Shift to brown rice – heard that dictum before? Okay, chew on this: white rice, where we pound the rice to remove its outer covering, is not at all bad, in fact it’s great. The bad thing is when we mindlessly decide if one thing is good for us and that if we do it a lot, it becomes only better. We do that with rice so often now.
we would see women pounding, cleaning, shifting rice endlessly from sunrise to sunset. Pounding rice removes the outer layer of the rice, and with it part of the fiber and vitamin B too. Is fiber and vitamin B good for you? Absolutely. So why are they doing it? To remove the husk and bran, the outer part of the rice: but the protein, vitamin B and fiber inside the grain is still retained.
In fact, the protein in white rice is absorbed much better by your body than that in brown rice. It is also way easier to cook and digest white rice as compared to brown rice. Anywhere in India, when you are sick and down, what are you given? Khichdi. And khichdi has white rice, sweeties; it’s easy to digest, easy to absorb, easy to assimilate proteins from and easier on your excretory system too. Ayurveda uses rice based diets in treating various imbalances in the body, if rice that’s devoid of its husk and bran is as “fattening’ as it’s made devoid of its husk and brain is as fattening as it’s made out to be, all of our coastal belt would be floating in their backwaters (fat floats) but are they?
To get the best of both the worlds, polish your rice but not to the extent that it emits blinding whiteness. Remove the outer bran but allow the rice grain to show off its brown/red strains. No, don’t worry, this won’t compromise on the taste, and yes, you can totally eat your basmati with the red/brown strains too. This is exactly how the farming community of India eats their rice. Ever checked out their sizzling waists and six packs.
Traditional rice gruel:
Traditional rice gruel is an excellent food to have in the initial stage for Arthritis. Rice gruel is easily digestible food and it will improve the digestion. Rice gruel will also improve the bowel moment.
Preparation of Rice Gruel:
Take 3 tbsp. of rice and wash it well. Put the rice to a cooking pot or Mud pot and add 3 cups of water. Cook the rice in medium flame with occasional stirring. Cook the rice until it gets completely cooked and soft. It may take 10 to 15 minutes. Once the rice is completely cooked, switch off the flame. Let it cool down for some time.
Some types of rice are actually more nutritious than others. In general, it’s better to go with the long-grain varieties of white rice. Long-grain varieties are supposed to be nutritionally superior to plainer, short-grain types of rice.
