OMG, Asia! This cooking method will reduce rice calories by up to 60%

What is the number-one principle for anyone on a diet nowadays? All together now: cut out carbs! 

We have good news for Hong Kong dieters, and anyone else born with a thirst for rice: there’s no need to put up with this cruel rule any more. 

Scientists at the Institute of Chemistry in Sri Lanka have developed a new method of cooking rice, which could decrease calorie intake by 10-15 percent and up to 50-60 percent (!) if superior-quality rice is used, reports the SCMP

Carb loading without the consequences? Sign us up for some of that!

For rice-lovers and desperate dieters, here’s your magic recipe:

1: Add a teaspoon of coconut oil to boiling water
2: Add half a cup of rice, simmer for 40 minutes
3: Refrigerate the cooked rice for 12 hours (yeah, yeah, we know)
4: Reheat and dig in

A tip from lead scientist Sudhair A. James concerning the feasibility of that whole 12-hour cooling period thing is to cook the rice in batches of two or three kilograms and store in the fridge until needed. 

“The taste was the same and it was delicious,” James promises. 

This method could potentially help Hongkongers struggling with obesity.

Here’s the “science bit”:

Rice is loaded with two types of starch, digestible and indigestible (the latter of which is also known as rice-resistant starch). 

Compared to digestible starch, rice-resistant starch contributes far fewer calories to the human body because it is not broken down into simple sugars in our intestines, sometimes resulting in what is known in scientific circles as a “fatty-bumbatty”. 

Based on this theory, the researchers started out on their mission to transform digestible starch into indigestible starch. 

After experimenting with 38 types of Sri Lankan rice, James’s team eventually developed the method of adding oil to the rice during cooking, which changes the structure of the starch.

James unfortunately insists that the rather tedious cooling is also an essential part of the method.

“The more cooling hours the rice gets, the more the rice-resistant starch will develop,” he explained. 

Yet he mentioned that his team is working on another method, which could involve freezing the rice in order to speed up the process. 

Yeah, call us when you’ve figured than one out. Ain’t nobody got time to wait 12 hours, even for low-fat rice.

Words: Maya Yu
 
 


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