WINNIPEG -- A new study out of the University of Manitoba is looking at what effects potato products could have on chronic kidney disease.
The university said in a news release a clinical trial will test how a resistant starch from raw potatoes, which is a type of carbohydrate, affects the disease.
Dylan MacKay, assistant professor of community health sciences at the U of M, said this is only possible with raw potatoes because once they are cooked the starch is gone.
"It's interesting because the body can't break down that carbohydrate, so it makes it into our large intestine and becomes food for the bacteria that lives in us," said MacKay.
Participants will be given a flavourless powdered supplement to mix into a drink every day.
MacKay said this could help those with chronic kidney disease because it will be giving the bacteria something else to eat.
"Some of the toxins that the kidneys are always working to filter out of our blood are created by the bacteria that lives in us and they might create less of it if they have carbohydrates to eat rather than protein."
He added there have been studies that use resistant starch from other food such as bananas and corn, but this is the first time a study is focused on the starch from potatoes.
There will be two groups for the study, those who get the resistant potato starch and those who receive a placebo. The participants won't know which one they get.
MacKay said the study, which is being conducted at the Chronic Disease Innovation Centre (LINK) at Seven Oaks hospital, is expected to get started later this year.
Chronic kidney disease affects around 10 per cent of Canadian adults, but Manitoba has the highest rate of any province at about 14 per cent.
