Cold Rice VS Hot Rice Comparison

If you were given a choice then would you rather have your rice cold or piping hot? Most people love to enjoy their rice while it's still steaming hot but you might be surprised that it is not the best choice, especially for those with diabetes.

Why you might ask? Well, let's see the answers below.

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Difference Between Cold and Hot Rice

Diabetic patients need to control their white rice intake considering that it has a very high glycemic index(GI). The higher the GI of the food, therefore the faster it will be for your blood sugar levels to rise.

However, cold rice might not have the same effect on the blood sugar level of diabetic patients. Research with regard to the intake of cold rice was conducted by a group of researchers from the University of Indonesia in 2015.

Based on the study, rice contains what's known as resistant starch which is far much higher in cold rice compared to hot rice. For your information, resistant starch is a type of fiber that cannot be digested by the small intestine.

Generally speaking, our bodies can digest starch into glucose and this process will cause our blood sugar levels to increase.

Since our bodies cannot digest this type of resistant starch, then it will not be converted into glucose and maintain our blood sugar level.

With the presence of resistant starch, the intake of cold rice will truly help diabetic patients to control their blood sugar levels even more.

Benefits of Cold Rice

There are several benefits that are clear when consuming cold rice for diabetic patients. Some of these include:

1. Help Control Blood Sugar Level

As explained previously, cold rice has a high content of resistant starch than hot rice. In fact, the GI level for this type of rice is far less than rice that has just been cooked.

Because of these two matters, will definitely help diabetic patients to control their blood sugar levels.

2. Make You Feel Much Full

The resistant starch in cold rice will also make you feel full for much longer. This is due to its role which is similar to other kinds of fibers.

When you feel full quicker, this will help you to control the amount of food you take and ultimately reduce your overall calorie intake.

3. Aid In The Insulin Function

The resistant starch contained in cold rice will help insulin in carrying out its function more effectively.

When the body utilizes glucose more efficiently, the blood sugar level will also not increase drastically all of a sudden.

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4. Stimulate Bacteria Growth In The Gut

Resistant starch will not be digested in our small intestine and will simply pass through to the large intestine.

In the large intestine, resistant starch will act as food for the good bacteria and promote the growth of these bacteria in our gut and improve our gut's health.

5. Reduce The Body's Cholesterol

One research has shown that resistant starch can help reduce the bad cholesterol in our bodies.

This is very important for diabetic patients since high bad cholesterol will lead to other complications of diabetes. This includes the risk of getting heart attacks and also atherosclerosis.

Tips For Consuming Rice For Diabetic Patients

Diabetic patients can still eat rice but with the proper technique being employed.

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Type of rice. Choosing the type of rice will be the first step.

There are certain types of rice with low GI value and these are the ones that should be your priority. Some of the rice that you should eat will be brown rice and red rice.

This type of rice is rich in fiber as well as low in calories.

Avoid eating mushy rice. Rice that is mushy in texture will have a higher GI value compared to more solid rice. Due to that, try to avoid using too much water when cooking your rice.

Avoid broken rice. Broken rice has a high GI value than unbroken rice. Because of that try to reduce the use of broken rice at home since it is not that suitable for diabetic patients.

Eat less porridge. If you are diabetic, porridge might not be a good choice for your daily diet. Similar to mushy rice, porridge will also have a higher GI value than normal rice.

Control portion size. This is the most important aspect for diabetic patients as you should control the amount of rice they take in their meals.

Get recommendations from your doctors or dietitians regarding the portion that you should take in your diet. Despite cold rice being much better than hot rice, this does not mean that one should take as much as one feels.

Get complete nutrients. To make your rice meal complete, match it with other high nutrients dishes that contain protein and vegetables.

Moderation is key. The last most important thing of all will be to take things in moderation and stop when you are starting to feel full. This will not only control your blood sugar level but also maintain a healthy body weight.

Source:

• What is resistant starch?

• Eating white rice regularly may raise type 2 diabetes risk.

• Yuan, H., Meng, Y., Bai, H., Shen, D., Wan, B., & Chen, L. (2018). Meta-analysis indicates that resistant starch lowers serum total cholesterol and low-density cholesterol. Nutrition Research, 54, 1-11. doi: 10.1016/j.nutres.2018.02.008. Accessed on January 16, 2021.

• Sonia, S., Witjaksono, F., & Ridwan, R. (2015). Effect of cooling of cooked white rice on resistant starch content and glycemic response. Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 24(4), 620–625. DOI: 10.6133/apjcn.2015.24.4.13. Accessed on January 16, 2021.

• Johnston, K., Thomas, E., Bell, J., Frost, G., & Robertson, M. (2010). Resistant starch improves insulin sensitivity in metabolic syndrome. Diabetic Medicine, 27(4), 391-397. doi: 10.1111/j.1464-5491.2010.02923.x. Accessed on January 16, 2021.

Also read: The Difference Between Brown Sugar vs White Sugar