Until recently, consumption of carbohydrate-rich foods
was highly recommended, e.g. potatoes directly after thermal
treatment inducing gelatinisation of potato starch, as it
was known that starch retrogradation proceeds in such
products, especially those cold-stored due to sanitary considerations.
The retrogradation process diminishes the
amount of starch digested, hence it lowers the nutritive
(caloric) value of a product. Nowadays, economic conditions
and viewpoints on nutrition have changed. It is
expressed by a tendency to reducing the caloric value of
meals, observed especially in developed countries. Civilizational
changes have also contributed to an increased
intake of dietary fibre, indispensable for proper functioning
of the organism. It was the reason of an increased interest
in resistant starch – a natural food component, believed to
be neutral to the organism [Annison & Toping, 1994],
increasing food weight, but not its caloric value