Define Potential Health benefits from resistant starch?
Like dietary fibre, RS can also play a potential role in helping to maintain or improve health of an individual. As you have already seen that dietary fibres exert their effects through their physical presence, as well as, through their metabolism by microflora. But in case of RS majority of effects are related to fermentation by colonic bacteria. In fact, unlike some fibres (bran) very little starch appears in the faeces under normal circumstances. Thus, like soluble fibre, RS is fermented in the colon producing SCFAs (acelate, butyrate, propionate) gases and bacterial biomass. However, fermentation of RS produces higher amounts of butyric acid compared to soluble dietary fibre.