Adding resistant starch - like potatoes - makes for a healthier barbecue. Photo: Getty Images
So you've bought the steaks, the drinks are chilling and the barbecue tools are poised for action but did anyone remember the resistant starch? It could be your colon's best friend when it comes to counteracting the less desirable effects of too many meaty meals - like a higher risk of bowel cancer.
Cast your mind back to October this year and the media frenzy around the World Health Organisation's announcement on the links between meat and bowel cancer were hard to miss. Yet just four months earlier another report relating to high meat consumption and health slipped quietly under the radar without much attention - and this one had some good news. Australian researchers had found that, yes, a diet high in red meat can cause changes to the cells in our gut which can contribute to the formation of cancer - but that the presence of a type of fibre called resistant starch can help to counter them.
This research by scientists at the CSIRO and Flinders University gave a glimpse into the complex interplay between what we eat and the bacteria in our gut - and why it matters to our health.
It's one of two recent Australian studies in humans showing that resistant starch, found in foods like lentils, beans and wholegrains, provides food for gut microbes that helps them produce what may be an important weapon against bowel cancer - substances called short chain fatty acids - says one of the researchers, Dr Michael Conlon, a senior research scientist with CSIRO Food and Nutrition.
"These short chain fatty acids help nourish the lining of the colon and promote the health of its cells - and they also destroy any cells that have become damaged and so reduce the risk of serious disease, including cancer," he says.
But many of us are missing out on their benefits because our intake of resistant starch tends to be low, says Professor David Topping, Chief Research Scientist with CSIRO Food and Nutrition.
"This could help explain the Australian Paradox - why it is that we have high levels of bowel cancer in this country even though our fibre intakes are quite high with Australians eating up to 25g of fibre daily. We think it could be because gut microbes aren't getting sufficient resistant starch to produce enough of these protective short chain fatty acids," he explains. "When gut microbes are starved of resistant starch they feed on protein, causing them to produce substances which can potentially damage cells and increase cancer risk."
So how can we bring more resistant starch into the backyard barbecue - or on to the dinner table?
Let's start with legumes like beans, lentils and chick peas which, says Topping, are one of the best sources of resistant starch. Eating more can be as simple as draining and rinsing a can of brown lentils and tossing them through a salad of dark red and green leaves, radish and red onion with oil and vinegar. More than just a dose of fibre for hungry gut bacteria, these little lentils add flavour and texture to salads. Then there are dishes based on grains that provide resistant starch such as brown rice or freekeh (roasted grains of young wheat) - like Karen Martini's freekeh, fetta and almond salad or this side dish of brown rice and puy lentils with pine nuts and spinach that delivers, not one, but two good sources of resistant starch.
If you prefer old standards like potato salad or pasta salad, they're useful too - when potatoes and pasta are cooked and cooled they form more resistant starch, Topping says.
And while it might be a stretch to replace that barbecue staple the white bread roll with a piece of pumpernickel, your gut would thank you for it - dark rye and pumpernickel have up to six times the resistant starch of a slice of white.
