“Cook, cool and reheat common carbohydrates to cut the glycemic index by 50 per cent”. Yes, it is not a joke, You can now eat your carbs and lose weight easily. “This is not a fad, but nutrition hack backed by science,” says popular dietician Pooja Makhija – who says cooling cooked starchy foods like potatoes or pasta leads to an increase in resistant starch content. Pooja says resistant starch helps in improving insulin sensitivity and reducing the glycemic response.

“For example, rice – cooked, heat, and chilled and you can say bye to high GI (glycemic index). You can reduce GI from 78 to 64,” she said in a video posted on her Instagram account.

Experts say all kinds of carbs at different from each other - from sugars to starches to fibre, they have different effects on your health. However, a kind of carb that has unique benefits are resistant starch - also considered a type of fibre. According to Pooja, increasing your intake of resistant starch is beneficial for the bacteria in your intestines as well as for your cells.

“When you cool down hot starch, you cause cross linkages as well as restructuring a certain starch. This becomes resistance starch,” she said. Resistance starch slows down your digestion as well as helps improve insulin sensitivity. Increasing your intake of resistant starch can also be beneficial for the bacteria in your intestines. “This resistance starch is the food for your pro gut biome,” she added.

Since resistance starch is a kind of anti digestion, it passes through the intestines without being broken down by your body. Yet it can be broken down and used as fuel by the bacteria in your large intestine. It also produces short-chain fatty acids - which make your body cells healthy.

Top carbohydrates that you can cool and reheat without worrying about blood sugar spikes include:

Potatoes are among the most popular sources of dietary starch and can be made healthy by cooking, cooling, and then using for meals – as it helps reduce the glycemic index. How potatoes are prepared impacts their effects on health. “Boil them, cool them, then mash them and cut sugar spikes by a good 30-40 per cent,” said Pooja.

Rice is a staple in most parts of the world, with millions consuming it daily as part of their daily meals. According to Pooja, cooling rice after cooking increases the amount of resistant starch it contains. “Cook it, chill it reheat it, and say goodbye to high GI. You can reduce GI from 78 to 54.”

Pasta is a popular go-to food in many parts of the world, made with different recipes. Made using wheat, pasta, when heated and cooled can increase resistance starch from 41 to 88 per cent. It also helps lower inflammation and changes the metabolism of the bacteria in your intestines – thereby preventing digestive issues like inflammatory bowel disease.

Apart from regulating blood sugar levels, Pooja said resistant starch makes you feel fuller and eat less, too

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