Starch digestibility, resistant starch types and gut bacteria over 30 years
What it found
Some starch in food resists digestion and instead feeds gut bacteria, which produce short-chain fatty acids.
Scientists have grouped this resistant starch into five types based on how it avoids breakdown.
What they found
Studies in people
Gut bacteria fermentation
Resistant starch reaches the large intestine where gut bacteria ferment it. This process produces short-chain fatty acids.
Gut bacteria focus today
Current research looks closely at how resistant starch affects gut bacteria. Scientists are interested in possible health benefits linked to these changes.
Other findings
Resistant starch discovery
In the 1980s, researchers found that some starch is not broken down by human digestive enzymes. This portion was named resistant starch.
Five types identified
Scientists have sorted resistant starch into five different types. The sorting depends on what keeps digestive enzymes from breaking it down.
Measuring and making more
Early work focused on measuring resistant starch in foods and tracking its effects in the body. Later, the food industry developed ways to increase resistant starch in isolated starches.
What the authors conclude
- They group resistant starch into five types depending on why digestive enzymes cannot break it down.
- They note that current research focuses on how resistant starch influences gut bacteria because of potential health benefits.
How it was done
For most of the last century, scientists assumed all starch in food was fully digested. In the 1980s, research showed a portion of starch escapes digestive enzymes entirely.
The authors gathered and summarized more than 30 years of research on how starch is broken down. They looked at methods to measure and create resistant starch, its effects on health, and its role with gut bacteria.
What it can’t tell you
- We summarised it from the abstract only.
- This summary of past research cannot prove that resistant starch causes specific health improvements in people.
- Individual studies within the 30 years may vary in how well they apply to everyday diets.
Who paid
- Funding
- Funded by SIP-IPN; EDI-IPN; COFAA-IPN; CONACYT-Mexico (from the PubMed record).
- Authors work at
- Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico; Lund University, Sweden
The paper
- Title
- Starch digestibility: past, present, and future
- Type
- ReviewThe authors read earlier studies and describe what they found. It isn’t a new study.
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Abstract only
- Cite
- Bello-Perez LA, Flores-Silva PC, Agama-Acevedo E, Tovar J (2020). Starch digestibility: past, present, and future. Journal of the science of food and agriculture. doi:10.1002/jsfa.8955PubMed 29427318DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error