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This article originally appeared in time.com.
A cup of white rice has about 200 calories-not insignificant, considering it’s usually used to be a small component of a much better dish. But there is however a fairly easy, natural strategy to make rice less caloric: include a little fat, then let it cool. Based on research presented within the American Chemical Society’s national meeting, using coconut oil along with a refrigerator can slash calories as much as 60%.
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Rice is composed of digestible starch along with a special type of carbohydrate called resistant starch, which recent studies suggest could possibly be key for losing weight. Humans not have the enzymes to digest resistant starch, as a result it isn’t changed to sugar and absorbed quickly inside bloodstream like digestible starch. Instead, it bypasses the small intestine and is metabolized from the colon, where it’s fermented into short-chain body fat that feed healthy colonies of gut bacteria. The harder resistant starch a food has, the less calories from that starch the body will absorb. Resistant starch is plentiful in foods like legumes, beans, not to mention, uncooked potatoes and unripe bananas.
Researchers through the College of Chemical Sciences in Sri Lanka wanted to ascertain if they could convert some of rice’s digestible starch in the non-digestible type, and thereby make it less caloric. By trying out 38 varieties of rice and simulating human digestion in a very test tube, they devised a recipe for that least caloric way to cook rice: drop a teaspoon of coconut oil into boiling water, exercise . half a glass of non-fortified white rice and cook it for around 40 minutes. After cooking, place it in the fridge for 12 hours.
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Rice cooked like this had a minimum of Ten times the resistant starch as normally prepared rice and 10-15% fewer calories. But researchers think that with some types of rice, the method could cut calories by 50-60%.
Here’s what’s the deal ?: the glucose units in hot cooked rice contain a loose structure, but once it cools down, the molecules rearrange themselves into very tight bonds that are more protected from digestion, says Pushaparaja Thavarajah, PhD, who supervised the study. Scientists know not wearing running shoes works in potatoes, employing the latest study, researchers believed adding a fat like coconut oil could add extra protection. It gave the impression to. The body fat molecule wedges its way into the rice, Thavarajah says, and gives a barrier against quick digestion.
Making rice starch more resistant has other perks besides cutting calories. It’ll also feed your good bacteria. “The resistant starch is a really good substrate, or power source, for that bacteria inside the human gut,” says Thavarajah.
Best off, they learned that reheating the rice didn’t affect the variety of resistant starch-so the calorie hack remains for leftovers, too.
