Fantastic Health Benefits of Butyrate

[Muhammad.Sunshine]

Beautiful Butyrate

Butyric acid has amazing benefits for your health. Butyric acid is a short chain fatty acid which dramatically improves insulin sensitivity, metabolism, blood lipids, body composition, and reduces stress and inflammation.

Butyric acid is made by the fermentation of fiber in the large intestine. The lower digestibility of raw vegetables may be a blessing in disguise. Feeding the large intestine more undigested plant matter will increase butyric acid production. Butyric acid also occurs in dairy products.

This has been a great discovery, it challenged my previous paradigm: raw plants are indigestible and provide virtually no starch, sugar, or nutrients. Now I realize that short chain fatty acids made from fiber have fantastic health benefits. In what appeared to be raw indigestible fiber, nature was providing sustenance for us all along.

Iguana emphasizes that you should trust in nature, eat foods which agree with you, and have peace of mind, his style is wise indeed.

Further Readings:
This link has a good overview about the benefits of butyric acid.
http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.ca/2009/12/butyric-acid-ancient-controller-of.html

This link has information on resistant starch which ferments into butyric acid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistant_starch

This link is about captive gorillas that switched to a natural whole foods diet and lost weight and improved their health. The indigestible fiber they ate increased their production of short chain fatty acids.
http://180metabolism.com/blog/?p=145

This is exciting new information; eating more raw vegetables, roots, and tubers may bring great health and wellness benefits via short chain fatty acids. Please share your ideas about this subject.

[Muhammad.Sunshine]

Note: The fibers which convert to short chain fatty acids and provides health benefits are soluble fibers. Soluble fiber is more like starch and becomes a gel rather than a solid mass in the large intestine.

[Wattlebird]

Beautiful Butyrate

Butyric acid is made by the fermentation of fiber in the large intestine. The lower digestibility of raw vegetables may be a blessing in disguise. Feeding the large intestine more undigested plant matter will increase butyric acid production. Butyric acid also occurs in dairy products.

Iguana emphasizes that you should trust in nature, eat foods which agree with you, and have peace of mind, his style is wise indeed.

This is exciting new information; eating more raw vegetables, roots, and tubers may bring great health and wellness benefits via short chain fatty acids. Please share your ideas about this subject.

Hi MS,
Ha! yes Iguana, 'crazy' wisdom, that is not so crazy!   
Take a walk through the vegie shop and smell the air, pick up the vegies and smell even more closely. One, or some will talk to you and and say, 'eat me'. I doubt they will speak of butyric acid, but you never know
The shop owner may think you are mad, using your nose like a wild animal, but no matter.
He or she will be grateful for your business and your body will happily go about its business.

Eaten any ostrich eggs lately? 
Kind wishes, J

[PaleoPhil]

Butyric acid is also provided by animal fats like suet, butter and probably other animal fat sources (which you'll never hear from vegans or politically correct scientists) and I suspect is more bioavailable from those sources, for most people, than from plant fiber. As a matter of fact, the term "butyric acid" derives from the Greek word for "butter" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butyric_acid).

Gorillas have much longer intestines than humans, and have far more gut bacteria that can convert plant fibers into butyric acid. Humans need to ingest more fat directly than gorillas, as our guts are much less efficient at conversion of fibers into fats.

So for great health and wellness benefits, it seems to make sense to eat more butyric-acid-rich short chain animal fats (and long chain animal fats that humans have been eating for millions of years).

[goodsamaritan]

Which raw plants will give this beneficial butyrate acid?

Any tried and tested plants out there by experience from a fellow raw paleo dieter?

[PaleoPhil]

Plants? Don't you mean which animals?

[goodsamaritan]

Plants? Don't you mean which animals?

He mentioned this:

This has been a great discovery, it challenged my previous paradigm: raw plants are indigestible and provide virtually no starch, sugar, or nutrients. Now I realize that short chain fatty acids made from fiber have fantastic health benefits. In what appeared to be raw indigestible fiber, nature was providing sustenance for us all along.

