Chemistry of rice

by A special Correspondent

It was a stinging taunt about his ample girth which led Sri Lankan undergraduate student, Sudhair James, to do path-breaking research on cooking rice to reduce its calorific content and thereby attempt to save millions of rice eaters in Asia from obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

Sudhair's researches at the College of Chemical Sciences at Colombo University have also nailed the theory that rice is inferior to wheat, a theory which has, for generations, given rice eating Asians an inferiority complex, vis-a-vis the wheat eaters.

"The taunt about my being fat hurt me badly. I went on a crash workout and severe dieting to bring my weight down by 32 kg from 110 kg in just three or four months," Sudhair recalled.

At the same time, the 22- year- old from Batticaloa was wondering if there was any method of bringing one's weight down without adopting a punishing diet. Sudhair was a foodie and knew he could not get away from food. He was in fact dreaming of being trained as a chef by the internationally acclaimed, Gordon Ramsay.

A chance meeting with Dr.Pushparajah Thavarajah, a visiting Professor from North Dakota State University in the US, resulted in Sudhair's plans to become a chef being shelved in favour of doing research on food.

"I picked up the courage to talk to Prof.Thavarajah on what I should do for my first degree thesis. He suggested that I work on reducing the calorific value of Sri Lankan rice varieties. He said that it would be part of an international project in which he himself was involved," Sudhair said.

Rice research

Through intensive and extensive work on 38 different varieties of Sri Lankan rice, Sudhair discovered that by adopting a different method of cooking it, their calorific value could be reduced by 10 to 15 percent, which, according to his supervisor Dr.Thavarajah , "could make a tremendous difference to health for generations."Explaining the chemistry of it, Sudhair said that there are two types of starches in rice - one is Low Resistant Starch and the other is High Resistant Starch.

Low Resistance Starch is easy to digest. The body converts it into glucose and then into glycogen, easily. But unless glycogen is burnt through exercise, it could add to body weight and lead to diabetes and other related issues. High Resistant Starch, on the other hand, is not as easily digestible and is not converted to glucose and glycogen, so easily.

Easily digestible starch could be converted into one with high resistant and not so easily digestible starch, so that it can be eaten without fear of putting on weight.

Sudhair found that by adding coconut oil to rice (three percent of the amount of rice to be cooked), and cooling the cooked rice in a refrigerator for 12 hours, Low Resistant Starch is turned into High Resistance Starch by about 10 to 15 percent.

"But the research has to go a long way before it can have a mass impact," he cautions.

Reducing calorific value

"The goal of the international project is to discover ways of bringing about 50 to 60 percent reduction in the calorific value of rice. We also want the 12 hour cooling period to be reduced drastically. We would like to find out if freezing would help. We are also trying to find out if there are alternatives to coconut oil," Sudhair said.

When he presented his findings at the March 2015 session of the American Chemical Society, he was introduced as a "scientist" and 'The Washington Post' carried a story on him.The young researcher disputes the widely held view that coconut oil is bad for the heart.

"Recent research shows that it is not harmful. In fact, it is better suited for cooking than olive oil, which is best used as a salad dressing," he points out.Among the varieties of rice available in Sri Lanka which have relatively High Resistance Starch are red raw rice (un-milled ones available in the villages) and par-boiled white rice. Since many Lankans prefer red raw rice, there are in the safe zone to a large extent.

But red raw rice is eaten only in Sri Lanka and Kerala in India. The rest of the rice eating world eats white, polished rice and are very much in the danger zone, he said.