The advice to eat less white rice for dieting is a common one. However, cutting back on a staple food can be challenging. So, what can we do if we still crave white rice? The answer lies in eating it cold.
Cold rice is said to be more resistant to digestion compared to warm rice, making it beneficial for dieting. Resistant starch, found abundantly in cold rice, is claimed to contain up to 90% dietary fiber, which helps prevent an increase in body fat. Unlike regular starch, which can easily convert to body fat when consumed excessively, resistant starch is less likely to be stored as body fat. This is because resistant starch breaks down into glucose at a slower rate, allowing for prolonged satiety without rapid spikes in blood sugar.
How should rice be prepared to increase its resistant starch content? According to research, allowing freshly cooked rice to cool at room temperature for 10 hours or at 4°C for 24 hours before reheating can increase its resistant starch content. Rice that has been cooled for 24 hours at 4°C and then reheated has been found to have 20% more resistant starch compared to rice cooled at room temperature for 10 hours.
However, freezing rice is not effective in increasing resistant starch. While starch molecules rearrange to form resistant starch as the temperature drops, this structural change does not occur during freezing. This is because molecules do not move when water is frozen. Therefore, it's advisable to store rice at least at a temperature of 4°C for over 5 hours.
In this way, a white rice diet can yield more than just reducing the quantity of rice. Consuming cold rice with higher resistant starch content can aid in dieting, promoting healthier eating habits and aiding in weight management.