[PaleoPhil]

He mentioned this:

This has been a great discovery, it challenged my previous paradigm: raw plants are indigestible and provide virtually no starch, sugar, or nutrients. Now I realize that short chain fatty acids made from fiber have fantastic health benefits. In what appeared to be raw indigestible fiber, nature was providing sustenance for us all along.

Sure, but surely you mean "in what appeared to be raw DIgestible ANIMAL FATs--more so than plant fibers? Animal fats--more digestible and more beneficial to humans. Nature in its wisdom all along provided animal fats to humans and our proto-human ancestors (going back millions of years).

[goodsamaritan]

I know about that thing about animal fats being better.

I'm just curious what plants will give this butyrate benefit.

[raw]

Me too. It is necessary to know what plant can give Butyate acid. My family, my schizophrenic brother probably will prefer eating plants then raw animals.  And it is easy to tell others eating raw plants then raw animals. I don't need to try plants ever. Raw animals are my best source.

[PaleoPhil]

I don't know a lot about plants, but Stephan says "beans, vegetables, fruit and nuts are good sources of fiber," so I figure, try the versions of those that are edible raw (and, yes, there are even legumes that are edible raw, but if your immune system or your gut is damaged, maybe you won't handle them well, like me  ).

BTW, even Stephan said this:

Butyrate also occurs in significant amounts in food. What foods contain butyrate? Hmm, I wonder where the name BUTYR-ate came from? Butter perhaps? Butter is 3-4 percent butyrate, the richest known source.

And my experience is that tallow/suet and marrow is an even better overall food than butter--the rawer and wilder the better.

[Muhammad.Sunshine]

Hi Wattlebird,
When I was feeding farm animals they would look at the food, sniff it, and then decide if they wanted to eat it; this is the instinctive process which you described. It will be fun to shop instincto style, if there's an ostrich egg it will be consumed with gusto in your honor .

Hello PaleoPhil,
Meat sources of butyric acid would be awesome, however my research revealed only limited amounts in dairy products. Perhaps there is a creature which concentrates short chain fatty acids in its tissues, I'll have to keep searching.

The capacity for humans to ferment fibers varies individually and is less than herbivorous creatures. However, the benefit of short chain fatty acids are their healing properties rather than being a primary energy source.

Hey GoodSamaritan,
Learning about nutrient dense animal foods, and then raw foods were two positive paradigm shifts for me. Learning about the importance of gut microbes is like a whole new field of dietary adventure. Perhaps the missing key to vigorous health and wellness in modern society is gut microbe and flora health.

I am devising a plan to improve my gut health with prebiotics which include soluble fiber, oligosaccharides, and resistant starch. Practical sources for the following substances are as follows:

Soluble fiber
Carrots, parsnips, and bananas.

Oligosaccharides-Inulin
Jicama and Yacón have huge amounts of inulin and soluble fiber, they are also edible raw and said to be mildly sweet and crisp, I'll probably make them into raw fries. Jicama and Yacón are one of the richest and most practical sources of prebiotic material. Onions and leeks are also an excellent sources of inulin oligosaccharides and go well with salads.

Resistant starch
Bananas are my go to guys for resistant starch, I also intend to experiment with small amounts of raw winter squashes, sweet potatoes, and edible tubers.

It may also be beneficial to take probiotics in the form of cultured dairy or fermented foods to help the process. A good mixed salad and various fruits will round off the prebiotic intake.

It will take time to adapt to a higher intake of raw plant matter, but once the gut is colonized by good bacteria it will be smooth sailing form there.

[PaleoPhil]

Here are the top foods listed high in butyric acid. You can see why it was named after butter.

