Am I the last person on Earth to find out about GABA rice? We eat a lot of rice at our house, 99% of it Calrose. I recently picked up a copy of The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood by Dr. William Sears which really drives home the benefits of eating brown rice. Now, I grew up eating brown rice, but Big Omi refers to it as "dog food." I can see why, too, since our rice cooker does a very poor job with it (see how I conveniently blame the rice cooker when it's likely that I should be soaking the rice prior to cooking it, but we'll get to that) and it often comes out underdone and slightly crunchy.
As it turns out, scientists have discovered that pre-heating brown rice at 104°F for 2–8 hours before cooking it activates "gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), an amino acid believed to have health giving properties such as lowering blood pressure, improving kidney function and relieving stress" (from the Zojirushi Web site). Wow. I should point out that it was Big Omi who came home with this information, saying that he was on board with making the switch to brown rice, but was I ready to commit to the extended heating and cooking time? And, oh, yes, we would probably have to buy a fancy new rice cooker that has settings to pre-heat your brown rice and get the GABA flowin'. Okay... now all I need to do is find a good local source of quality brown rice.
2 comments:
I didn't know about GABA rice either but it sounds like I need to get on board. Oddly enough, a good friend of mine was suggesting I buy a rice cooker this weekend. She loves hers. Is there a particular one you recommend?
We had a basic Zojirushi rice maker that turned brown rice into a crunchy mess. Last week, I bought one of their top-of-the-line models -- at a deep discount through Ebay -- and it is amazing. It cooks brown rice better than I can on the stove top. It also has the GABA setting, though the more I look into it, the more it seems that the rice is supposed to be germinated, and not merely kept warm for a couple of hours before cooking, which is what the rice maker does.
We eat a lot of rice, and it is so nice to pop it into the cooker when I am thinking about it and set the timer for when I want it ready.
I'll also add that our old rice maker quickly turned even white rice crunchy on the "warm" setting. The new one will keep rice warm for 12 hours without its drying out and becoming crunchy.
Right now, it's the kitchen appliance we use most often and was well worth the extra money.
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