Want rice with half the calories? Follow scientists’ new preparation

Scientists are offering a recipe for cooking rice that’ll appeal to anyone watching their waistline: boil the rice with coconut oil then cool it down in the fridge before dinner.

This simple hack could cut the calories in this popular staple by up to 60 per cent, according to Sri Lankan researchers.

Here’s what to keep in mind about rice: It’s a common, cost-efficient side dish served with most meals in much of the developing world, from Asia and into the Caribbean, for example. But white rice isn’t necessarily good for you. A single cup contains about 240 calories, and it’s starch-heavy – it converts easily into sugar and could be stored as fat if you overeat. Right now, some countries are grappling with obesity, which means serving sizes are also expanding.

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The researchers wanted to zero in on manipulating rice so that its calorie content is trimmed down.

“We wanted to find food-based solutions,” study leader, Sudhair A. James of the University of Sri Lanka, said in a statement.

“We discovered that increasing rice resistant starch (RS) concentrations was a novel way to approach the problem,” he said.

Here’s why this cooking method sheds so many calories: Digestible and indigestible starch are both components of rice, but the RS – the indigestible type – can’t break down in the small intestine, where carbohydrates are normally changed into glucose and other simple sugars before they’re absorbed into the blood stream.

Digestible starch converts into glucose, and in turn, glycogen, much faster than indigestible starches that our bodies can’t change into sugars.

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The scientists thought of manipulating the grain so that the digestible starch turns into the resistant starch, limiting the number of calories in rice. (Scientists have already learned about this with other food: potatoes, for example, lose their resistant starch when they’re cooked or mashed.)

Here’s how to cook the rice: With the best variety of rice, calories could be slashed by 50 to 60 per cent. For the study, the researchers worked with 38 kinds of rice from Sri Lanka and eight different cooking techniques.

The method that garnered the best results included adding a teaspoon of coconut oil to boiling water, adding half a cup of rice, simmering for 40 minutes (or boiling for 20 to 25 minutes) before it’s refrigerated for 12 hours. This process increased the good starch in rice by 10 times compared to the traditional methodology.

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James says that the oil seeps into the starch in rice during cooking, transforming its architecture so it becomes resistant to digestive enzymes that break down our food. Ultimately, fewer calories are absorbed into the body.

Cooling is an important component too.

The research garnered mixed reaction. For the most part, those who are skeptical say that more studies need to be conducted.

“This sounds like it has great potential, however there are no human studies on it yet,” Priya Tew, spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association, told the BBC.

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“I would recommend people stick to cooking rice using their normal method until there is more information available,” she said.

Other critics warned that starch is an important part of a healthy diet, as long as it’s eaten in moderation.

The scientists say their next steps are to keep testing other varieties of rice, including one type they hope will garner the biggest reduction in calories. They’ll also work with different oils during preparation to see if they affect calories.

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The findings were shared this week at the American Chemical Society’s national meeting where more than 11,000 scientists are sharing their latest research. Watch the press conference for this study’s findings here.

carmen.chai@globalnews.ca
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