Foods High in Butyric acid
http://wholefoodcatalog.info/nutrient/butyric_acid/foods/high/

Foods High in Butyric acid (per 100g edible portion)
Fermented butter
2900 mg
Unsalted butter
2700 mg
Salted butter
2700 mg
Cream(milk fat)
1500 mg
Whipping cream(milk fat)
1200 mg
Natural cheese(cheddar)
1100 mg
Natural cheese(cream)
1100 mg
Natural cheese(emmental)
1100 mg
Natural cheese(gouda)
970 mg
Coffee whitener(powder, milk fat)
950 mg
Whole milk powder
940 mg
Process cheese
900 mg
Cheese spread
840 mg
Natural cheese(edam)
810 mg
Natural cheese(camambert)
780 mg
Natural cheese(blue)
760 mg
Butter cake
730 mg
Natural cheese(parmesan)
730 mg
Cream(milk and vegetable fat)
730 mg
Whipping cream(milk and vegetable fat)
620 mg
Coffee whitener(liquid, milk fat)
540 mg
Biscuit(soft)
440 mg
Ice cream(high fat)
370 mg
Ice milk
360 mg
Coffee whitener(liquid, milk and vegetable fat)
270 mg
Evaporated whole milk
260 mg
Ice cream(regular)
250 mg
Condensed whole milk, sweetened
220 mg
Butterscotch
210 mg
Bavarian cream
180 mg

...

[Muhammad.Sunshine]

Update:

It is day four of my prebiotic experiment an the results are positive and promising. I've experienced improved energy, digestion, and well being since I increased my prebiotic intake. I also increased my probiotic intake via cultured yogurt and spontaneously began eating a single meal per day.

Symptoms of fiber ingestion have been pleasantly mild, I expect such symptoms to further subside as I become more fiber adapted . I'll update my progress as this experiment continues.

[PaleoPhil]

Where do you get this notion, apparently, that fiber has more butyric acid (butter acid) than butter? It's named after butter, for Pete's sake.

[aLptHW4k4y]

Where do you get this notion, apparently, that fiber has more butyric acid (butter acid) than butter? It's named after butter, for Pete's sake.

Fiber itself doesn't have this fatty acid, the bacteria in the colon produce it via fermentation. Here's the average yield and SCFA proportions for different types of fiber:

carbohydrate	SCFA/100g	Acetate %	Propionate %	Butyrate %
starch	63	62	15	23
pectin	35-54	80	12	8
wheat/oat brans	?	64	16	20

So from 100g of (undigested) starch you'll get 14g butyric acid, obviously more than from 100g of butter.

[Muhammad.Sunshine]

Hello PaleoPhil,

Thank you for driving me to do more empirical research.

Through calculations based on a research paper (linked below) I estimated the following:

1. 100g of Jerusalem artichokes (my current soluble fiber source) provides 18g of inulin.
2. Lets assume that 50% of the soluble fiber becomes short chain fatty acids.
3. Butyric acid makes up 35% of inulin generated fatty acids, therefor 18g of inulin makes 3.1g of butyric acid.

So if these calculation are correct, then 100g of tasty Jerusalem artichokes at 73kcal, will provide as much butyrate as 100g or 700kcal of butter!

If I include the rest of the prebiotic fiber and starch I eat, the amount of butyric acid production will be higher. The other short chain fatty acids can also be included bringing the net amount of beneficial short chain fatty acids even higher.

But wait, there's more.

The same paper showed that butyric acid production increased exponentially in rats as they adapted and build up their gut flora.  After two weeks of eating raw potato starch, waste analysis revealed 6% butyric acid, and by four weeks it had risen to 19% indicating ramped up production of butyric acid due to micro-flora adaptation.

The link to the pdf paper is http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=short-chain%20fatty%20acid%20formation%20at%20fermentation%20of%20indigestible%20carbohydrates%20by%20ifsa%20henningsson%2C%20inger%20bjiirck%20and%20margareta%20nyman&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCMQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.foodandnutritionresearch.net%2Findex.php%2Ffnr%2Farticle%2Fdownload%2F1801%2F1708&ei=27J3T9z7Oeb50gGsyaTTDQ&usg=AFQjCNHPQ2xu4rVbuYSDdDAYQbkngcCrIg&cad=rja

 

[PaleoPhil]

So from 100g of (undigested) starch you'll get 14g butyric acid, obviously more than from 100g of butter.

