Edit for results: so I had some poppadoms. I bought them and cooked them myself, with mango chutney, lime pickle, garlic pickle, yoghurt mint sauce. I had maybe 4 tablespoons of rice and curry on top. I only ate about half of it. I had a 325ml I think it is, a half bottle, of red wine over the evening. My fasting blood glucose yesterday was 6.8mmol / 123 mg/dL, and this morning was 7.1mmol /128 mg/dL so not a massive spike, and I didn't sleep all that well so in the night I was expecting that to spike it too.
I'm thinking of making a curry tomorrow and I don't particularly like cauliflower rice. I have some basmati rice, and I'm wondering whether cooking it today and freezing then defrosting tomorrow will make it any better for me. Has anyone tried this and did it make any difference?
Edit to add: I generally don't eat rice, pasta, potato, bread etc and I'm not planning to eat much off plan over the holidays. I'll have a full Christmas dinner on Xmas day, and new years day, but the rest of the time I'm planning to eat as I normally do.
I'm making butter chicken so there will be fats to pair with it and I'll have a look at what fibre I can add, and I might have a small glass of red too.
Just gonna have to test for yourself. We all eat to our meter and our meters are all different.
Bread and rice work for me. Both still raise my blood sugar and I still can’t eat a lot, but makes it far more manageable.
Haven’t tried potatoes yet
I'm quite curious how it turns out for them!
I don't test before/after food anymore, just first thing in the morning and I started ozempic almost 3 weeks ago, and I might have a couple of glasses of wine tomorrow so it won't be a controlled experiment.
I think you can just refrigerate it over night.
you actually have to freeze it to cause that change in the food's chemistry
According to John Hopkins for resistant starch rice should be cooked and cooled in the refrigerator over night.
Refrigerating works for me. Tried it every day for a week. Rice is back on my menu!
Each person is different. What spikes one person may not spike another. I’ve been a T2D since I was 28, I’m now 45. My A1C is 5.2 and I eat rice almost daily. My rules: 1. Stick to portion sizes, I only have a measured cup.
2.Make sure to eat rice (any carbs really) with fiber, protein, and fat.
An example lunch for me is a pice of salmon, a cup of rice, and a side of broccoli.
Have you tested your blood sugar 2, 3 hours after eating a meal with a serving of rice to see what it does? I measure at 2 hours to see where I am and then at 3 hours to verify I still trending downward. I’ve used this method to build out a list of foods/combinations I routinely have, have rarely, and ones I avoid.
I don't test after food now, I just take my fbg every morning.
Testing after meals is the only way to truly know what spikes you and what doesn’t.
helps to rinse the rice well before cooking. washes off some of the starches.
That's standard practice though. Not washing your rice is a sin
I use brown rice. It works for me. But I can eat ice cream. No spike. Two crackers I’m at 180.
this lol ice cream and 2 sees candy chocolates are fine but 2-3 tablespoons of rice are a no for me.
Right? I can't eat oatmeal without spiking but rice and potatoes are not an issue. I can eat some ice cream occasionally, but a cookie causes a huge spike.
ETA- chocolate chips, even just a few, and I feel like absolute crap.
Honestly if you don't regularly have it and you're just having some for the holidays, then just enjoy it. You're talking about one or two days out of the year that you'll have this big spike, it won't be the end of the world and it'll barely affect your A1C1 if you are managing it well on a daily basis. But freezing the rice will be slightly better for you but it's still a lot of carbs and most likely it will still spike you, what I would do is just go for a longer walk or jog an extra 5 minutes if you plan to eat heavier on carbs than usual and you'll be fine.
It varies but in the end if the day it’s still a lot of carbs. Freezing it reduces the blood sugar increase but in the end if the day, it’s still carbs.. if you can, still better to avoid.
I think the point in testing this is for the individual to have access to at least limited portions of normal, healthy foods. This isn’t some trick to make our bodies not spike after a Hostess cupcake - it’s basic food with nutrients and fiber.
The total avoidance of carbs to me seems unsustainable for many.
When I started off, I did. Keeping carbs to keto levels. It helped me a lot getting a handle on it
But I lost 80 lbs, gained muscle, changed my life style, and started tweaking and testing.
