22/09/2025
Make Next-Day Carbs Kinder to Your Blood Sugar...And gentler on your gut too!
If you love rice, pasta and potatoes, you may already know that these foods can really spike your blood sugar levels after eating them, so they've become the bad guys if you're trying to control your blood sugar levels for health reasons, BUT... you maybe be delighted to read the latest science and research about how you can make these foods a little more body-friendly JUST by cooking them, cooling them and eating them next day! 😋
Here's the plan:
Cook your rice, potatoes, or pasta → cool in the fridge → eat cold or reheat gently the next day.
Why?
Cooking and COOLING your starches before eating them changes part of the carbohydrates into resistant starch (RS3), which acts more like fibre. Many people see smaller blood-sugar spikes and happier digestion with this simple hack!
Why is this good?
✅ Slower sugar release: Some of the starch becomes “resistant starch,” so your body digests it more slowly, so less blood sugar spiking.
✅ Gut-friendly: Resistant starch feeds good gut bacteria. In return, they make butyrate — a short-chain fatty acid that fuels your gut lining, calms inflammation and supports healthy digestion.
✅ Works with real foods you already eat: rice, potatoes, pasta—served cold (salads/bowls) or reheated.
How to try it (safe + simple)
1. Cook your rice, pasta or potatoes as usual.
2. Cool quickly: spread in a shallow container and refrigerate within 1 hour. Keep 12–24 h.
3. Enjoy cold (salad/bowl) or reheat once until steaming throughout. Don’t reheat more than once.
Safety first (important for rice & pasta)
👍🏻Refrigerate as quickly as possible after cooking; don’t leave starchy foods at room temp. This prevents Bacillus cereus overgrowth (“fried rice syndrome”).
👍🏻Eat within 1–3 days, or freeze portions. Reheat thoroughly.
Easy meal ideas
🌾 Rice: next-day basmati rice bowl with veggies, herbs, olive oil, lemon.
🥔 Potatoes: chilled potato salad with olive oil + a splash of vinegar (vinegar can further blunt the sugar spike).
🍝 Pasta: cook al dente, chill overnight, then reheat with tomato sauce—or serve as a cold pasta salad.
Good to know:
Not every study finds big changes every time (variety, cooking style and your biology matter). But overall, cooling (and cool→reheat) is a low-effort tweak many people find helpful.
Bonus tip: 🚶 A 10–15 minute quick walk after eating is still one of the most evidence-backed, immediate, effective and reliable ways to blunt a blood sugar spike because your muscles soak up glucose while you move!
Medical note:
If you use insulin or sulfonylureas, any change that lowers your post-meal glucose can affect dosing. Check your levels and speak with your clinician.
Key references:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9684673/ - Frontiers in Nutrition (2022 review, RS3 + reheating OK