cutting calories in rice by half

gpstreet

100 grams of cooked rice is 100 calories I understand. I have just come across research that claims to reduce the calories by 50%. They say you cook the rice as normal but with a tablespoon or two of coconut oil. Then cool it and stick it in the fridge for 12 hours.
I wondered. Does it have to be coconut oil ? Would the technique work on pasta or potatoes ? And how do they know how many calories are in food in the first place ?

HereLieWe

That...most likely doubles the calories in it.

1 tbsp of coconut oil is approximately 120 calories. If you add that to a 100 calorie portion of cooked rice, you've more than doubled the calories

tattooedmomma93b

I don't know anything about this, but I highly doubt it is possible to reduce calories in a food just by cooling it.

ninerbuff

This was discussed on another thread a couple of days ago. The actual percentage was closer to 12%-20%.
If you want less calories from rice.......................eat less of it.

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atypicalsmith

I googled it and read the article. Hogwash!

danipeur

If this person had linked the research, you would have been able to read that in fact, they had NOT reduced it by 50% but by 10%-20% and that they, in the future, expect to be able to reduce it by 50%.

However, the 20% reduction in starch calories was replaced by the addiction of the coconut oil, making it a net reduction of ~0, iirc. And bear in mind that's under strict lab conditions, so even if they meant a 20% reduction WITH the addition of the coconut oil, they have not reproduced this in a normal kitchen environment.

Oh, and if anyone wonders how the whole "starvation mode" myth started, well, you're looking at it. Someone read a headline, someone else used that misinterpretation (or, more likely, purposefully misinterpreted data) to write a sensationalist headline and voila, an entire study results are twisted into *kitten* broscience.

here is the sensationalist headline, with the real information buried at the bottom(I've included the important paragraph below the link):

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/03/25/scientists-have-figured-out-a-simple-way-to-cook-rice-that-dramatically-cuts-the-calories/

So far they have only measured the chemical outcome of the most effective cooking method for the least healthful of the 38 varieties. But that variety still produced a 10 to 12 percent reduction in calories. "With the better kind, we expect to reduce the calories by as much as 50 to 60 percent," said James.

The bolding is my formatting.

you can read a really good discussion of the article here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/3090k6/scientists_have_discovered_a_simple_way_to_cook/

blankiefinder

People need to stop looking for quick fixes, they don't work or we'd all be skinny. Weigh your foods, log accurately and stay within your calorie limit. It's not magic, it's science.

Sued0nim

So let's assume that your body absorbs fewer calories from rice cooked this way

Don't forget to add the calories added in the form of oil

Stop looking for quick fixes and concentrate on the overall game ...eat less, move more

It's the fads, gimmicks and latest, mind-blowing, quick fix research that makes people fail

blankiefinder

@rabbitjb It's scary how similar our replies were, considering I expect we cross posted and you didn't see my reply when you were typing yours! (*)

Sued0nim

@blankiefinder‌ are we morphing into each other? :bigsmile:

I do think being around here a while and feeling successful at this makes me just want to scream "it's not rocket science"

The tabloid research just gets I'm the way

gpstreet

Thanks Danipeur. I came across two articles from two different sources both of which were quoting the same research source. However they just wrote around the sensationalist headline. It would be important to read the actual research paper (and see if it was sponsored by the coconut oil marketing board.).

I suppose my question about how do we (the science community) actually know how many calories are in food. I should post this question separately I think.