Rice is Nice

I adore rice, but I understand it from an other-than-culinary perspective, too.

There are a wide variety of wonderful species and qualities of rice --- black, red, brown, nutty, soft, long, short and on and on. It's a simple yet complex food. Most importantly, choose rice in its most-natural, least-processed form. Keeping its bran (outer coating) is important, as most of the nutrition is there. White rice is largely "empty" of nutritional value.

Rice recipies can generally be made with whole brown rice (preferably a Basmati, but a short grain version may be needed, too --- it depends on what you are cooking).

Mixtures of rice can also be very interesting. Lundberg makes some wonderful choices. Find them at health stores.

As far as combatting the huge sugar-shock of white rice, if you insist on using it, then make sure there are healthy fats in your recipe or in your meal to slow-down the huge blood sugar spike that white rice brings. (That's probably the reason there is so much illness in China surfacing as epidemiological studies show an increasing prevalence of diseases which are effected by excess-insulin or that create high tissue acidity [which white rice does]).

Healthy fats are found in cold water fish, organic, cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil, organic hemp or flax oil (never cook with these and keep them refrigerated), avocadoes and their oil, nut oils (not "peanut" - it's a legume not a nut) and organic, non-refined virgin coconut oil (yes, it's a vegetarian saturated fat that has critical medium-chain essential fatty acids).

All of these oils go well with rice; some are phenomenal with rice!

As far as favorite recipes go, my favorite rice recipes are pilaus and biryanis --- any country --- and Indonesian Rijstaffel, as it is lots of fun!

By the way, rice is one of the least allergenic foods, so for those struggling or if you have allergy-prone guests, rice is a very safe-bet.

And, in the same vein, "wild rice" is NOT the same botanically as "rice". They are completely different botanical families, and this is useful. Food sensitivities can arise from over use of a particular food or food group, so wild rice gives options, especially for those who might be gluten intolerant.

I'm going to check-out a couple of the links above, now. Thanks for the article, Kalyn.

Best to all ---
Margalite

P.S. Please visit me at: http://diabetesdietdialogue.wordpress.com
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