should make the outside of the grains slick enough to slide off each other. But this method
raises the fat content of the rice—with no guarantee that it will really keep the rice from
clumping. The best method is to cook the rice in just as much water as it can absorb without
rupturing its starch granules and remove the rice from the heat as soon as the water is almost
all absorbed. Fluff the cooked rice with a fork as it is cooling, to separate the grains.
How Other Kinds of Processing Affect This Food
“Converted” rice. “Converted” rice is rice that is parboiled under pressure before it is milled.
This process drives the vitamins and minerals into the grain and loosens the bran so that it
slips off easily when the rice is milled. Converted rice retains more vitamins and minerals
than conventionally milled white rice.
“Quick-cooking” rice. This is rice that has been cooked and dehydrated. Its hard, starchy
outer covering and its starch granules have already been broken so it will reabsorb water
almost instantly when you cook it.
Medical Uses and/or Benefits
To soothe irritated skin. Like corn starch or potato starch, powdered rice used as a dusting pow-
der or stirred into the bath water may soothe and dry a “wet” skin rash. It is so drying, however,
that it should never be used on a dry skin rash or on any rash without a doctor’s advice.
As a substitute for wheat flour in a gluten-free diet. People with celiac disease have an inherited
metabolic disorder which makes it impossible for them to digest gluten and gliadin, proteins
found in wheat and some other grains. Rice and rice flour, which are free of gluten and glia-
din, may be a useful substitute in some recipes.
Adverse Effects Associated with This Food
Beri-beri: Beri-beri is the thiamin (vitamin B 1 ) -deficiency disease. Beri-beri, which is rare
today, occurs among people for whom milled white rice, stripped of its B vitamins, is a
dietary mainstay. Enriching the rice prevents beri-beri.
Mold toxins. Rice, like other grains, may support the growth of toxic molds, including
Aspergillus flavus, which produces carcinogenic aflatoxins. Other toxins found on moldy rice
include citrinin, a penicillium mold too toxic to be used as an antibiotic; rubratoxins, mold
products known to cause hemorrhages in animals who eat the moldy rice; and nivalenol, a
mold toxin that suppresses DNA and protein synthesis in cells. Because mold may turn the
rice yellow, moldy rice is also known as yellow rice.
Food/Drug Interactions
Rice