Rice is nutritious and very nourishing.

The most "nourishing" rice

The Chinese intuitive understanding of rice's nutrition is summed up in two words: "nourishing." It contains various nutrients such as protein and vitamins. Although the amount of these nutrients is not very high compared to the starch content, the large consumption quantity makes its nutritional effect quite considerable, making it a staple food for supplementing nutrients. "In the fragrance of the rice paddies, they speak of a bountiful year, listening to the chorus of frogs." This idyllic rural scene that the Southern Song dynasty poet Xin Qiji saw on a moonlit journey is perhaps difficult for many people to feel today, but rice is almost indispensable in daily life. More than half of the world's population relies on rice as a staple food, and rice cultivation ranges from the temperate to the subtropical zones.

Rice bowl cake

Nutritious rice

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, rice is considered sweet and neutral in nature, and has the effects of tonifying the middle and replenishing qi, strengthening the spleen and nourishing the stomach, benefiting essence and strengthening will, harmonizing the five organs, unblocking blood vessels, improving hearing and eyesight, relieving vexation, quenching thirst, and stopping diarrhea. It is believed that frequent consumption can make one "strong and improve one's complexion." In more common terms, the Chinese intuitive understanding of rice's nutrition is summed up in two words: "nourishing." It contains various nutrients such as protein and vitamins. Although the amount of these nutrients is not very high compared to the starch content, the large consumption quantity makes its nutritional effect quite considerable, making it a staple food for supplementing nutrients. Every day, at three meals, more than half of the people in China eat rice.

Clever Chinese people have invented countless delicious methods and pairings in their long history of eating rice, such as steaming, boiling, grinding into dough, kneading into noodles, and pulling into threads—the methods are extremely imaginative.