A Certified Chemist Shared Benefit Of Washing The Cooked Rice

Remember the BBC’s way of cooking rice? It was a total fiasco! Comedian Uncle Roger definitely clowning the video as much as we do. However, this certified chemist took Twitter to share some actual facts about washing the cooked rice that we didn’t know. The tweet gained over 1K retweets and 2K likes as many people would want to know what the expert says.

Apparently, by washing the cooked rice, it is the same method of making parboiled rice, a type of rice that have low starch and low glycemic index. Glycemic index (GI) is a ranking of carbohydrates in foods according to how they affect blood glucose levels.

According to Dr. Che Puteh, rice contains amylopectin, a molecule that causes rice gelatinous and sticky. Meanwhile, Amylose is a molecule that does not gelatinize during cooking. Rice with a high amount of amylopectin will be very sticky once cooked and rice with high amounts of amylose will be fully also separated once cooked.

The process of cooking rice itself is a process of the gelatinized starch. The way we cook rice by boiling until the water is dry causes the starch to remain present, easier to digest, and more sticky.

The glycemic index is also higher. One type of rice that have a high glycemic index is plain white rice is stickier than Basmati.

When the rice is boiled and the boiled water is removed, we remove some of the starch. The process of washing with cold water to promote retrogradation in the starch process.

The result is rice, more granular, and non-sticky. For example, like Basmati rice has more granular than white rice.

So, basically to drain the rice and washed it after cooking is actually better as it eliminates the starch, make it has low glycemic index. Anyone who wants to continue or maybe even try this method, are welcomed to try!