Recently, a new type of rice cooker with "sugar control" function suddenly caught fire. Some say that it can make germinated brown rice, and the blood sugar reaction after meals is low; Others say that it can drain some sugar and increase the resistant starch of rice. Many netizens asked: Is there such a good thing?
Some popular science people have expressed their opinions, arguing that these statements are exaggerated propaganda and lack of scientific basis. Although there is some truth in these criticisms, I think that it should be encouraged that domestic electrical appliance enterprises can adapt to the development of the times and develop new products with the goal of promoting healthy eating of residents. Whether it is to help people eat germinated brown rice, or to help people cook miscellaneous grains rice easily, or to consider the problem of reducing postprandial blood sugar response in designing cooking procedures, it is very meaningful.
Next, let’s discuss rice cookers and controlling postprandial blood sugar in four questions.
Rice cooker capable of making germinated brown rice
Is it good?
Brown rice (including light-colored, red and black unrefined rice) belongs to whole grains, and its contents of vitamins B1, B2, potassium, magnesium and other nutrients are 2-3 times that of polished rice, and its dietary fiber content is also several times. Therefore, many countries, including Japan, South Korea and some European countries, advocate replacing some foods made of white rice and white flour with brown rice.
When brown rice germinates γ -The content of aminobutyric acid is increased. It is the most important inhibitory neurotransmitter in the nervous system and plays a certain role in improving stress and emotional disorder.
When brown rice germinates, the phytic acid content will decrease, and the mineral utilization rate of the outer layer of brown rice will increase. In the case of slight germination (for example, the bud length is less than 2mm, but the germ is just exposed), the contents of protein and carbohydrate have little change, and vitamins and minerals can also be retained.
Phytic acid is also a substance that can inhibit the activity of digestive enzymes. Germination reduces phytic acid, and the cooking conditions are precise, which can improve the taste of brown rice after cooking and make it easier for the elderly, children and indigestion.
From this point of view, if you used to eat only white rice, but you really plan to eat germinated brown rice in the future, an electric cooker with this function is still worth buying.
After all, rice is the food that most people eat the most every day. If the nutritional quality of rice can be effectively improved, its health significance can not be ignored after a long period of time.
However, whether diabetics can help control postprandial blood sugar after eating germinated brown rice cooked in this pot, I haven’t seen the measurement data yet, so I’m not sure for the time being.
Studies have shown that the GI value (glycemic index) of brown rice without germination can be as high as 82, which is close to the value of white rice, when it is soaked overnight and cooked fully and eaten while it is hot. If it is glutinous rice brown rice, and after a night of pre-soaking, its GI value may be higher.
Although this kind of rice cooker uses technical treatment to shorten the germination process of brown rice to several hours, it has been fully pre-soaked and the rice grains have fully absorbed water. In this case, the germinated brown rice cooked should be soft in texture. If it is eaten while it is hot at that time, it may not be able to effectively reduce the blood sugar level within a few hours after a meal.
But even so, people who need to control blood sugar eat this germinated brown rice, which is still more beneficial than ordinary white rice. This is because they not only need to control blood sugar, but also need to improve the overall nutritional status.
Compared with healthy people, diabetic patients are more common in vitamin B deficiency, and because they often have polyuria symptoms, the excretion of vitamin B and various minerals in urine will obviously exceed that of healthy people. Lack of vitamin B1 will increase the risk of nervous system complications, and vitamin B1 is a vitamin with low content in white rice.
If white rice can be replaced by brown rice, the supply of vitamin B1 from staple food can be doubled or tripled. At the same time, because the potassium content in brown rice is several times that of polished rice, brown rice can increase potassium intake, which is also beneficial to prevent and control hypertension.
Therefore, even if the GI value of germinated brown rice is the same as that of white rice, it is still beneficial to the health of diabetic patients in the long run because of its higher nutritional value.
"Sugar-draining" rice cooker
Can it help control sugar?
Another kind of rice cooker called "sugar control" claims that it can reduce "amylopectin" in rice, reduce carbohydrate content and increase resistant starch. Is this principle reliable?
I communicated with the company, and they said that they did do starch digestion experiments and human experiments, which proved that the rising speed of blood sugar after meals really slowed down.
I agree that this statement of enterprises is not completely without scientific basis.
Rice contains amylopectin and amylose. Glutinous rice has less than 1% amylose, so it is very sticky after cooking. Most Chinese likes to eat soft and slightly elastic rice, which belongs to japonica rice (northeast rice and Japanese rice type). Their amylose content ranges from a few percent to more than ten percent, while long-grain indica rice (Thai rice type) has a higher amylose content, and some long-grain varieties can even reach as high as 30%.
Previous studies have found that under the same cooking conditions, rice with high amylose content is hydrolyzed slowly under the action of digestive enzymes; Or because of texture factors, chewing is not rotten, and the particles are larger, then the rate of blood sugar rise after meals will be slightly slower.
