Breaking the stereotypes about Rice!

Ayurved is an ancient science of Indian origin. It is described as anadi and anant , which means it was not discovered but lived and which has no end and will never be destroyed.

The word ayurved is basically a combination of two words, ayu and veda. Ayu means life , and veda means dnyan, knowledge or science. It has all the secrets of life , but only if we search!

In today's modern times, we are letting back our Indian Science and this science is being accepted by countries like America, Germany and many more on the list. What an irony this is!

We, Indians, are trying to westernize ourselves. But to what extent? That relies on us. It should be our resonsibility to behold this science. 

Coming to the topic, in today's era of lifestyle diseases , consumption of rice is being blamed as the culprit by many. But is it okay to just restrict rice from our diet and stay away from these diseases?

There is a term called सात्म्य in Ayurved, which means " whatever is wholesome to oneself."Rice is being cultivated in Asia since may years and it has become सात्म्य to our body. In ASHTANG HRIDAY, a classical text of ayuved , VAGBHATTA has said that,

सुधौत: means the rice which is properly washed ( atleast twice)

स्विन्न: means the rice which is properly cooked. (Usually try cooking it in an open pot rather than a pressure cooker)

अत्यक्तोष्मा means the cooked rice which is hot or not stale. 

Such kind of cooked rice is described as लघु , which in terms of Ayurved means easy to digest. This Kalpana is known as ओदन or cooked rice in simple terms.

Apart from this, विलेपी , is the form of cooked rice in which the amount of water is comparatively more than the simple rice. This kind of rice is generally eaten by the Indians when they are ill and don't have the desire to eat anything. Even this has a reason behind it.

ग्राहिणी means it acts on the intestine and absorbs the necessary part and excretes the remaining part.

हृद्या means it can be fed to those who have lost the sense of taste due to some underlying disease.

दीपनी means it increases the power of Agni, that is the power of digestion. 

It is हितकर for those who are described as दुर्बल. Apart from this, studies have shown that consumption of uncooked or half-cooked rice like those in fried rice, sushi, or any other Chinese or American dishes contain more amount of carbohydrates than the fully cooked one.

100g of cooked white rice contains 28g of carbohydrates, 2.7g of Proteins and virtually zero fat. We are not aware of these facts that these better methods of cooking and eating, if adopted, rice can be included in a healthy diet plan. These traditional ways of cooking rice enhance some rare properties of rice and lower it's calorie content.

Carbohydrates in rice are simple starch. Starch is basically of two types, Amylose and Amylopectin. Rice contains more of this Amylose starch which is straight chain polymer. This long chain is not acted upon by the enzymes and is not easily broken down into glucose thus there is no rise in the Blood sugar levels. It has low glycemic index. Most of the south Indians often eat rice as their staple food , but are all these people diabetic? 

Lifestyle diseases means the ones which arise due to the modern way of living, stress levels, lack of exercise, sedentary work, comforts and diet. Hence , rice alone cannot be blamed or cannot be cancelled from our regular diet. 

Henceforth, let's not spread hate about our science and always remember that 'old is gold' . 

Regards,

आयुर्वेदाभ्यासकः।

आयुर्वेदः समर्पितम्।