Thanks, what is your source for that? What counts is what's actually absorbed by the body. Are those percentages regarding content? If so, then unless the conversion rate is 100%, the butyrate actually absorbed would be lower.

Hello PaleoPhil,

Thank you for driving me to do more empirical research.

You're welcome. This is an interesting thread that has got me doing some digging too.

2. Lets assume that 50% of the soluble fiber becomes short chain fatty acids.

Some sources suggest that the conversion of fiber to butyric acid is not very efficient and not all of it gets converted into butyrate, so the resulting figure might be less than 50% conversion to butyrate:

"Regardless of the type of fiber, the body absorbs fewer than 4 Calories (16.7 kilojoules) per gram of fiber, which can create inconsistencies for actual product nutrition labels. In some countries, fiber is not listed on nutrition labels, and is considered 0 Calories/gram when the food's total Calories are computed. In other countries all fiber must be listed, and is considered 4 Calories/gram when the food's total Calories are computed (because chemically fiber is a type of carbohydrate and other carbohydrates contribute 4 Calories per gram). In the US, soluble fiber must be counted as 4 Calories per gram, but insoluble fiber may be (and usually is) treated as 0 Calories per gram and not mentioned on the label."  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietary_fiber

And some of the fiber gets converted to short chain fatty acids other than butyric acid:

(assuming 100 percent conversion to butyrate, which isn’t the case because some is converted to other short chain fatty acids). ...

http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/metabolism/resistant-starch/

More than half of the usually consumed fibres are degraded in the large intestine, the rest being excreted in the stool
http://www.fao.org/docrep/W8079E/w8079e0l.htm

mass-wise, 0.5g starch will yield at most 0.275† g butyrate assuming 100% conversion.
 http://carbsanity.blogspot.com/2011/02/resistant-starch-butyrate-eades.html

A caveat is that everyone produces butyrate differently. The gut microbiome is individual for each person. Another caveat is that butyrate is present in certain foods, but this has been poorly studied, which is unfortunate. http://huntgatherlove.com/content/short-chain-fatty-acids-and-low-carb

On the other hand, there is this from that same last source:

...conventional low-carb diets generally do a very poor job of generating butryate in the populations studied. There are several papers on this, the most recent being High-protein, reduced-carbohydrate weight-loss diets promote metabolite profiles likely to be detrimental to colonic health. This one is interesting because the low-carb diet studied reminds me a bit of what I've seen some low-carb paleos eat. ...

In the HPLC diet, SCFA production decreased quite a lot. Butyrate concentration in particular was halved. ...

In the meantime I continue to enjoy success from diet that includes ample amounts of carbohydrates that work for me, like rice and buckwheat, and keeping my protein low. Fat I eat ad libetum. I actually had more success with these then with root vegetables, some of which seem to make my symptoms worse (sweet potatoes...I'm looking at you...).

http://huntgatherlove.com/content/short-chain-fatty-acids-and-low-carb

The study is here:

High-protein, reduced-carbohydrate weight-loss diets promote metabolite profiles likely to be detrimental to colonic health.
Russell WR, Gratz SW, Duncan SH, Holtrop G, Ince J, Scobbie L, Duncan G, Johnstone AM, Lobley GE, Wallace RJ, Duthie GG, Flint HJ.
Am J Clin Nutr. 2011 May;93(5):1062-72. Epub 2011 Mar 9.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21389180

Not surprisingly, LCers had a different take on the study and butyrate in general:

[L]et’s share a few facts that were missing about Flint’s “study”:

1. It is a small, unpublished, NON-clinical trial study. ...

2. We have no idea what foods the men ate on their “Atkins-like” diet. ...

3. Low-carb INCREASES fatty acids in the blood, not decrease(s) them.

This is a metabolic truth that was completely missed by the “experts” featured in the news stories about this study. The higher the fatty acids in the blood, the less need there is for having them in the colon. Livin’ la vida low-carb saturates the body with healthy fatty acids.

