Half Calorie Rice – Is It For Real?

As a Food Science student myself, I am pretty skeptical about this rice hack lowering the amount of calories by such a drastic amount. I think that everyone metabolizes the same foods SO SO differently that not everyone may reap the caloric decrease! But then again, this probably would give people more incentive to eat MORE rice because it looks delicious! And hey, I would love to try this with another type of oil like sesame or avocado oil!

Never heard of this hack before. It sounds unrealistic, admittedly. I know little about starch and how it reacts with fat, so I cannot speak on this issue. But I thoroughly enjoyed reading this post. Food science is a heck lot of fun.
And I’m in the same boat as you. Although I did not enjoy, nor feel good, being on a ketogenic diet, I love healthy fats and don’t feel “afraid” of them like some people are. I see so many people avoiding avocadoes, peanut butter, coconut oil, and organic butter, and most of these people I know are overweight. Although it’s way too easy to binge on nut butter for me, therefore I try not to eat it every day.
Thank you for sharing this interesting study with us. I would like to look into this. Have a wonderful weekend.

My question is do I follow the same concept but follow cooking times on the package depending on the rice I use? Example, jasmine rice cooks in 20 minutes

I have never heard of this before! I always add about a tablespoon of butter to the water while the rice is cooking. I wonder if the 12 hours of cooling is a big part of creating the resistant starches? I don’t do that part and don’t care about low calorie foods but found this interesting anyways!

This idea is explained in the book “The Clever Guts Diet” by Michael Mosley.
It works for other starches, too- like potatoes, pasta, bread.
These days I refrigerate all starches after cooking, and reheat before using. Once you get used to the extra “loop” and the timing, it is very convenient too. So I cook my pasta, quinoa, rice etc after breakfast and it stays in the fridge until I make dinner. Or I make a pasta salad after breakfast and refrigerate it until cold.

I cook a large batch of rice or pasta, cool in fridge, divide into portions for two, and freeze. I thaw and reheat before serving. Do you think it would have the same benefits or would freezing change the process?

This is an unpublished study, and as the article in USNew points out, the methods have not been evaluated by other silentThere are many unanswered questions about this report, enough to say that this method has not been established to be as effective as the claims. First, this was a paper or poster presented at the American Chemical Society’s annual meeting in 2015. My first reaction is, “So what?” The ACS’s own press release states that “10,000 papers will be presented, and nearly 4,000 poster presentations will take place at the meeting. There will also be more than 6,000 oral presentations.” I know from personal experience that the level of scientific rigor one has to demonstrate to get into a meeting of that size with is pretty darn low. As far as I can tell, this paper has never been published in a scientific journal almost three years after the initial presentation. That’s a peculiarly long delay for a finding which was touted to be of such great significance. Third, we don’t know all the sources of funding for this study. There are certainly industries in Sri Lanka who might benefit from such a result, if it were true. It has long been known by industrial sponsors that a study can be designed with enough biases to produce the result you want. All you need to do is get a group who willing to accept your funding and the strings that go with it to carry it out..As a previous comment pointed out, the 50-60% reduction in calories was not actually demonstrated. It was a speculation based upon using a strain of rice which was different from that tested. The actual results in this experiment showed only a 24 to 29 calorie reception per cup of rice. Assuming that was true, and assuming you ate two cups of this rice every day for a year, you could expect to achieve a weight loss of only 6 pounds. I’m afraid Katie has been demonstrating observer bias.

Thanks for this post, I’m going to give it a shot. Is there a specific reason why one shouldn’t lift the lid?

For cooking larger portions of rice would you use the same amount of oil or adjust it based on the amount of rice used? Ex: 1 cup of dried rice would be 1 teaspoon of coconut oil or 2 teaspoons?

So what is the nutrtion facts of this rice

Molecular biologist here. The actual decrease in calories is likely much less than 10% for the average person doing this in his or her kitchen as opposed to the Sri Lanken team of Chem students with a lab and calorimeters at their disposal to use the least amount of oil possible to reach optimal results. It does not actually slash the calories in half. BUT eating previously cooled rice will have indigestible fiber to feed your gut flora and that is a plus even if the calories aren’t significantly less.

Hi, SO amazing to hear this part of your story, Katie! Thank you for sharing ? You’re an inspiration and great role model to all!

Honestly, the rice in the photo looks super mushy and over cooked. Martha Stewart suggests 1.5-1, water to brown rice ratio. I also hear 2-1, water to brown rice, often touted as the correct ratio. This recipe suggests a ratio of 3.33-1, water to rice!!

The excess water doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the science discussed here, so I assume Katie just prefers mushy rice?

I’d love to know if other have tried this recipe with a different ratio (i.e. less water)