Contents:
- Medical Video: Diabetes and Brown rice | How brown rice is beneficial for diabetics
- Cold rice has a lower glycemic index
- How to cook healthy rice for diabetics
- Comparison of food sources of warm and cold carbohydrates
Medical Video: Diabetes and Brown rice | How brown rice is beneficial for diabetics
Maybe you often hear that eating rice yesterday was recommended for people who suffer from diabetes or type 2 diabetes mellitus. He said, eating new rice which is in the warmth can quickly increase your blood sugar. But, is this true?
Cold rice has a lower glycemic index
Rice is the main food for Indonesians. In fact, many Indonesians feel they have not eaten if they have not eaten rice. Of course, avoiding or reducing rice can be a nightmare for many people. However, having diabetes does not mean you should avoid rice. You can still eat rice, but with a few rules. One of the suggestions is to eat yesterday's rice or rice that is already cold. But, what makes eating yesterday rice different from freshly cooked rice?
Yesterday's rice or cold rice has a lower glycemic index compared to freshly cooked rice. Of course, this is beneficial for people who have diabetes. Foods with a low glycemic index are good for people with diabetes because these foods can not directly raise blood sugar levels. In contrast to foods that have a high glycemic index that can make blood sugar levels soar.
How to cook healthy rice for diabetics
Research from Sri Lanka has shown that eating cold rice can reduce the calories that enter your body, so this can prevent type 2 diabetes. The researchers developed a cooking method that can absorb calories (sugar) in the rice absorbed less by the body.
The research team added one teaspoon of coconut oil to boiling water which would be used to cook rice for 40 minutes. After the rice is cooked, the rice is then cooled and stored in the refrigerator for 12 hours. This method can increase resistant starch by 10 times. Remember, it should be stored in a refrigerator, not just left at room temperature. Leaving rice alone allows bacteria to develop in rice and can be dangerous to health.
Resistant starch is similar to fiber that cannot be digested by the body, so it can help lower blood sugar levels and prevent diabetes. When the rice is cooked and then cooled for several hours, it can change the shape and structure of the rice. Cooling is an important process because it causes the formation of resistant starches.
Starch in rice that can be digested becomes indigestible, so it also lowers calories that can be absorbed by the body by 60%. Cold rice isn't a problem if you want to warm it up again. This will not affect the resistant starch levels that have been formed in it.
Comparison of food sources of warm and cold carbohydrates
Other studies have also examined the effect of food sources of other carbohydrates (other than rice) on blood sugar levels. This study divides pasta (one source of carbohydrates) into three different presentation methods, namely:
- Freshly cooked pasta (still warm)
- Pasta that has been cooled for one night
- The pasta has been cooled overnight and warmed again
Participants in this study then ate the pasta, after which their blood sugar levels were measured every 15 minutes for 2 hours. The result is a warm, cold paste that can cause the lowest increase in blood sugar. Warm pasta can cause the highest increase in blood sugar. Meanwhile, cold pasta causes a fairly low increase in blood sugar.
This happens because cold pasta has a structure that has changed so that your digestion cannot break it easily. Cold pasta forms more resistant starch, so it is not digested by the body and does not cause a high increase in blood sugar levels (same as cold rice). Cold warmed pasta may form more resistant starch so that it can create the lowest increase in blood sugar, researchers suspect.
