Addicted to carbs? This simple trick cuts the calories in a favorite carb staple in half.
According to research presented at the 249th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, adding just a teaspoon of coconut oil to boiling rice could change its composition, reducing its calories by 50 to 60 percent.
That’s a huge way to save on calories, say researchers.
“Because obesity is a growing health problem, especially in many developing countries, we wanted to find food-based solutions,” says Sudhair A. James, leader of the study and a researcher from the College of Chemical Sciences in Colombo, Sri Lanka. “We discovered that increasing rice resistant starch (RS) concentrations was a novel way to approach the problem. If the best rice variety is processed, it might reduce the calories by about 50-60 percent.”
Rice resistant starch, or RS, is of interest to researchers because, unlike other starches, it cannot be digested in the small intestine, where a significant amount of calories and nutrients are absorbed. Instead, it is eliminated without being absorbed, lowering the amount of calories broken down by the body.
Rice, however, naturally contains digestible starch. Researchers wanted to see if they could convert this starch to RS.
Eventually, they discovered how to initiate this process–by adding coconut oil to boiling rice and allowing it to cool for at least 12 hours. James explains the process below.
“The oil enters the starch granules during cooking, changing its architecture so that it becomes resistant to the action of digestive enzymes,” says James. “The cooling is essential because amylose, the soluble part of the starch, leaves the granules during gelatinization. Cooling for 12 hours will lead to formation of hydrogen bonds between the amylose molecules outside the rice grains which also turns it into a resistant starch.”
However, researchers aren’t sure which varieties of rice are best suited to this cooking process. Further tests will hopefully help researchers figure out which ones are ideal–such as long grain, jasmine, or basmati.
“The next step will be to complete studies with human subjects to learn which varieties of rice might be best suited to the calorie-reduction process,” says James.
What This Means For You
Want to save on calories? While researchers aren’t sure which varieties of rice are best suited to this method, boiling rice with a touch of coconut oil could help cut your calorie intake by as much as 60 percent. Don’t use this as an excuse to overindulge, however–though it may be lower in calories, it’s also lower in nutrients too, which also cuts down on its nutritional value.
Readers: What other tricks do you use to lower your caloric intake?
Source:
New Low-Calorie Rice Could Help Cut Rising Obesity Rates – NewsWise.com
Scientists Have Discovered a Simple Way to Cook Rice That Cuts Calories – WashingtonPost.com
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