Firm introduces cooker that takes sugar out of rice
KUCHING: Asians are the master rice consumers of the world but did you know that a bowl of cooked rice is the caloric equal of 10 teaspoons of sugar?
Rice, either brown or white, long or short, is packed with carbohydrates and when consumed, will be broken down into sugar and ends up in the blood.
As such, it has the potential to create unwanted spikes in blood sugar levels if taken in large quantity because rice has a high glycemic index ( GI) – a number associated with a particular type of food that indicates the food’s effect on a person’s blood glucose (also called blood sugar) level.
But with Grayns revolutionary healthy Rice Cooker, it is the first and only rice cooker that takes out the excess, unhealthy sugar content to make the rice a healthier carbohydrate that provides the energy while digesting slowly into the blood stream without spiking blood glucose levels.
Grayns Malaysia operations director Mohd Dzulqhifly stressed that high sugar diet is dangerous to health, notably now that Malaysia is the most obese country in Asia with an obesity rate of more than 45.3 per cent.
“We lead a largely sedentary lifestyle ( poor diets and officeoriented lifestyles) without any
We lead a largely sedentary lifestyle (poor diets and officeoriented lifestyles) without any exercise in our urban society that contributes to the high rate of overweight and obese people in the country.
exercise in our urban society that contributes to the high rate of overweight and obese people in the country,” he said at the introduction of the Grayns Rice Cooker.
High blood glucose levels, he pointed out, have been clinically linked to over 60 different ailments such as diabetes, heart disease, premature ageing, cholesterol and even cancer.
Rice just like any other carbohydrate, he explained, is made up of two starches – Amylose ( slowly digestible) and Amylopectin (rapidly digestible).
“Rice has a higher bad starch (Amylopectin) to Amylose ratio. If compared to oats which have higher Amylose, oats are much healthier but it is not Malaysian culture to eat oats throughout the day or daily in our meals,” he said.
“Now why is it better to eat rice with low starch? Rice with high starch content increases the risk of getting diabetes by 10 per cent per bowl of rice,” he elaborated.
The real problem, Dzulqhifly said, is not with rice but the method of cooking mainly because rice cooked in a conventional rice cooker has an extremely high GI due to the fact that the sugar in rice is retained during cooking.
“Back in the days before the invention of conventional rice cooker, rice was slow cooked over charcoal fire where the water boiled on a slow flame and thereafter, the excess water which contained starch was discarded and cooking continued until the rice was set,” he elaborated.
“As for conventional rice cooker that uses the heating element, water gets boiled in an instant, water evaporated into steam, the rice absorbs the liquid (including starch) and expand its volume till all the water is absorbed. The raw rice texture is gelatinised and softened with the moisture and heat,” he said.
But the Grayns Rice Cooker, he added, has the ability to remove most of the bad starch from rice and lower the GI by 30 to 35 per cent.
“Rice cooked in Grayns Rice Cooker will not turn sweet as bad starch has been removed, it can last up to five or more days because bad starch can ferment rapidly and the rice tastes better, fluffier and expand at least 50 per cent more volume,” he said.
“Also, you will feel full longer and more energetic due to the slowly digestible starch that allows energy levels to rise gradually instead of instantly which is why we feel sleepy after a meal because sugary foods induce sugar spikes and crashes, making us tired and hungry faster,” he added.
After more than five years of development and prototyping, Dzulqhifly shared that the Grayns Rice Cooker first prototype was distributed in September 2014 and finally commercially marketed in May 2015 with few improvements made.
“We hope to make the healthy rice cooker available in the Kuching market by early next year. When they do, it will be retailed through specialised stores like pharmacies, clinics and hospitals as well as MHS Solutions Sdn Bhd,” he said.
Grayns will be conducting a blind test in collaboration with the Diabetic Society Kuching during which diabetic patients will be invited to test rice cooked with conventional rice cooker and the Granys Rice Cooker where their blood sugar levels will be recorded for comparison purposes.
For more information, visit www.grayns.com or graynslabs videos on YouTube or grayns Facebook page or contact MHS Solutions located at 18A, L357, 1st Floor, Jalan Rubber, Kuching or 082-231899.
Mohd Dzulqhifly, Grayns Malaysia operations director