Rice, the essence of many nations' cuisines, is possibly the most abundant food in the world.
In Asia, where the consumption of rice reaches an estimated 90 percent, this grain is part of almost every meal. In the Middle East, Caribbean as well and the United States, the starch is often mixed with beans and other foods.
Rice is popular because it pairs well with a variety of food, and it is relatively cheap.
However, like other starch-heavy foods, it has one essential flaw: it has been linked to a higher risk of diabetes, since a cup of the grain carries roughly 250 calories.
Recently, a new way has been found in order to make rice much healthier.
An undergraduate student and his professor at The University of Sri Lanka have been searching for a new way to cook rice that can reduce its calories by as much as 50 percent and even offer a few other added health benefits. The ingenious method, which at its core is just a simple manipulation of chemistry, involves only a couple easy steps in practice.
First, cook the rice as you normally do, but when the water is boiling, before adding the raw rice, add coconut oil, about 3 percent of the weight of the rice you're going to cook.
After it's ready, let it cool in the refrigerator for about 12 hours and that's it.
Rice, depending on the method of preparation, undergoes observable chemical changes.
James and Thavarajva tested eight different recipes on 38 different kinds of rice found in Sri Lanka. What they found is that by adding a lipid (coconut oil in this case, because it's widely used in Sri Lanka) ahead of cooking the rice, and then cooling the rice immediately after it was done, they were able to drastically change its composition—thus lowering up to 60% of its calories!
This happens because the chemistry of the rice changes, thus making it easier to digest.