Rice, Pasta, and Potato Salad: Resistant Starch Diet Foods?

If you think filling up on leftover pasta straight from the fridge will shrink your waist, you're on top of the latest diet craze: resistant starch. This stuff is suddenly everywhere: In a headline-grabbing book (The Carb Lover's Diet), in a Japanese pounds-off plan (the Morning Banana Diet), even in the fiber advice of Australia's nutrition guidelines.

For once, though, a weight loss fad has science on its side. Resistant starch (RS for short) is a tasteless form of fiber in some high-carb foods that can help you lose weight and steady your blood sugar. Beans (a YOU Doc fave food) are RS-rich. So are nuts, seeds, and 100% whole grains (we love those, too). So are green bananas (we'll pass). And -- this is where the fad part comes in -- so are cold pasta, potatoes, and rice.

Your small intestine digests only a little RS and only very slowly (which helps you feel fuller, longer). Most of it makes a splashy exit because RS makes your poop bulky. Since you don't digest most RS, you don't get its calories.

Why eat starchy foods cold? When foods like pasta, potatoes, and rice are cooked and chilled, tight crystals of resistant starch form. Don't reheat them; you'll break up the crystals. Our take: Keep on eating healthful goodies like beans, lentils, whole grains, nuts, and seeds; all are RS sources. Enjoy reasonable portions of cold potatoes, whole-grain pasta salads (like this delicious Garden Pasta Salad), and sushi rice now and then. Don't even think of gorging on green bananas -- resistant starch is hot, but they're not.

Cook up other fabulous meals that are high in fiber with these easy recipes.