Articles were published yesterday across many news platforms sharing the latest research where scientists figured out a simple way to cook rice that dramatically cut the calories. (Here’s a link to one of them.) Their basic idea is that if you cook rice with a little coconut oil (or any medium-chain triglyceride [MCT] oil) then cool it down, it forms resistant starches.
Resistant starches are not normally the type of carbohydrate found in rice at all, especially white rice which is very quickly digested. Resistant starches are a very slow digesting carbohydrates. They are similar to fiber in that they pass through most of your gastrointestinal (GI) tract intact. If something remains intact in your GI tract (oh yeah, we’re rhyming this morning!) then it’s not digested into smaller pieces and thus not absorbed into your body which means it can’t be used for energy nor can it be stored as fat if it’s not used as energy.
Fact: cooked then cooled rice does form resistant starch. This is not new news actually. The addition of MCT oil is a new idea to me at least.
The article is making the rounds. I saw a Facebook post of it yesterday that said shared the link and just stated “potentially huge”. Even my husband saw the article this morning and said, “Are you going to try this?”
My short answer, no. My long answer:
If making lower calorie food was the answer to the obesity crisis wouldn’t we have already “cracked the case” and shouldn’t obesity be wiped off the face of the earth?
It’s pretty de-bunked at this point that fat-free Oreos, for example, aren’t any better for you than regular Oreos, nor do they taste better! With fat-free or low-cal foods, research has shown it’s just an invitation to eat more. So you probably eat more than you normally would when food is called fat-free or low-cal.
Remember when Pringles used olestra (a fat-substitute) to make Fat Free Pringles? According to a non-profit health-advocacy organization out of D.C., “Proctor & Gamble reportedly spent more than $200 million developing olestra” and in targeting just one US city (my lovely hometown of Columbus, Ohio actually) they spent “as much as $5 million to $10 million promoting Fat Free Pringles”. What happened when we made chips lower fat and lower calorie? Did we solve obesity? No. We sent people to the emergency room with severe abdominal cramps, diarrhea and a whole host of gastrointestinal issues. Because we didn’t eat less. In fact we ate more.
I’d like us to look at why we are spending so much time trying to make low-cal foods. Because the answer is really quite simple. The solution to the obesity epidemic? Eat less. Find out how you can stop overeating and learn how to listen to what your body really wants and needs. Find out how you can give these things to yourself, and obesity goes away.
Trying to create low-calorie, low-fat, partially-digestible foods is not the solution. It’s like saying, “don’t change the behavior that got you to overweight or obesity, just change out what’s in your hand heading straight for your mouth.”
This kind of article sends the message that we don’t have to change our behaviors. That what we’re doing isn’t the problem. Cause isn’t it nicer when we can put the blame on someone or something besides ourselves? It certainly feels a little better. Who enjoys being wrong?
We don’t seem to like the idea that the solution to nutrition, weight, and health is simple. It isn’t sexy to market and it doesn’t seem to sell. We want it to be complex, think it must be hard, or studied and researched, and there has to be some magic cure because the answer can’t be in us! It has to be out there!
I hope we can stop sending these messages that it’s okay not to change our behaviors, that it’s okay not look into why we eat as much as we do, why we overeat, and that it’s okay to just sub in lower calorie foods or less digestible foods as a quick fix. Because it’s not okay to keep sending these messages.
We make it so complicated. We spend millions of dollars researching a miracle life-changing food product or pill, case in point: rice with 50-60% less calories! Wow! Now we’ll just eat 50% more! Sorry folks, but partially-digestible rice won’t solve the obesity epidemic. It’s a nice thought since rice is so widely popular and widely consumed. But we are making it way too complicated.
Again, keep it simple. Investigate and spend your time trying to learn about satiety, what it feels like to be hungry vs. full vs. overly full, how we can satisfy our cravings, how we can eat what we love and enjoy it, and not overeat and gain weight. THAT’s how we’ll solve the obesity epidemic. Not miraculous food science discoveries like this. Don’t be susceptible to buying into “breaking news of life changing science”! The first step? Identifying “scams” or myths. I’m afraid this is one of them.
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