Story: Health Tips - Potatoes
Episode: 2
Presenter: Julie Meek
Air Date: 29 August 2021

Good gut health is vital for maintaining a strong immunity, reducing inflammation, and boosting overall mood. Julie introduces us to a few humble foods that, when added to your diet, can help make your gut sing!

• Prebiotics and probiotics can reduce the number of harmful bacteria in our gut plus add some good bacteria.
• Prebiotics are mostly soluble fibres and resistant starches that act as the fuel for our good bacteria in the large intestine or colon.
• Prebiotics gets the process started by being fermented by gut bacteria.
• Foods that are naturally high in prebiotics include; green banana, cashew nuts, legumes, raw oats and the humble spud.
• Roasting and then cooling potatoes, produces resistant starch, key for a healthy gut.
• If you take a potato, roast it and then cool it down, the cooking and cooling process changes the structure of the starch in the potato. This makes it resistant to digestion in our gut, which is beneficial for gut bacteria.