Now I can eat a serving of bread with soup (1 hunk that is mostly whole grain, frozen first) or a serving of rice (frozen brown) with my stir fry. Ice cream barely budges my bs if I only eat a single serving.
I consume about 100g of carbs a day now and my a1c just tested at 5.4.
I couldn’t have done that when I was first diagnosed at an a1c of 14 and 80 lbs heavier.
It’s different for everyone and different at different stages of our journeys
I have a theory that, just like the stages of grief, there are stages of reconciling bad news, like a diabetes diagnosis, with reality. It sounds like you, like me, went hardcore on cutting out carbs. I have only been eating fewer than 30 grams of carbs a day, and that through fibrous vegetables like broccoli, since I was diagnosed, December 31, 2024.
I have lost 106 lbs and going from 325 to 219. I'd been only counting in 5s until now. 275 isn't substantially different from 270 or 280. But now that 1 lb is about 0.5% of my total mass, it's going to matter as I expect wight loss to slow down. I'm hoping to keep the pace at 1.5 lbs a week, from my current 2.5 lbs a week.
I'll only have a little bit, like maybe a tablespoon. I'll have salad as well.
Have the salad first, as a starter.
A Tablespoon of rice?
Yes I'll have a small amount and salad and now I'm going to do something with cauliflower and broccoli. Probably roast it in spices.
It makes a huge difference for me. If I have plain rice with nothing else, my blood sugar goes above 200.
Once a week I make a big batch and pack them into those soup cubes to freeze as individual servings. With refrigerated or frozen rice, I usually only get to 130s. I use a CGM and have seen this play out dozens and dozens of times.
I have drug induced type 2 btw, so I'm not sure if that's part of why it works so well for me.
I do the same, with about the same results.
I kinda work, but everyone's different.
I have less than a 10point difference every time.
Can you do half and half cauliflower and real rice? It sometimes I'll mix rice and quinoa. It is a lower GI carb with higher protein. You'll have to experiment though. Everyone is different.
For me: Not sure about rice, but I think refrigerating pasta, and freezing bread does help. Sadly, keeping to a very small portion size is really most important.
My coworker says she eats a lot of rice. She cooks it and refrigerates overnight and eats it in the morning. She said her Ac1 is 5.??; so I think it works.
Is your coworker diabetic?
Yes.
That is a puzzle to me. Maybe she is a rare one who can tolerate rice.
When she told me, I, too, was shocked. I love rice but have pretty much given it up. 😢
I’ve noticed a much smaller spike with refrigerated cooked potatoes and rice. Not so much with bread.
I have not done a rigorous experiment on this. However. a few times I tried it, my CGM couldn't tell a difference. Therefore. I have mentally accepted her (CGM) opinion, as I consider her the supreme authority when it comes to food and it's impact on my body :-). Bottomline, I treat any simple carb identically (limit/avoid/assess if it is giving me reward).
Did not work at all for me.
You don't need to freeze it, just put in a cold refrigerator. This does nothing to limit carbs, but it does lower the glycemic index.
Thank you for that distinction, I appreciate the new knowledge!
Have a salad with a vinaigrette dressing first. It will help with the carbs. Still be careful with portion sizes of the rice though.
Don't need to freeze just refrigerate
I'm not sure about the refrigerating or freezing overnight, but I do know that basmati rice doesn't cause a spike for me like other types of rice do. So you may be ahead of the game already with your choice 🙂
If you search for "resistant starch" creation you'll find the actual science on why and how it is a real thing.
It has been scientifically tested and widely cited, but if you have a CGM or even a normal tester, I would test on yourself. I also add coconut oil in the steaming process which also helps to decrease the starch content.
For me, it's pretty good, but everyone is different. I have mostly done it with brown rice, though. White rice is still more starchy than I'd like. I would also rely on other methods like ensuring there is plenty of mixes of fiber and protein in the meal. So far, I've been pretty happy with practically no spike or a slow rise in spike.
Bottom line. Science indicates with multiple studies that this helps, and it also provides and explanation for the phenomenon. I would test it on yourself, and if it's not as successful as you'd like, I wouldn't give up. You can combine the methods with other cooking methods to see if they work together.
I'm just making up numbers but it's like the difference of 8 and 10. It's still high carbs
It does not digest as starch.it does not digest in small intestine.
