A few years ago, a team of nutrition experts from the Harvard School of Public Health, designed a nutritional guide to help people of all ages to eat in a balanced and healthy way. The basis on which the so-called “Harvard plate” was built was a studied combination between the different nutritional groups. One of the four basic elements of that ‘Harvard plate’ were cereals. Within what we can qualify as cereals, we can mention barley, wheat, quinoa or oats, (…). However, none of the cereals is as important as rice.
The benefits of rice
Sadly, rice is often treated unfairly by those who claim to take care of your line. They understand that, being fundamentally carbohydrates, ingesting it will necessarily push them to gain weight. And while it is true that a higher intake of carbohydrates implies a higher intake of calories, we should be careful before rejecting outright the carbohydrate intake.
After all, it is carbohydrates that supply energy to all the organs of our body, from the brain to our muscles. And both the brain and the muscles are very demanding in this regard. We’re talking about that-hourly– our brain consumes around 5 grams of glucose (which is derived, in turn, from the consumption of carbohydrates).
Without that source of energy, the brain can’t work correctly. Taking into account that each bowl of rice has 45 grams of carbohydrates and that, in total, the brain consumes 120 grams of glucose daily…it doesn’t seem smart to go completely without carbs. In addition, rice also provides us with fiber, manganese, selenium, iron, magnesium, copper and vitamin B.
In other words, we should all include a good proportion of rice in our diet, even when we are on a diet. And if what worries us is that the consumption of rice keeps us from the sought-after caloric deficit, we can always use this technique to cook the rice that will allow us to reduce them. up to 50%:
A cooking method that reduces calories
A team of scientists from the College of Chemical Sciences in Colombo, Sri Lanka, discovered a rice preparation method which made it possible to increase the proportion of what is known as resistant starch in rice… to the detriment of the digestible or non-resistant starch. The difference between these two types of starch, is that the non-resistant is metabolized into simple sugars and absorbed into the bloodstream; Meanwhile he resistant to digestive enzymes it is not digested in the small intestine. Which means that it provides fewer calories, while maintaining all its properties and all its nutritional contributions.
To achieve this, we must remember, first of all, always wash the rice. In this way, we will remove excess starch from the superficial part of the grain. Also, this will also help it loosen up after cooking. To wash it, we will introduce the rice that we are going to cook in lukewarm water and we will remove the grains by hand, making circular movements. By doing this, the excess starch it will turn the water white.
Although it is not necessary for the water to be completely clean and transparent At the time of cooking it, it is convenient that we change it a couple of times before taking it to the fire. This will cause most of the excess starch to be lost. Once the rice is clean enough, we must cover it with water and add a tablespoon of coconut oil.
Although cooking times they can vary a bit depending on our particular tastes, it is recommended to cook on a fast heat for 25 minutes or over low heat for approximately 40 minutes. Finally, we will store the rice in the refrigerator for about 12 hours. Chilling the rice after cooking and adding coconut oil during cooking will increase the ratio of resistant starch to intestinal digestive enzymes by up to 10 times, which reduce the number of calories that our body obtains from the intake of rice.
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