[Xixi Nutrition] Rice is high in GI, how should I eat it?

How to eat rice healthy?

Rice is an inseparable staple food on our table. It is the main source of daily carbohydrates and calories in our diet.

But excess refined carbohydrates and excess calories are closely related to obesity and diabetes. So do we have to reluctantly give up our love and abandon that bowl of fragrant white rice?

Xi Xi thinks not, in order to eat healthier, instead of forcibly eating some unfamiliar “healthy” food, it is better to use nutritional knowledge to make the rice you eat every day become “Healthy food”. Today, I will bring you the second part of nutrition about rice. If you choose rice well, you will not have to worry about being healthy – How to eat rice to be healthier

Rice Nutrition Facts

Let’s talk about the nutritional content of rice first. What do we bring to the body when we eat rice?

Rice is a carbohydrate-rich food

A bowl (cooked weight of 150g, about one or two) rice

About 232 kcal in calories and about 50g carbohydrates

The amount of a bowl of rice gives you an intuitive feeling

To talk about the calories of rice, we have to mention “two liang of rice”, a mysterious unit of measurement commonly used in canteens across the country. The concept of two should come from using In the planned economy era when food stamps were used to buy food, the “one tael” at that time referred to the one tael on the food stamp, which was raw grain.

One ​​or two rice refers to the rice cooked with about 50g of raw rice, because the rice absorbs water during the cooking process, and the weight of about 50g of raw rice will increase to about 2.3 times after cooking , it becomes about 130g of rice, so 130g of rice = 1 tael of cooked rice = 1 tael of rice.

The two taels of rice in the cafeteria refers to the cooked rice of 100g of raw rice, which is about 250g of rice. The amount is relatively large, and the aunts and uncles in the cafeteria are always afraid that we will not be full. I can shake my hands a little more, so the calorie of 2 taels of rice is close to 500 kcal, accounting for one-third of a person’s daily calories during weight control!

Illustration The “two liang rice” of the canteen auntie may be close to 500 kcal

Brown rice is healthier, is it right for everyone?

The previous article mentioned that brown rice is healthier than milled rice, so can brown rice reduce calories?

Actually this is not the case, brown rice and polished rice have the same amount of calories,

1 bowl of brown rice and 1 bowl of polished rice have the same 232kcal of calories, and the carbohydrate content is similar, so if you simply compare the calories and carbohydrates, you may think that the two are similar, but in fact it is not. of.

Brown rice is more nutrient dense because it contains more nutrients important to our health,

First, brown rice is higher in dietary fiber, which is a small part of maintaining gut health.guard.

Secondly, the mineral and vitamin content in brown rice is much higher than that in milled rice. The following figure compares the various nutrients in brown rice and milled rice

So is brown rice suitable for everyone, and should everyone switch to brown rice?

It’s not the case, there’s a fit and a bad for any food.

Brown rice containing rice bran is indeed more difficult to digest, more strenuous to chew, and has higher requirements for gastrointestinal function, so it may not be suitable for the elderly with reduced digestive ability.

Rice bran has a high content of phytic acid. Although phytic acid itself is not bad, it will affect the absorption of minerals such as calcium and iron. It is not suitable for people who lack these substances.

I have to mention the problem of pesticide residues. Rice will absorb minerals in the soil during the growth process. Arsenic residue is also a problem with rice. The pesticide and arsenic residues of brown rice are even more serious. more serious. It is better to choose organically grown brown rice that is free of pesticides.

Is rice high on the glycemic index (GI)?

I believe everyone has heard of the concept of GI (glycemic index),

Glucose rises fast, which is not good for diabetics to control blood sugar.

Eating high-GI staples for a long time is also not the healthiest choice for people without diabetes.

Rice’s high glycemic index is also why many people find it unhealthy. So what is the glycemic index? What is the glycemic index of rice?