4. Ketogenic diets (like PHASE 3) use ketones for nutrition. ...

5. Low-carb diets reduce weight, lower insulin, and increase ketones. ...

6. Leap of faith to speculate based on only one measure of [one] study. ...

7. Diets that are very low in carbs actually TREAT cancer.

Yep, the more we look at cancer, there’s a trend beginning to grow–remove the sugar and excess carbohydrate from the diet so the cancer can’t feed off of it and you can reduce your risk of getting a variety of cancers. I’ve highlighted studies showing the benefits of livin’ la vida low-carb for treating and preventing brain cancer, pancreatic cancer, esophageal cancer, kidney cancer, breast cancer, and prostate cancer among others. To assert that a low-carb diet comes anywhere close to causing bowel cancer is utterly absurd!

8. High-carb diets may be linked to all kinds of cancers. ...

9. Foods on the Atkins diet have LOTS of butyrate in them.

This is the irony of all ironies. While Flint and his gang bemoan the lack of butyrate on this “Atkins-like” plan they fed their study participants, check out the following acceptable low-carb foods consumed on the REAL Atkins diet along with their very high butyrate content:

Butter: 3,230mg
Parmesan Cheese: 1510mg
Swiss Cheese: 1100mg
Cream: 1080mg
Cheddar Cheese: 1050mg
Gruyere Cheese: 1050mg
Edam Cheese: 1000mg
Gouda Cheese: 1000mg
Feta Cheese: 775mg

...

10. Gut bacteria reduction only happens in the absence of vegetables.

If you are consuming the recommended levels of vegetable fiber in your diet as required on the Atkins diet, then gut bacteria should not be reduced. It’s when people attempt to do “Atkins” on their own assuming they know what that means that gets them in trouble. Do yourself a favor and READ THE BOOK! ...

http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/atkins-diet-doesnt-lack-butyrate-increase-bowel-cancer-risk-as-study-asserts/1886

The bacterial fauna changes with everything we eat. Gorillas consume enormous amounts of fiber, which is converted into butyrate and other short-chain fatty acids in their colons, and can be followed by the sounds of their constant belching and farting. These same effects are seen in those who eat diets filled with complex carbohydrates. Why? Because these bacteria give off a lot of gas. Humans have relatively short colons, more like those of a carnivore, which means that we’re not really designed to do a lot of fermenting in there. Butyric acid can be provided to the colon cells from the blood and doesn’t have to come from the interior of the colon, so I wouldn’t worry about it. No studies have shown that people who eat less fiber suffer more colon cancer, so I don’t think that complaint is valid. -Michael Eades, MD http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/bogus-studies/last-gasp-of-the-dark-ages-of-nutrition/

If the benefits of the resistant starch come from its conversion to butyrate as our RD avers, and if it requires the amount per day found in only one half cup of potato (or of the other foods she lists) as she also avers, then why not provide ourselves with one and a half times as much by eating a couple of pats of butter per day, which come without the extra three teaspoons of sugar? We get the butyrate without having to convert and we don’t get the extra carbs. -Michael Eades, MD
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/metabolism/resistant-starch/

And at least one anti-LCer has responded:

...sodium butyrate   is used in the treatment of Crohn's disease, and supplements are coated  to ensure release in the ileo-caecal region and colon.  This would lead me to believe that the majority of butyrate in butter is absorbed well before it gets to the end of the small intestine and large intestine in the fully developed digestive system.  May well be why it's found only in the infant food of mammals that have yet to establish bacterial populations in their guts.  It seems to me that soluble fibers are a much better source of butyrate than butter.  We get more from high fiber sources, delivered directly at the point of use/need with fewer calories and a larger bulk of food.  I would suggest inulin is a better source of butyrate than resistant starch simply because foods high in inulin tend to not be overly high in digestible starch. http://carbsanity.blogspot.com/2011/02/resistant-starch-butyrate-eades.html

After two weeks of eating raw potato starch, waste analysis revealed 6% butyric acid, and by four weeks it had risen to 19% indicating ramped up production of butyric acid due to micro-flora adaptation.

