White rice is one of the most consumed products in the world, due to its low cost and high nutritional value. However, the high caloric intake of this cereal also makes it one of the foods that most affect the formation of body fat. However, its calories can be reduced by up to half if we modify the way of cooking the rice, how? We’ll tell you then!
A student of Chemical Sciences at the University of Colombo, Sudhair A. James, and his professor, Dr. Pushparajah Thavarajah, showed that cooking rice with coconut oil and subsequent refrigeration allowed the starch structure of this cereal to be modified to make it indigestible and, therefore, it is possible to prevent the starch from being transformed into glucose that the body absorbs and converts into fat. If you also want to start following this method to include rice in your diet without harming your health, we show you the recipe for rice cooked with coconut oil and we explain how calories are reduced.
Ingredients to make Rice cooked with coconut oil:
- 2 cups of water (480 milliliters)
- 1 cup of white rice
- 1 dessert spoon of coconut oil
How to make Rice Cooked with Coconut Oil:
- Cooking white rice with coconut oil to cut its calories in half is very simple. The first thing you should do is boil the two cups of water along with the tablespoon of coconut oil. You can include it without first melting it, since it will dissolve quickly with the water.
- When it starts to boil, add the rice and lower the temperature to cook it over low heat for approximately 40 minutes. Although we have used white rice, you can use any other type.
- According to the findings of the Sri Lankan researchers, it is essential to follow this cooking method, even if it is slower than the traditional one, to obtain this transformation and make the starch of the cereal resistant (not digestible).
- After the cooking time, you should let the rice with coconut oil cool in the refrigerator for 12 hours. The indicated rest time is also essential to obtain the desired result. This is so because, according to the scientists responsible for the study, coconut oil allows the structure of the starch to be modified during cooking, but it is the cooling process that manages to maintain this change and ensure that the rice sees its caloric intake reduced. Half.
- Clever! After the resting time in the refrigerator, you can serve the white rice with coconut oil as an accompaniment to any meal and even make a rice salad with it. Likewise, you can reheat the rice without altering the number of calories, since, as the researchers indicate, reheating it does not make the starch digestible again.
Why does rice with coconut oil reduce the number of calories?
- As we mentioned, making cooked rice a much healthier food is possible thanks to the interaction of coconut oil with the cereal, which directly impacts the composition of the starch. We explained that there are two types of starches:
- Digestible or non – resistant starchis the one that, when this compound reaches the digestive system, breaks down into glucose that passes into the bloodstream and, therefore, affects sugar levels. When this glucose reaches the cells, it can be converted into energy or fat.
- Indigestible or resistant starch, as its name suggests, passes through the digestive system virtually intact, helping to lower blood glucose levels and causing the body to absorb fewer calories.
- Researchers from the University of Colombo, in their study presented at the 249th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in 2015, stated that when cooking rice with coconut oil at low temperature, the oil manages to enter the granules of starch and modify its structure. In addition, as we said, the fact of letting it cool for so many hours has just set the chemical modification of the cereal and, therefore, it manages to reduce calories by up to 50%. Depending on the type of rice used, this percentage can be modified, being higher or lower, since if we use a healthier rice in itself, such as Yamani rice, the caloric intake could be reduced by even 60%.
