up.
So, after the follow-up period, five new cases of upper IG cancers occurred in the 463 participants who took the resistant starch, compared with 21 of the 455 who took the placebo!
As you can see from this long-term study, eating a diet rich in resistant starch does help protect one from cancer.
Key take away
Foods you should include in your diet are:
- Oats
- Vegetables
- Fruits
- Green bananas
- Rice that has been cooked and then refrigerated (reheat them for the resistant starch element)
- Potatoes that have been cooked and refrigerated (reheat them for the resistant starch element)
- Lentil or bean soup
- Peas or pea soup
- Pasta that has been cooked and then refrigerated (reheat them for the resistant starch element)
Not only will you be feeding the good guys, but you will prevent instances of cancer in the gut and colon.
Do you know how much resistant starch you eat daily?
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