It would be funny if raw potato starch is a healthy food. It would refute both Wrangham and Tyler, but where is the evidence that humans, not mice, digest raw potato starch well (other than perhaps wild raw potato starch, such as Eskimo potato)?

It would be interesting to learn what the butyrate conversion rates are for starchy or inulin-rich plants are. I am much more open to the possibility of benefits from raw wild tubers and roots than many Paleo dieters. I don't see things as a war of roots and tubers versus animal fats or HC vs LC. I see raw, wild sources of both roots/tubers and animal fats, and approximations like organic domesticated roots and tubers that are edible raw and raw pastured animal fats as probably healthy for most people, and there seems to be a wide range of macronutrient ratios that humans can thrive on, which was apparently part of the key of the success of H. sapiens.

[aLptHW4k4y]

Thanks, what is your source for that? What counts is what's actually absorbed by the body. Are those percentages regarding content? If so, then unless the conversion rate is 100%, the butyrate actually absorbed would be lower.

My source is "Dr. John H. CUMMINGS: The Large Intestine in Nutrition and Disease"

Around 95% of the SCFAs produced in the colon are absorbed. Of the produced butyrate, 80% is used by the cells of the colon itself. Did you see the table I posted? You have the conversion rates for starch and pectin there. You'll find some more in the above reference.

No matter how wonderful this butyric acid, I wouldn't go crazy on fiber. There are extremists like Ray Peat who would probably drink antibiotics to kill any bacteria in the digestive tract.. while he's quite crazy, he does have a point: besides the SCFAs, you get a bunch of toxins and gases as byproducts; I'm not sure how good they are in larger doses.

[Muhammad.Sunshine]

My past experiences with VLC diets reduced my gut bacteria levels. My vivaciousness never seemed to be fully restored even though I began eating lots of organs, fatty fish, and carbohydrates to rectify the issue. Fortunately, last week things began to change.

My current gut health regime of natural prebiotics and probiotics made me feel better than ever. The restoration of gut bacteria was the missing key in my wellness strategy.

Perhaps a VLC diet low in overall sugar, but high enough in prebiotics and probiotics to ensure excellent gut health, could be a highly successful diet.

[Muhammad.Sunshine]

PaleoPhil
Your research is extensive.

Insoluble fiber is the fiber which the general public is familiar with, it forms the indigestible mass which has value in the process of elimination, but has low fermentation and health potential. The beneficial fiber we are after is soluble fiber, which forms a gel and provides metabolic and health benefits. The public is largely unaware of this fiber distinction. So, when fiber intake is calculated, only the soluble fiber should be considered.

aLptHW4k4y,
Consumption of plant material should be well managed, even wild animals intentionally select plants with the lowest anti-nutrient content. I feel that the root vegetables I am consuming for soluble fiber are low in anti-nutrients and relatively easy to digest.

[PaleoPhil]

My source is "Dr. John H. CUMMINGS: The Large Intestine in Nutrition and Disease"

Around 95% of the SCFAs produced in the colon are absorbed. Of the produced butyrate, 80% is used by the cells of the colon itself. Did you see the table I posted? You have the conversion rates for starch and pectin there. You'll find some more in the above reference.

Yes, that's the table I was asking about. I checked the original table at http://www.angelfire.com/folk/cusp/images/large_intestine.pdf and it looks like it's implying that 23g of butyrate is converted from 100 g of pure starch (a potato is not pure starch). Should that then be multiplied by the 49% "yield" to give 11.27 g that is actually absorbed by the body?

The 63 SCFA/100 g figure is listed elsewhere in the report as 63 SCFA/100 g carbohydrate, but according to Dr. Eades, less SCFA is produced by carbohydrate than starch, and the table lists "starch," so I'm not sure how that fraction applies to the table.

If the 23% conversion rate is correct and I use that with the USDA database http://ndb.nal.usda.gov, I get:

100 g Potatoes, Russet, flesh and skin, baked
contains 21.44 g starch
23% of 21.44 g starch converts to 4.9 g butyrate

Individual variation in gut microbiota, amylase, and health theoretically might affect these figures.

