3 September 2016 in Healthy, Nutrition, Nutrition tips

Low calorie rice

Many people decided to go on a low carbohydrate diet, they feel better or its easier for them to lose extra kilograms.

Unfortunately for some it results in a fear of all types of carbohydrates – and this is unhealty

Lately i found great research by the College of Chemical Sciences in Sri Lanka

One cup of cooked rice contains around 240 calories and it contains both digestible and resistant types of starch. Humans dont have the enzyme to digest resistant starch, which means the body is unable to convert some of that starch to sugar and absorb it into the bloodstream

Researchers from the College of Chemical Sciences in Sri Lanka successfully tested out the theory that using a specific heating and cooling process could increase the presence of resistant starch and thereby minimize the body’s calorie absorption.

Now, how we can cut the calories in our rice by more than half? According to the researchers: Add a teaspoon of coconut oil to boiling water, then add half a cup of rice. Simmer for 40 minutes or boil for 20 to 25 minutes. Once the rice it cooked, place it in the fridge for around 12hours. Basically you’ll need to cook it ahead of time.

We can read in the research that this method causes the oil to enter in starch granules while it cooks and adds a protective layer, which ostensibly changes the structure of the rice granules so they becomes resistant to the digestive enzyme. Ultimately, this means that you body is absorbing fewer calories from the rice.

So, the cooking process is only part of this magic experiment. During the extended cooling process, when the rice starts to “gel,” the amylose — the starchy part of the rice — leaves the granules. The 12-hour cooling period also leads to the formation of hydrogen bonds between the the amylose and molecules outside the rice grains. This converts it into the starch the body is unable to digest.

Dont worry, you will not have to eat your rice cold to maintain its lower calories. Research is saying that reheating the rice at a later time doesn’t change the rice’s chemical composition. Additionally, rice cooked this way won’t only help a person maintain a trim waist; it may also result in a healthier gut, since the bacteria in the rice provides a potent energy source to the “good bacteria” in the human body.

These findings were presented at the 249th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

http://phys.org/partners/american-chemical-society/

More information: Rice (Oryza sativa L.) resistant starch and novel processing methods to increase resistant starch concentration, 249th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).