For example, South Asian countries like to eat rice with high amylose content. After students in China go there as exchange students or volunteers, they often feel that the rice there is difficult to digest, and it will take some time to get used to it.
This kind of rice cooker dissolves amylopectin which is easy to disperse in water and removes part of it by draining rice soup, leaving a higher amylose content. At the same time, through the control of the cooking procedure, the cooked rice is harder, chewier and slower to digest.
Textural properties of food are very important.
If the texture is tight, it is difficult to chew thoroughly, and the efficiency of digestive enzymes will be relatively low, so the digestion speed will slow down and the rate of blood sugar rise after meals will decrease. Since the rice cooker cooked the rice hard and removed a part of the starch in the rice soup, the resistant starch increased and the available carbohydrate decreased. When the blood sugar reaction decreased after the meal, these data should be true.
In the case of more resistant starch, the human body gets less actual energy, so in the state of free eating, it is possible to automatically increase the food intake from other foods, which may not necessarily reduce the total carbohydrate intake. Even so, resistant starch can improve intestinal flora, which is beneficial to diabetic patients.
However, the evidence is short-term, and the effect within a few hours after eating does not prove that the long-term effect of improving blood sugar can be obtained by eating like this. In fact, what I am worried about is the rice soup that has been drained.
There is more than starch in rice soup. Other soluble components, such as potassium, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin B6, etc., have also been removed together with rice soup. These ingredients in white rice are already few, and it is even more pitiful to remove some, and the nutritional value of rice has become even lower. As mentioned earlier, these ingredients are very important for diabetic patients to prevent various complications.
Therefore, if you want to eat this "sugar-drained" rice, you need to add some extra B vitamins (because vitamin B1 is particularly important for carbohydrate metabolism, it is best to eat it with starch foods) and add some vegetables with less salt to supplement potassium.
These sugar-controlled rice cookers
What are the real benefits?
In fact, the real benefits of these rice cookers have been ignored by people — — They can all cook miscellaneous grains rice. Regardless of germination or not, cooking miscellaneous grains rice can improve the nutritional quality of staple food.
Those who realize that the instant white rice is unhealthy can make full use of its miscellaneous grains rice function to cook black rice rice, oat rice, quinoa rice, mung bean rice and other miscellaneous grains rice for diabetics. They not only have more resistant starch, but also the contents of vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber and antioxidants will increase several times or even ten times. This can not only help control sugar, but also help prevent hypertension, hyperlipidemia and fatty liver, and help prevent various diabetic complications.
As for the sugar sieve, it doesn’t matter if you don’t use it, but it can also be used reasonably.
People with normal blood sugar but high blood pressure can use rice soup instead of salty soup at meals, which tastes better and can add some potassium; People with normal blood sugar but poor digestion can also drink rice soup as appetizing soup before meals, which is beneficial to the secretion of digestive juice.
Rice cooked by sugar-controlled rice cooker
Can I "eat with my heart open"?
As we all know, whether a food is good for health has a great relationship with its intake and food collocation. It is beneficial to replace a bowl of white rice with a bowl of germinated brown rice, but it does not mean that it is also beneficial to eat several bowls. Diabetic patients need to eat enough carbohydrates, but their total amount still needs to be properly controlled.
Therefore, it is obviously not very accurate to say that "there is no need to limit the amount of germinated brown rice cooked in this rice cooker". Besides, it is impossible to completely solve the problem of "three highs" by relying on only one kind of food, and there is no need to expect too much.
Similarly, for a "sugar-drained" rice cooker, it cannot be said that as long as the rice cooked by it is eaten, there is no need to limit the amount of staple food. It’s just hard-boiled rice. It is estimated that even if you want to eat more bowls, you will be a little tired when chewing. Just be careful not to eat biscuits and snacks between meals because the digestibility of rice is low and the blood sugar is too low.
In a word, my opinion on rice cookers with "sugar control" is as follows:
1. This kind of rice cooker provides consumers with many cooking possibilities, and the efforts of cooking electrical appliances enterprises are worth encouraging.
2. Germinated brown rice does not necessarily have a low glycemic index, but its nutritional value is indeed much higher than that of rice, which is worth eating by the whole family.
3. The digestion speed of "sugar-drained" rice is really slow, and the resistant starch increases, but the nutritional value decreases, which is not the best scheme to control sugar. If you want to eat, it is recommended to supplement B vitamins and increase the number of vegetables with less salt.
4. This kind of rice cooker can be reasonably used to make mixed rice of rice and miscellaneous grains, including germinated brown rice. It would be great if we could increase the acceptance of the whole family’s staple food of whole-grain miscellaneous beans.
For cooking appliances such as rice cookers and electric pressure cookers, the most important thing is to make their functions convenient for healthy eating and increase the possibility of people eating whole grains. What the merchant says is not the most important thing, but how to make good use of it after you buy it yourself.
Text/Fan Zhihong (Director of China Nutrition Society)
