The clean burning fuel food.
Rice - it is the most ancient of food grains and runs second only to wheat as the grain grown in largest quantity throughout the world today. In China, home to over a quarter of the world's people, the written character for rice is the same as that for food. Of the several grains that form the basis of the sustenance of humanity, rice is thought by many nutritionists to be the best of choices. This is due primarily to the ease with which it is digested, as well as its tendency to be less acid forming than other grains.
As a clean burning, predominantly carbohydrate food, rice acts as efficient fuel for the body. As well as this, rice is very well balanced in that whilst it doesn't contain an unusually high percentage of protein, the protein it does contain is of particularly good quality.
These are perhaps some of the reasons why wellness and enlightenment seekers through the ages, (as well as the billions of third world peoples struggling simply to survive), choose rice as a staple. They choose rice not only as nourishment on a daily basis but also to sustain their energy levels throughout various purification and healing practices.
Because fuel foods i.e. carbohydrates are fundamental to sustained energy production, the bulk of humanity's diet is still best sourced from these foods. This remains true today despite our increased knowledge of factors such as; glycaemic index, protein requirements and the established link between excessive intake of poor quality carbohydrate with weight problems and type 2 diabetes.
As a staple food rice is preferable to wheat or oats because it is more nourishing and leaves less toxins and residues for the body to dispose of. Today we have a rather confusing proliferation of schools of thought on diet and nutrition. On the subject of rice though, most, if not all give it a very firm thumbs up: - Ayurvedic nutritionists will confirm that rice is one of only two grains (oats being the other) that are beneficial to all constitutions. Blood type diet proponents agree with this, saying that rice is one of only a few foods, which are beneficial for all blood types. Detoxification and elimination programmes list rice as 'good stuff' due to its benignness with regard to allergies and its high soluble fibre content.
For the many people who have difficulty digesting the highly glutinous grains grown today, the suffering they experience from the common uremic degenerate conditions such as: asthma, arthritis, cancer, colitis, Crohns, coeliac disease, diabetes, eczema, fatigue, haemorrhoids, obesity, psoriasis etc. could all be greatly relieved if not eliminated entirely by adopting rice as a refreshingly gluten free option.
There are literally hundreds of different varieties of rice grown in the world today each being generally prized in its native locale for its particular nutritional value or flavour. For those of us living in locales where rice is not grown there is a bewildering choice available. Our grocery store shelves display long grain, short grain, brown, red, white, sweet glutinous, parboiled, polished, basmati, doonagara, wild rice etc.
Speaking generally, brown, unpolished or parboiled rices contain significant amounts of nutrients namely; carbohydrate, protein, B vitamins, sodium, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium and zinc. Wild rice compares very favourably as it contains twice as much protein, four times as much phosphorous, eight times as much thiamine (B1) and 20 times as much riboflavin (B2) making it a very desirable nutritionally rich choice of rice.
As there are some wide variations in the nutritional values of various rices available I include the following as a guide in selecting the best rice for you or your household: -
For those people with any kind of sensitivity to gluten, eg. Coeliac sufferers or those with inflammatory bowel diseases, the sweet glutenous rices are best avoided, these are the sticky types usually recommended for making sushi and/or deserts and are usually labelled as such. (Other rices are virtually gluten free and fine for almost everyone).
For those who have concerns regarding their weight and /or blood sugar level regulation the lower glycaemic index rices are the best. These include brown rice,
(GI 55), long grain white rices (GI 50), and the particularly good and flavoursome Doongara or Basmati rice (GI 59). Avoid the high GI rices - notably Calrose (GI 83) and Sunbrown quick (GI 80) if you have these concerns.
As far as the decision between polished or unpolished, brown or white goes:
- Polishing is the abrading process which turns brown rice into white. What this process does essentially is to remove a large proportion of many vitamins and minerals notably vitamin E and especially the B vitamins.
Polishing removes about 40% of the riboflavin (vitamin B2), two thirds of the niacin (vitamin B3), and more than half of the pyridoxine, (vitamin B6).
Worst hit of all though is vitamin B1 - thiamine of which 80% is lost.
Thiamine is an essential and very important nutrient widely found to be deficient. Symptoms of deficiency include heaviness and weakness of the legs, fluid accumulation - swelling in the limbs and face and degeneration of the nerves with loss of sensation.
This condition, often seen in people who subsist on polished rice, is called beri-beri. A solution to this problem exists whereby rice is steamed or boiled before husking, this not only loosens the husk for easier removal but also drives many of the nutrients deep into the grain enabling their retention. This process is called parboiling and is widely used in India where beri-beri is essentially unknown.
As many people tend to resist brown rice due to its longer cooking time and chewier stronger texture and taste an answer to this difficulty is to choose parboiled rice with its more acceptable appearance and still significant nutrient content.
Unpolished, brown or parboiled rice contains useful amounts of other important nutrients such as threonine an indispensable amino acid and one which determines the protein quality of the food.
With regard to protein, rice compares very favourably with other grains in that it has a net protein utilisation of 63, wheat having a considerably lesser 49 and corn a meagre 36. This is pretty high when one considers that eggs, which are unquestionably high protein foods, have a net protein utilisation of 87.
If one complements rice with a legume one then has a meal high in usable protein, add some vegetables to that and one has a well-balanced complete meal.
Another reason nutritionists (and cooks) might recommend or prefer rice to other grains is the ease with which it can be prepared.
Enter The Rice Cooker
Mention rice cookers to most experienced cooks and the most likely response you'll get is " Oh I don't need one of those, I've been cooking rice successfully in a pot for decades." True as this may be - give that same cook a rice cooker as a gift - ask them if it's getting much use a few weeks later and the tune will have
changed - "Gosh I never realized just how convenient and easy rice based meals could be. The rice cooker just makes meal times so much more relaxed and I've discovered all sorts of ways to feed the tribe using it. I love not needing to stir, or check or worry about timing it right. I just put the vegetables, fish, chicken or tofu in the steamer on top, add a sauce, and voila! dinner is served.
Doesn't matter at
all if the family all want to eat at different times either - the rice cooker keeps it all nice and warm for hours. Do you know I've also discovered that I can cook other grains in it as well, and those little red lentils, - just mix them in with the rice. I wouldn't want to be without that rice cooker now. Thank-you so much."
We can never have too many versatile quick, convenient ways to feed our tribes or families both economically and nutritionally.
With a rice cooker it's easy and the time factor stress is eliminated, so you can be cool, calm and collected even whilst feeding the tribe. Feed them rice and they'll thrive!
Sara Nicholson ND. Complementary Healthcare Services
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