Rice is a staple food for most Chinese people every day. If you master the healthy principles of eating rice, you can prevent diseases and resist aging over time, which is extremely beneficial for patients with chronic diseases.
Farmhouse Mixed Grain Rice
Try to make the rice "colorful" to prevent cardiovascular disease. White rice has a very low vitamin content. By choosing colored rice and pairing it with other foods to make the rice colorful, you can greatly improve its nutritional value. For example, adding green peas, orange carrots, and yellow corn kernels when cooking rice is not only visually appealing but also provides vitamins and carotenoid antioxidants, which are especially beneficial for preventing eye aging. Another example is pairing purple rice, black rice, and red rice with white rice, which can provide a large amount of anthocyanin antioxidants to help prevent cardiovascular disease.
Try to make the rice "mixed" to most effectively prevent chronic diseases. When cooking rice or congee, it is best not to use a single type of rice. Instead, mix rice with coarse grains, beans, nuts, etc., and cook them together. For example, red bean rice and peanut oatmeal rice congee are very suitable rice dishes for patients with chronic diseases. Adding these ingredients not only increases B vitamins and minerals but also plays a role in protein complementation, ensuring adequate nutritional supply while reducing animal-based foods. More importantly, this can effectively lower the glycemic response and control the rise in blood lipids. The combination of beans and rice is the most ideal because beans are rich in dietary fiber, and their starch is digested very slowly, making it most effective for preventing chronic diseases.
Try to make the rice "coarse" to help control blood sugar and blood lipids. "Coarse" means reducing as much as possible the refined white rice, as its glycemic response is too high and is very unfavorable for controlling blood sugar and blood lipids. Only by eating enough fiber can you effectively reduce the digestion speed of rice and at the same time absorb cholesterol and fat in the intestines, thereby lowering postprandial blood sugar and blood lipids. This can also make people eat more slowly and consume less food, which is beneficial for weight control. In fact, most patients with chronic diseases are overweight, so controlling weight is the top priority in dietary adjustments.
Some types of rice with particularly high nutritional and health value, such as brown rice, black rice, and germ rice, are beneficial to health. However, eating 100% brown rice every day may be uncomfortable in terms of taste and difficult to stick with for a long time. Therefore, when cooking, it is a good idea to mix some "coarse" grains with white rice, which will be more palatable. It is best to soak the "coarse" ingredients in water overnight so that they cook at the same time as the rice.
Try to make the rice "light" to help control blood pressure and weight. Try not to add oil to the rice to avoid extra calories and a greater increase in postprandial blood lipids. Therefore, fried rice should be eaten less, and adding sausages when cooking rice or mixing rice with oily dishes should also be avoided. In addition, try not to add salt, soy sauce, or MSG to the rice to avoid extra sodium, which is not conducive to controlling blood pressure and preventing cardiovascular accidents.
It should be noted that adding vinegar, wrapping with seaweed, or adding vegetables and raw fish in the middle are practices that conform to the light principle. Vinegar itself can lower the glycemic response and help control blood lipids; seaweed and raw fish are also ingredients that are beneficial to the cardiovascular system. As long as you do not eat overly salty dishes, seaweed rice rolls are quite suitable as a staple food for patients with chronic diseases.
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