Understanding the digestibility and nutritional functions of rice starch subjected to heat-moisture treatment

In this study, rice starch with well-controlled digestion resistibility achieved by heat-moisture treatment (HMT) was chosen as a supplementary diet for high-fat-diet-fed mice. Then, the nutritional functions of HMT-modified rice starch were evaluated by the physiological and biochemical indices, proliferation and distribution of intestinal microflora, and functional diversity by putative metagenomes analysis. Compared with the native-rice-starch mice (DM) group, the blood glucose, serum lipid, oxidative stress, and liver function metabolic levels/indices of the HMT-rice-starch mice (HMT-DM) group were worse due to the declined level of slowly digestible starch (SDS) in HMT-modified rice starch. Meanwhile, the species diversity index was observed to be higher in the DM group and Bifidobacteria was identified as a type of bacteria related to the relatively higher content of RS in HMT-modified rice starch. Overall, our results provide important information for the rational design of rice starch-based health-promoting foods with nutritional functions.