I'm not sure I understand all the figures, as there isn't much explanation of them, so let me know how you think it's supposed to be calculated.

Here's how Dr. Eades calculated butyrate at http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/metabolism/resistant-starch/:

consume a half cup of cooked potato
produces 12.9 grams of carbohydrate (almost three teaspoons)
of which 10.5 grams are starch
If we go by our RD’s estimate that 5 percent of the total starch is resistant starch, we calculate that our half cup of potato contains about half a gram of resistant starch (0.5265 g to be exact)
[I think he makes an error here, so I'm replacing the rest of the calculation]
assuming 100 percent conversion to butyrate (which Eades says "isn’t the case because some is converted to other short chain fatty acids") results in .5 g of butyrate

Eades comments, "So, we eat our half cup of cooked potato, and what do we get? We get almost three teaspoons of sugar and carb that convert almost immediately to glucose and head directly into the bloodstream. The blood volume of a person with a normal blood sugar contains about a teaspoon of sugar, which means that consuming the potato almost quadruples the amount of sugar in the blood. The pancreas then secretes insulin to drive this excess sugar into the cells. This extra insulin then does all the things excess insulin is famous (or infamous) for doing.

But what about the butyrate from the resistant starch? Oh yeah, the 2.3 grams of butyrate. I don’t see how the butyrate is going to do much to stop the insulin spike resulting from the ingestion of the sugars and starch from the non-resistant starch part of the potato. And even if butyrate really does all it is cracked up to do, we wouldn’t really need the potato with all its accessory easily absorbed carb because we can get the equivalent amount of butyrate from a single pat of butter. (Or almost the same – a pat of butter contains 1.45 g butyrate. Two pats of butter contain 3 g or about 1.5 times the amount generated by the resistant starch component of the potato.)"

And he says, "In my opinion, it’s ‘resistant’ for a reason – it’s an anti-nutrient. I’ll post about anti-nutrients in the future. I would avoid resistant starch myself."

---*---

@ Muhammad: Thanks. Yes, I know about soluble and insoluble fiber. Dr. Eades actually said that it's a third type of fiber, "resistant starch" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistant_starch), that gets converted to butyrate.

[PaleoPhil]

Here's what I found on Eades' connection of resistant starches to antinutrients...
The foods high in resistant starch are also high in antinutrients:

Navy beans   
Green banana
Raw or cold cooked potato
Lentils   
Cold pasta
Pearl barley   
Oatmeal   
Wholegrain bread

Main source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistant_starch

"When potatoes are cooked, then cooled, resistant starch forms tight crystals. These crystals are broken up when the potato is reheated." (http://www.livestrong.com/article/317493-cold-cooked-potatoes-for-weight-loss/)

"The higher the amylose content of starch the greater its resistance to digestion because they form tighly packed granules in cells. Raw potato, green bananas, pulses and high amylose maize starch have a high amylose content." http://www.healthyeatingclub.com/info/articles/nutrients/resisstarch.htm
 
"Seeds of C. ensiformis are known for their energy due to rich starch and amylose.... The percentage of digestible starch of C. gladiata is more than C. ensiformis and C. cathartica (Siddhuraju & Becker, 2001) and resistant starch is comparable to cultivated legumes (21–44%). Such low digestibility of starch is due to antinutritional factors such as phytic acid and polyphenols (Siddhuraju & Becker, 2001)." Nutritional and antinutritional signi?cance of four unconventional legumes of the genus Canavalia

It doesn't sound like raw Paleo fare, folks. It sounds more like the opposite of raw Paleo. The only thing close to a raw Paleo food on the list is banana, and most raw Paleos advocate eating them very ripe, not green. It's too bad too, it sounded promising.

[aLptHW4k4y]

It doesn't have to be starch specifically (though this one gives the most SCFAs), you could try with inulin as Muhammad.Sunshine, or pectin which is common in fruits like apples.

[PaleoPhil]

Yeah, inulin would be more raw Paleo. Anyone have the butyrate conversion numbers for inulin food sources?