# Different cooking process cuts rice's calories in half.



## Cooking Goddess (Apr 15, 2015)

Take this article's claim for what it is, I haven't tried it yet. However, with so many members cooking with coconut oil, and others watching their carb intakes, I thought others might find this interesting. Since we love fried rice, I think I'll head to TJ's for a jar of the coconut oil soon.

*Scientists have discovered a simple way to cook rice...*

This process was first brought to my attention from an article in a food blog written by a favorite author. If you want to read "Cleo Coyle"'s article and see her recipe for veggie fried rice, you can find it here:

http://www.coffeehousemystery.com/userfiles/file/Skinny-Fried-Rice-Cleo-Coyle.pdf


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## Mad Cook (Apr 15, 2015)

Cooking Goddess said:


> Take this article's claim for what it is, I haven't tried it yet. However, with so many members cooking with coconut oil, and others watching their carb intakes, I thought others might find this interesting. Since we love fried rice, I think I'll head to TJ's for a jar of the coconut oil soon.
> 
> *Scientists have discovered a simple way to cook rice...*
> 
> ...


I'm a bit sceptical about this, to be honest. I'd want to know who the "Scientists" were, who was funding their research, how they tested their theories. and what controls they employed.

Oil is oil, when all is said and done, and adds calories to whatever is cooked with  it. It could be that so little is used that the dish counts as lower in calories than it would be in most recipes for fried rice.

It reminds me of the crazy fad that went round in the 1960s which claimed that if you ate a grapefruit at every meal it would somehow prevent you absorbing the fat in the other food you were eating. Pure tosh, of course, but you still hear the odd person extolling the slimming virtues of the idea


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## Aunt Bea (Apr 15, 2015)

Interesting article, thanks!

I'm also a big fan of fried or dirty rice.  

These days I swap out the rice for minced cauliflower.

I'm always haunted by the idea of doing more work and paying more money for less of everything, including calories. 

I wish I could just train myself to eat half as much and be healthy, wealthy and wise!  

Oops! I forgot hungry!


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## PrincessFiona60 (Apr 15, 2015)

Thanks for that CG, I am looking for more ways to reduce the calories in foods.


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## Andy M. (Apr 15, 2015)

It will be interesting to hear what the rest of the scientific community thinks of this research.


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## Janet H (Apr 15, 2015)

I agree - interesting.

The article says this:



> "What we did is cook the rice as you normally do, but when the water is boiling, before adding the raw rice, we added coconut oil—about 3 percent of the weight of the rice you're going to cook," ..... "After it was ready, we let it cool in the refrigerator for about 12 hours. That's it."



I have usually started rice in cold water so this is a radical departure and precludes using a rice cooker.

Routinely I toast brown rice in a little oil before adding water, but again cold water is used.

The bit about chilling the rice is useful for making fried rice (which I rarely do) but not entirely practical for other application.


Do you think the coconut oil would impact flavor?


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## Andy M. (Apr 15, 2015)

When making rice, I boil the water then add a little oil and the rice then proceed with the cooking.  I don't chill it before serving.


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## CWS4322 (Apr 15, 2015)

I suspect, the coconut oil changes the starch, so the body can't convert as much of it to glucose. I suspect it is similar to what tossing vinegar with potatoes does.   But what do I know? I'm not a food scientist/chemist.


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## Andy M. (Apr 15, 2015)

However, when making pilaf, I brown the pasta in butter first then add the rice to coat with the fat and add stock @ room temp and bring it to a boil.


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## GotGarlic (Apr 15, 2015)

Mad Cook said:


> I'm a bit sceptical about this, to be honest. I'd want to know who the "Scientists" were, who was funding their research, how they tested their theories. and what controls they employed.
> 
> Oil is oil, when all is said and done, and adds calories to whatever is cooked with  it. It could be that so little is used that the dish counts as lower in calories than it would be in most recipes for fried rice.
> 
> It reminds me of the crazy fad that went round in the 1960s which claimed that if you ate a grapefruit at every meal it would somehow prevent you absorbing the fat in the other food you were eating. Pure tosh, of course, but you still hear the odd person extolling the slimming virtues of the idea



If you read the article, you'd have the answers to those questions. The scientists are a graduate student in Sri Lanka and his mentor, a professor. The article describes their experiment and the theory behind it. Cooking the rice with oil and then chilling it turns some of the digestible starch into indigestible starch; since it can't be digested, it, and its calories, aren't absorbed by the body. It makes sense to me.


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## Mad Cook (Apr 16, 2015)

GotGarlic said:


> If you read the article, you'd have the answers to those questions. The scientists are a graduate student in Sri Lanka and his mentor, a professor. The article describes their experiment and the theory behind it. Cooking the rice with oil and then chilling it turns some of the digestible starch into indigestible starch; since it can't be digested, it, and its calories, aren't absorbed by the body. It makes sense to me.


I did read the article. And one third world graduate student and one professor do not a summer make (to misquote an old saying). 

Amongst all the twaddle masquerading as "fact" about this on the internet I can find no serious and extensive research that confirms this. If _you_ can, please direct me there.

Or perhaps the moon really _is _made of green cheese!


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## Mad Cook (Apr 16, 2015)

Janet H said:


> I agree - interesting.
> 
> The article says this:
> 
> ...


Yes, I thought that and then when I was ploughing through all the stuff on the internet that advocates this, I read that when you reheat it it regains it's "bad" starch. 

So what's the point?


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## Mad Cook (Apr 16, 2015)

Andy M. said:


> It will be interesting to hear what the rest of the scientific community thinks of this research.


Here, here!


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