Yes, resistant starch does get "digested," but not in the small intestine like regular starch; instead, it resists breakdown there and travels to the large intestine (colon) where gut bacteria ferment it, making it act like a fiber, feeding good microbes and producing beneficial short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) like butyrate, which boosts gut health and helps regulate blood sugar.
I get a small sugar rise, then a slow slope down until I eat something else. Which tells me, it's not digesting as sugar.
yeah, freezing rice can actually change its resistant starch content, which might help lower its glycemic index a bit when you eat it later. so if you cook your basmati rice, cool it down, and freeze it, it could be a better choice for your curry.
Nope. For normal folks, sure. But if you’re the least bit sensitive avoid it.
I’ve noticed washing it u til the run water runs clear and then cooking it, causes my blood sugar not to spike
I haven’t tried rice, mostly because I don’t like it much anyway, but I have had success with potatoes.
Didn't work for me... unfortunately
Rice messes me up. Cauliflower rice doesn’t.
I usually just substitute cauliflower rice in. You can make the curry overnight in a crockpot. Then heat and add in the cauliflower rice right before you serve it.
I do this too. Not wild about cauliflower rice, but it’s just fine under curry. (I usually steal a tablespoon or two of my husband’s basmati rice and mix it into my cauli for better texture; for me, that small amount is relatively OK.)
Refrigerating my rice overnight consistently is about 20 points lower on my finger stick than fresh rice. My roommate has eaten identically to me (shared meals) but the difference for them is negligible.
My opinion is your mileage may vary, but it's worth a shot.
I haven’t tried with rice, but I helps me with potatoes. I still can only have tiny portions, but I can have some
Here's an interesting peer-reviewed study that shows that YES, chilling rice does result in more resistant starch. Interestingly (and sadly), the difference isn't as significant with potatoes (though chilling the does help a bit).
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7984060/
Basmati is supposed to be better than other rice anyway in terms of gi, I’ve heard it’s lower gi but I’m certain how factual it is. Freezing definitely makes a difference. Would suggest just trying it. I eat rice for lunch everyday and it doesn’t spike me much, a small portion tho and I tell myself it’s Asian genes but also goes to show how it can be different for different people. Like I don’t eat potatoes and anything with AP flour but I know someone who can eat potatoes and it doesn’t affect their numbers all that much.
It works for potatoes for me, and bread for a friend, but not vice versa. And it doesn't work for rice or pasta for either of us.
I wonder if this would work with oatmeal?
Try it and see?
didn’t work for me.
I looked up the original study and the change was minor-- maybe 10% shift. And that was after 3 days in the fridge. May give you a needed edge, but imho better to eat protein and fiber before tackling a small amt of rice. [But then rice is my nemesis- I get the worst reaction to it of all foods].
Always.
Freezing is not necessary, just cooling, the fridge is amply enough. IF it works for you, which it doesn't for everyone, see other comments
What type of difference are you expecting or hoping for.
1%, 10%, 100% - quantify it and then test your hypothesis.
Its a very story that people share. Never quantified, always just it makes it “lower” or its “better”. Pretty careless in my opinion. Its carbs before freezing, still carbs after freezing.
Im sure someone is going to say it “works for them”. Consider what if anything that really means when you see it.
I'd want it to not raise my fbg. I've just finished dinner, but I had some red wine with it so I'll find out tomorrow if my fbg is raised. I've been hovering in the 6's (mmol).
I make a big batch of high protein rice in the rice cooker, and then freeze it in 1-cup blocks. I don’t notice it spiking me very much. A little, but not so much that I worry about it.
Everyone is different. Rice worked for me, but refrigerating pasta did not.
Tbh i eat rice normally and pair it with loads of veggies for extra fiber and protein. Never had an issue
I think you’re referring to resistant starch, with potatoes, you peel and boil then cool, and eat cool as in a potato salad or reheated only to ~100f, everyone reacts to starches differently. Try 50g of effective carb on a fasted gut to determine what it really asks of your metabolic function. Pairing it with fats and fiber only delays the inevitable but you still have to digest and process the substance you’re eating.
I love basmati rice , I eat it nearly every day BUT I will wash and agitate the rice until no more starch comes out of the rice and for me this is a must . I’m eating rice as I write this and it does raise my levels a bit but no major spikes. Everyone is different and luckily as long as the rice is stripped of starch before cooking I can eat it greatly 😁😁