What is GI? Review

GI (Glycemic Index, glycemic index) represents the level of blood sugar rise within 2 hours after eating a certain food containing 50g of carbohydrates, usually the blood sugar fluctuation after eating 50g of glucose is used as the Standard, defined as 100

GI= (2-hour blood sugar increase after a meal containing 50g of carbohydrates) ÷ (2-hour blood sugar increase after a 50g glucose meal)

The GI of each food is an average calculated from the glycemic responses of 10 or more subjects

For example, the GI value of carrots is 35, which means that if you eat carrots containing 50g of carbohydrates, the blood sugar level within 2 hours is 35% of the blood sugar level after eating pure glucose, the above picture shows The postprandial blood glucose of high GI foods and low GI foods, as well as the GI values ​​of common foods.

A GI value below 55 is a low GI food, a GI value between 56-69 is a medium GI food, and a GI value greater than 70 is a high GI food.

Problems with GI Measurements

1) Individualization: Each laboratory can find people to eat a certain food, and then measure the blood sugar level of these subjects and give the GI value of the food. This is why the same food has different GI values, in fact, each individual responds to food differently, and the GI value is generally the average of multiple measured values

2) There are many influencing factors. The GI value is not static, and the GI value under different conditions will vary greatly. For rice,

Rice type affects GI (japonica rice is lower in amylopectin than indica rice, easier to digest, and higher in GI)

Cooking method affects GI (for example, has the rice been soaked before cooking, how much water is added to the rice, how long it takes to cook, and the longer the cooking time, the higher the GI)

Different races affect GI (for example, the GI of the same food may be different among Europeans, Asians, and Africans)

What to eat at the same time affects GI (if eaten with vegetables or meat, the GI of rice will be lower than that of rice alone)

How about or compare reliable GI data?

The University of Sydney is the originator of the concept of GI and a pioneer in GI research. You can search the GI of various foods on the official website of the University of Sydney. Among them, the GI value search of rice (RICE) can yield more than 500 results, all of which are the GI values ​​of rice on different academic articles. https:https://glycemicindex.com/

What is the GI value of rice?

With the GI value and an understanding of this dubious result, let’s take a look at the GI value of rice in various studies.

White rice is a high GI food

The GI of brown rice varies greatly, but it is lower than white rice

The GI of black rice (red rice) is the lowest among rice

Illustration: GI of various rices

Which has a higher GI, fried rice or white rice?

Adding oil to fried rice will slow down the digestion and absorption of rice, resulting in a less obvious effect of raising blood sugar.

If you eat steamed white rice and fried rice with the same amount of calories, the sugar-raising effect of fried rice is worse.

But fried rice has more calories due to the addition of oil. If you eat the same weight of fried rice and steamed rice, fried rice may be more likely to gain weight.

So GI is not the only indicator to measure the impact of food on body weight.

The glycemic index of rice is high, 4 ways to solve it?

Rice is a medium to high glycemic index food. How can we reduce the glycemic index of rice and make rice more healthy? Xixi helped you to summarize the following 4 ways to reduce the GI of rice

1) Make mixed rice, mix white rice with black, red, brown rice to make “mixed rice” rice, actually, brown rice in restaurants or Multigrain rice is mostly white rice with brown rice

2) When frying or cooking rice, put a little oil, such as olive oil, coconut oil, which has a clear fragrance, put it when steaming rice A little can reduce the glycemic index of rice, which is the same as the low GI of fried rice, by adding fat to reduce the GI. But be careful to reduce the total amount you eat.

3) Eat vegetables before eating, mix vegetables and rice, Eat some foods containing fat or protein while eating rice, you can adjust the GI of rice, but You need to control the amount, keep the total calories eaten the same, and replace the rice with some other foods.

4) Minimize soaking in water and reduce cooking time: In various GI studies on rice-based foods The GI of porridge is the highest,< /strong>Because the porridge is cooked most thoroughly, the starch in the rice is released to the greatest extent, so the blood sugar rises the fastest, and diabetic patients also have the method of “don’t drink porridge” to control blood sugar.

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