3 Simple Ways You Can Make Rice Healthier + Gut Friendly

Did you know that eating foods high in RESISTANT STARCH helps promote the "good" bacteria in our gut? Resistant starch acts more like a prebiotic than a typical starch. Once the resistant starch arrives in the colon, our good gut bacteria feeds on the starch, producing short chain fatty acids like butyrate (butyric acid) which strengthens your brain and gut. It’s also the preferred energy source of the cells lining the colon and helps to increase metabolism, decrease inflammation and even improve stress resistance.

Resistant starch is a type of starch that is not digested in the stomach or small intestine, reaching the colon intact. Thus, it “resists” digestion. This explains why we don’t see spikes in either blood glucose or insulin after eating RS, and why we don’t obtain significant calories from RS - Chris Kresser

Along with strengthening the gut by feeding all that good bacteria, resistant starch has many other health benefits, including;

RESISTANT STARCH HEALTH BENEFITS

• Increases absorption of important minerals like calcium and magnesium

• Decreases absorption of toxic and carcinogenic compounds which can protect against bowel cancer

• Affect positive changes in microflora, particularly increasing bifidobacterium

• Decrease inflammation in the gut and other tissues

• Better digestion - RS bulks and softens stool, helps regularity

• Can help reduce fat stores as RS feeds bacteria not fat cells

• helps you become more tolerant of the carbs you digest

• Help improve insulin sensitivity

• Improved blood sugar control

• Preserve Vitamin D in the body

• Protect probiotic bacteria

• Increase feelings of satiety

• Improved sleep

Sounds good to me! So how can you get more of it in your diet?

RESISTANT STARCH FOOD SOURCES

• Cooked and cooled potatoes - in one study, cooking and then cooling potatoes overnight increased their resistant starch content by 280%

• Cooked and cooled legumes

• Cooked and cooled rice

• Tigernuts and tigernut flour (you can read more info here)

• Yams

• Oats (this brand is gluten free)

• Plantains 

• Green bananas 

• Raw green banana flour

• Raw potato starch

• Cassava flour

• Green papaya and mango

SOME OF THE EASIEST (and yummiest) WAYS TO EAT THESE FORMS OF RS INCLUDE;

• Cold potato salad

• Frozen green bananas in a smoothie

• Warm rice pudding (using cooked and cooled rice) made with coconut milk and blood-sugar-balancing ceylon cinnamon

• My 3-ingredient cauliflower or spinach tortillas from my eBook GET SNACKED (gently reheated the following day)

• Turmeric fried rice - using cooked and cooled rice

• Plantain chips

• Leftover rice and bean salad

• Bircher muesli

• Green papaya or mango salad

One of my favourite (and easiest) ways to eat resistant starch is by cooking and cooling white rice. But why white rice and not brown rice?

ARSENIC & RICE

Arsenic content in rice varies widely from country to country and by types of rice, but you can avoid higher levels of arsenic by choosing white rice. Why? Because rice bran holds most of its arsenic. The bran is stripped away to make white rice, so white rice has lower levels of arsenic than brown rice, it’s also easier to digest. I also recommend choosing organic rice varieties. While organically grown rice isn’t a guarantee to be lower in arsenic, it will have far less chemical residues.

Though there is arsenic in rice and arsenic exposure is a health risk, it’s not necessarily a reason to avoid rice all together. If you follow these 3 simple steps, you can upgrade your rice and feel better about consuming it.

3 SIMPLE WAYS TO MAKE RICE HEALTHIER & MORE GUT FRIENDLY

1. Soak Rice To Reduce Arsenic + Make It Easier To Digest

Studies show that a simple overnight soak reduces arsenic in the rice by up to 80%. As a bonus, grains are also easier to digest and anti-nutrients like phytic acid (a powerful blocker of mineral absorption in the gut) and lectins (particularly brown rice varieties), are reduced by soaking the grains as well. Discard water and rinse the rice well before cooking. This significantly reduces arsenic levels.

