Introduction: Rice is one of the staples in the daily diet of the Chinese people. With just one type of rice, paired with five flavors, it can supply almost all the nutrients the body needs. Rice is neutral in nature and sweet in taste; it has the effects of tonifying the middle jiao, replenishing qi, strengthening the spleen and nourishing the stomach, benefiting essence and strengthening will, harmonizing the five organs, promoting blood circulation, improving hearing and eyesight, relieving vexation, quenching thirst, and stopping diarrhea. It can be called the best staple food. Do you know the six great health benefits of six types of rice?
To learn more about rice recipes, we recommend the "Creative Transformation, Rice is Different" special feature.
1. Brown rice is the most helpful for digestion.
So-called brown rice is the "light yellow rice" that has had its coarse husk removed during the milling process while retaining the germ and inner bran layer. Brown rice contains more protein, fat, and vitamins than polished white rice. The coarse fiber molecules in the bran layer help with gastrointestinal peristalsis and are effective for digestive tract diseases such as stomach ailments, constipation, and hemorrhoids. Brown rice is more nutritious than polished white rice and can lower cholesterol, reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Brown rice is suitable for the general population, but due to its coarse texture and dense nature, it takes longer to cook. Gu Wanli suggests that it can be washed, soaked in cold water overnight before cooking, and then cooked in a pressure cooker for more than half an hour along with the soaking water.
2. Glutinous rice is the best for detoxification.
Glutinous rice, also known as Jiangmi, is often used to make snacks because of its fragrant, glutinous, and smooth texture, and is loved by everyone. Glutinous rice contains nutrients such as protein, fat, carbohydrates, calcium, phosphorus, iron, vitamin B2, and a large amount of starch.
3. Job's tears are the best for beauty.
Job's tears, also known as coix seed or yi ren mi. Job's tears are highly nutritious and are hailed as the "king of world cereal plants." Job's tears are rich in nutrients, containing coix seed oil, coix seed fat, sterols, various amino acids such as arginine, and nutrients like vitamin B1 and carbohydrates. They have the effects of promoting urination to drain dampness, strengthening the spleen to stop diarrhea, and clearing heat and detoxifying.
4. Millet is the best for nourishing the stomach.
Millet, also known as liang mi, su mi, or su gu. It is rich in nutrients such as protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamin B2, niacin, and calcium, phosphorus, iron. Because millet is very easily digested and absorbed by the human body, it is called "health rice" by nutrition experts.
Millet has the effects of strengthening the spleen and harmonizing the middle, benefiting kidney qi, clearing deficient heat, promoting urination, and treating vexation and thirst. It is a good nutritional and therapeutic food for treating weakness of the spleen and stomach, physical weakness, damage to essence and blood, postpartum deficiency, and poor appetite. Gu Wanli points out that because millet is slightly cool in nature, people with qi stagnation, a constitution that is slightly deficient and cold, or those with clear and long urination should not eat too much of it.
5. Japonica rice is the most nourishing.
The common rice used daily to make rice is also called japonica rice or polished rice. It is semi-transparent and oval or elliptical, has a high milling rate, and the grains have low expansion but high stickiness. As a daily edible rice, japonica rice contains the necessary starch, protein, fat, vitamin B1, niacin, vitamin C, and calcium, iron for the human body, providing the body with the required nutrients and calories.
6. Black rice is the best for nourishing the kidneys.
Black rice is rich in nutrients, containing protein, fat, B vitamins, calcium, phosphorus, iron, zinc, and other substances, with a nutritional value higher than that of ordinary rice. It can significantly increase the content of human hemoglobin and blood pigments, is beneficial for the health of the cardiovascular system, is good for the development of children's bones and brains, and can promote the recovery of postpartum women and those convalescing from illness, making it an ideal nutritional and health food.
How to cook rice to make it more fragrant.
Rice cooked from good rice is very fragrant, but if you only have old rice or machine-milled rice, can you make it as fragrant as good rice? The method introduced below can help you make fragrant rice.
After washing the old rice, soak it in clean water for 1 hour, then put it in a pot with an appropriate amount of water, add a spoonful of lard or vegetable oil, stir the oil with a spoon, bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. The rice cooked this way will be as fragrant as new rice.
Machine-milled rice, also called indica rice, does not taste good when cooked. If the machine-milled rice is washed clean, a little salt and a spoonful of peanut oil or other vegetable oil are added, and an appropriate amount of water is used to cook the rice, the resulting rice will have all the characteristics of good rice: it will glisten, and the taste will be fragrant.
Four tips to distinguish new rice from old rice.
1. Look.
New japonica rice has a transparent, jade-like color, and immature grains may appear green (commonly called "green waist"). The "eye" of the new rice (the germ part) is milky white or light yellow, while old rice is darker in color or coffee-colored, and the surface of the grains has gray powder or white grooves; the more gray powder or white grooves, the older the rice. Yellowing of rice grains is a sign of decreased quality. This rice not only has poor aroma and texture but also low nutritional value and should not be purchased. Be aware that unscrupulous merchants may polish old rice with mineral oil, making the grain surface shiny. You can use a tissue paper to absorb the oil or soak the rice in hot water to carefully check for oil stains.
2. Smell.
Take a small amount of rice grains, rub them in your hands to warm them up, and then smell the aroma. New rice has a very light, natural fragrance that is pleasant and not pungent. Newly milled old rice has little fresh fragrance, and rice stored for more than a year only has a bran smell without any fresh fragrance.
3. Touch.
Normally polished rice feels smooth like a glass bead. Old rice feels rough to the touch. Rice polished with mineral oil feels greasy and oily. Unscrupulous merchants may also treat old rice with paraffin, which makes it feel sticky to the touch.
4. Taste.
The hardness of rice is determined by its protein content. The harder the rice, the higher the protein content and its transparency. Generally, new rice is harder than old rice, rice with low moisture is harder than rice with high moisture, and late-season rice is harder than early-season rice. When selecting, you can bite a grain with your teeth to feel its hardness; harder rice is of better quality.
In addition, cooked new rice has a higher moisture content, is looser in texture, and leaves a fragrant aftertaste between the teeth. Cooked old rice has a lower moisture content and is harder in texture.