How to make healthier rice

March 28, 2015 2:08 PM

As much as we know brown rice is the healthier option, we still find ourselves indulging in a bowl of perfectly steamed white rice.

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The problem with white rice is that, it has been stripped of nutrients which makes it high in starch. This starch converts to sugars that your body uses for energy (glycogen) that can turn to fat if you don't burn it off.

Luckily, scientists may have found a way for white-rice-lovers like me and you, to have a bowl without the guilt by reducing the amount of starches and calories in rice just by how you cook it.

White rice is made up of two different starches, digestible starch (glucose, which is what turns into glycogen) and resistant starch, which takes a long time to digest and isn't converted into simple sugars.

Cooking certain foods like rice, potatoes, and peas can alter how much of each type of starch exists in a food; in this study, researchers in Sri Lanka found a simple method for cooking rice that may increase the amount of resistant starches and therefore reduce the amount of calories in rice.

Their simple solution? Add oil, which interacts with the starches in the rice to convert them to resistant starch, and then chill the cooked rice, which further changes its composition for the better.

Seems simple enough. Heres how its done.

Note

Note that the chilling time is 12 hours but is a crucial step in converting the starches, so make a batch ahead of time that you can store in your fridge.

Ingredients

1 cup white rice2 teaspoons coconut oil1 3/4 cups water

Directions