2. Cook The Rice In Bone Broth + Coconut Oil

Cooking the rice in homemade bone broth is a really easy way to incorporate more of the healing benefits bone broth has into your diet. Or add in a big tablespoon of any of the Gevity Bone Broth Concentrates if you don’t have any homemade broth on hand. If you’re vegan or vegetarian just use filtered water when cooking the rice. Include healthy fats, such as coconut oil, when cooking rice. When these are cooked together, the oil binds to the digestible starch in the rice (the starch that converts to glucose). Once bound with the coconut oil, the digestible starch begins to crystallise, creating resistant starch.

3. Cool The Rice To Create Resistant Starch 

Also cooling the rice for 12-24 hours with the coconut oil allows the crystallisation process to occur. One study found this increased the amount of RS by 10-15x as well as reducing its calories by up to 50-60%. As a result, the rice produces a smaller spike in blood sugar because you get more resistant starch to take the place of digestible starch. Plus, the inherent qualities of the resistant starch decrease this smaller spike even further. The result is lower-carb rice.

HOW-TO MAKE COOKED & COOLED RICE

Dive into cooked and cooled white rice and enjoy the prebiotic benefits!

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Soak organic, white rice (I use basmati or medium grain rice) in filtered water. Add a dash of apple cider vinegar and a pinch of quality salt overnight (or for minimum 6 hours). The amount of rice you use will depend on the number of people in your family/ home, so follow the measurements on the back of the packet if you’re not sure how much to cook.

2. After soaking, rinse in fresh filtered water until the water runs clear. 

3. Cook the rice in homemade chicken bone broth (for extra gut health benefits) or fresh filtered water using the absorption method (instructions on packet). Add 1 Tbsp of coconut or MCT oil while it’s cooking. Optional, add ½ - 1 tsp turmeric for it’s incredible anti-inflammatory benefits + it creates a beautiful yellow/ orange rice. Remove from the heat and allow to cool down a bit before placing it in the fridge overnight or up to 24 hours.

IS IT SAFE TO EAT COLD RICE?

Here are some tips on how to safely store and handle rice;

1. Place freshly cooked rice into the fridge within 1 hour of it being cooked.

2. Rice should be kept in an airtight container in the fridge. Refrigeration inhibits bacterial growth.

3. Rice can be kept in the fridge for up to 4 days if stored properly. I personally make smaller batches and aim to eat it within 2-3 days.

I always think it’s always better to be on the safe side, and properly store and refrigerate the rice and dispose of it after 4 days if you didn’t get to eat it in time (if in doubt throw it out).

HOW-TO USE COOKED & COOLED RICE

You can gently reheat the rice after the cooking/ cooling process, but to maintain the benefits of RS, it shouldn’t be heated above 80°C (175°F)

I find the easiest way to enjoy cooked and cooled rice is to gently reheat the rice until it’s just warmed. I’ll serve the hot curry, butter chicken or slow cooked meat over the top of the rice.

• Curries

• Sushi (my eBook GET SNACKED has a simple recipe for this)

• Fried rice

• Rice pudding 

• Serve with slow cooked meats and veggies

• Our cookbook GUTALICIOUS also has a butter chicken and a gut loving brownie recipe that uses cooked and cooled rice

• Crunchy rice - this is very similar to Persian rice (Tahdig)

HERE’S HOW I MAKE MY CRUNCHY RICE

1. Heat a good quality frying pan on a low-medium heat and add a generous amount of either butter or ghee and allow to melt.

2. Remove your cooked and cooled rice from the fridge. Spread the rice on top of the melted butter or ghee evenly.

3. Cook on low-medium heat (I try not to heat on high as to not destroy the beneficial RS) until the bottom of the rice is crunchy and golden brown.

4. Serve with slow cooked meats and veggies, curries, butter chicken, mix with veggies to create a yummy, textured fried rice and more.

References

• https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/newsreleases/2015/march/new-low-calorie-rice-could-help-cut-rising-obesity-rates.html

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16633129

• https://www.bulletproof.com/recipes/low-carb/low-carb-carbs-hack-your-rice-with-coconut-oil-recipe/#ref-3

• https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-3010.2005.00481.x