Cooking food nutritiously can be quite a challenge especially with all the many choices and the need to choose the best and healthiest ingredients. Once you have made a choice of the best rice; one that is not enriched and overly processed, preferably also aged (aged rice doubles when cooked). Then you want to cook it in the best way that retains all the nutrients: the simple and complex carbs and vitamins and minerals that rice can provide.Japanese
When cooking rice in conventional cookware, the complex carbs, which have the more delicate nutritional bonds, are the ones that take the hit. The simple carbs and starches may survive the ordeal. This damage happens because these pots cook with harsh near-infrared heat (metal pots, ceramic pots, glazed or enameled pots).
But what are complex carbs, and how important are they to health?
Complex carbohydrates are sugar molecules that are strung as complex chains. Just like simple carbs, these are turned into glucose (blood sugar) and are used as energy.
The naturally occurring complex carbs are healthier because they are higher in fiber and take longer to break down. This makes them more filling and ideal for weight control. These slow releasing sugars are also great for people with type 2 diabetes.
How to cook rice while keeping complex carbs?
This is a million-dollar question! The only known material that cooks with gentle far infrared heat and can preserve complex carbs in rice is all-natural primary clay or pure clay. Cooking rice in pure clay pots makes sure the rice cooks thoroughly and evenly without any harm to delicate complex carbs.