Scientists from Adelaide’s Flinders University found that the starch contained in cold, cooked potatoes would reduce the cancer risk associated with eating red meat, with increasing evidence available that a diet high in red meat can increase a person’s risk of colorectal cancers.
Jean Winter, a PhD student who worked on the project, told the Australian Associated Press (AAP) that the reduction in risk from the potato salad was significant, with the resistant starch also present in beans, green bananas and rice.
The starch assists in minimising the cancer risk by resisting digestion until it reaches the colon where it is eaten by bacteria, by a process that releases favourable molecules, the AAP reports.
Tests were conducted on mice which were fed a diet of red meat or red meat plus resistant starch and then tested for any indications of the DNA damage that is a forerunner to cancer.
