Award Winning Author
Face Reading with Before & After Photos
If You Can’t Eat Grain—You Can Eat Starch Resistant Rice
Yes, grains are contraindicated for an increasing number of people, as they exacerbate autoimmune disease and leaky gut, or intestinal permeability. If grains challenge your digestive system, here’s a way you can eat rice and be free of uncomfortable side effects like bloating, memory fog, or weight gain.
As strange as it may sound, when rice is cooked and cooled, the starch resists digestion and becomes an amazing health boon. Below you’ll find four excellent reasons to try it, and I’ll conclude with practical tips for using starch resistant (SR) rice, beans and other foods. NB If, however, you’ve a very sensitive gut, experiment with caution as SR foods may not be a fit for you.
But first, what is starch resistance? It is a type of starch that resists digestion in the stomach and small intestine, and so it functions rather like a soluble fiber. Because you can’t digest or absorb it, it cannot be stored as fat. But in your large intestine, it becomes dinner for your intestinal flora; they slowly metabolize resistant starch into short–chain fatty acids that have impressive health benefits.
SR rice is not a new-fangled, bioengineered crop; it is cooked rice that’s cooled and then not reheated above 130°F. As the rice cools, its starch crystalizes into a form that resists digestion in the small intestine.
Here’s how SR rice benefits:
- Reduces appetite to give a sense of fullness and so it helps treat obesity.
- Improves insulin sensitivity and lowers blood sugar level and so helps treat and prevent diabetes.
- Strengthens the immune system by transforming starch into short-chain fatty acids, in particular butyric acid (butyrate), which boost the growth of probiotics.
- Reduces intestinal permpermeability (leaky gut) and inflammation in the large intestine.
In addition to rice, other foods including beans, potatoes, underripe bananas and various grain products such as breakfast cereals and bread contain resistant starch. There’s even a fabricated starch resistant corn product, Hi-maize (I do not recommend it). So to gain the SR properties of beans or potatoes, for example, cook first and then serve them barely warmed or cold, as in a salad.
If you’re wondering what type of rice works best—brown or white; short, medium or long grain—I asked Paleo nutritionist, Amy Kubal, RD, this very question. She said, “For SR properties, white jasmine rice seems to be the variety best tolerated by folks.”
So let’s get underway. Rinse one cup of white rice very well. Place in a pot with 2 cups of water, salt to taste and a teaspoon of oil. The oil helps keep the grains separate; otherwise, when reheated, the rice tends to gum together. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until done. Let it steam, covered, for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork. Remove the rice to a storage container and cool, either in the refrigerator or on the countertop.
Alternatively, for even more separate grains, add one cup of rice to four cups of boiling salted water and cook, as you would pasta, until tender. Strain, drain and then place the rice in a storage container; cool, either in the refrigerator or on the countertop.
Now use the cold rice in a salad, sushi, soup or pudding, but don’t serve it hot. Or lightly warm the rice, but not above 130°F, because higher temperatures will melt down those desirable SR crystals. So, for example, if you want to have rice in a stir–fry, cook all the other ingredients, then at the very end, over low heat, stir in the rice and mix continuously until the rice is just as hot as is typically the hot water from your kitchen faucet. For a soup, cook the other ingredients and add the rice at the very end, watching carefully to not overheat it. You’ll soon get the hang of it.
As always, when reintroducing a food, try a test spoonful and make sure you’re not reacting to it. If there are no symptoms, enjoy it in moderate portions for one day. Now wait several days before trying it again; then continue to pulse it back into your diet with intervals of several days between. If you’ve been rice free for a while, you have a treat in store!
May all beings be well nourished,
Rebecca
I had heard that the rice needs to be chilled in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours before it can be used as resistant starch, but you indicate that it only needs to be cooled completely before these properties change. And then for family members who don’t seem to have digestive issues so far, then brown rice of any variety would work as well. I hadn’t heard that cooked and cooled dried beans also have these resistant qualities. So, using beans on salads work very nicely. Where can I find the links that give proof to these claims as so many folks around me are questioning me about this. Thanks so much!
Good questions. Let’s look at the original science suggesting that 12-hours of refrigeration is necessary. It comes from a Shri Lankan study that analyzed several different cooking styles including one in which rice was cooked and then chilled for 12-hours. It did not test rice cooled at room temperature or by chilling in the refrigerator for a few hours. See resources on my blog.
Yes, brown rice is more nutritious, however it is so very hard to digest that I no longer recommend it. Historically, rice was, in the least, minimally processed (scarified) to remove part of the bran to make it easier to digest. Eating brown rice was popularized by macrobiotic teacher George Oshawa in the 1960s–it’s a new fangled experiment.
There are so many things in our modern lifestyle and diet that challenge the digestion–why add brown rice to the list! Perhaps enjoy some white rice and favor the more easy-to-digest whole grains like quinoa, millet and buckwheat?
I typically soak grains or beans overnight (and rinse well) before cooking – does this have any impact/relation with resistant starch? Thanks!
Right, we soak grains and beans prior to cooking to reduce their lectins, phytates and anti-nutrients; see my blog on this for further detail. Once rice is (soaked or otherwise) is cooked and then cooled, its starch resists digestion in the small intestine.
All of the benefits of resistant starch that you have cited have been demonstrated with Hi-maize resistant corn starch from high amylose corn. High amylose corn is a naturally rich source of resistant starch and is supported by more than 70 human clinical trials. You cannot get enough resistant starch in cooked and cooled rice to receive the benefits that you have cited. Eating green bananas, beans, peas, intact whole grains and cooked and cooled starchy foods like rice or pasta salad can help healthy people stay healthy, but you are misleading people to promise that the food sources, delivering low quantities of resistant starch, can deliver benefits only shown with supplementation with extracted Hi-maize resistant corn starch. For additional information, you might want to investigate http://www.resistantstarch.us.
Problems with the product you recommend is that it is derived from commercial corn which is typically GMO and a common allergen for so many people today. I’ll pass.
Thank you Rebecca,
Looking forward to experimenting with this new concept!
Patricia Joy Becker
I was doing this for years but never knew I was actually helping myself and my family. I used rice often, especially with leftovers but wanted to reduce my dinner meal prep time when working full time so once a week a would make about two meals worth of rice and store in the refrigerator for use later in the week. It always warms well with a little coconut or sesame oil and make a fantastic fast fried rice dinner with a small amount of meat. Glad to hear I have been on the right track all along.
I sure hope this will be true for me! It has been a year and a half since I was able to eat any grains.
Good luck and please do let us know. Also, remember to go slow during the reintroduction period.
Rebecca, do you think it would be the same to cook the rice in chicken broth?
Water or stock–it’s your choice and doesn’t change the resistant starch.