Brown Rice: Soak It Before Cooking

Today we’re talking about my beloved brown rice. As an athlete brown rice makes it to many of my meals as it’s an important source of proteins, complex carbs and the precious fiber. But that’s not all that brown rice nutrition facts has to offer. One cup of brown rice scores just 2 grams of fat (including omegas-3 and 6 fatty acids), no cholesterol and just 10mg of sodium. You can be sure you’re getting nothing but nutrients with every spoonful.
I was happy all along with my brown rice until one day my colleague Sohyoung told me that you can even get more out of it. She said that if you soak in room-temperature water it overnight before cooking the rice will germinate and as a consequence release a number of precious nutrients.
Sohyoung knows what she’s talking about so I took her advice and looked into that.

Germination enhances brown rice nutritional value

Sohyoung was right all along, as a team of Japanese scientists founds that inducing brown rice to germinate enhances its already high nutritional value.
Exactly what germination brings to brown rice?
1. Much more fiber
2. Three times the amount of the essential aminoacid lysine
3. Ten times the amount of GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) which is knows to improve kidney function.
4. The rice sprouts contain an enzyme called protylendopetidase which is a potent inhibitor implicated in fighting Alzheimer’s disease.

"The birth of a sprout activates dormant enzymes in the brown rice all at once to supply the best nutrition to the growing sprout," explained Hiroshi Kayahara, Ph.D., the lead investigator on the project, and a biochemist from Shinshu University in Nagano, Japan.

How to make brown rice sprout

The perfect method to make rice germinate is to soak it for 24 hours at room temperature. During this time the outer bran layer softens, and the rice starts absorbing the water.
After 24 hours you will notice that little sprouts will pop-out (tiny buds less than a millimeter tall or 1/16 of an inch).

My advice is to wash the rice before cooking.
I’ve red that some people save some of the water in which the rice has soaked, and use to soak a new batch of rice. This apparently increases the release of the precious nutrients. I have no idea whether this is true, but it’s extra work, and I don’t have time to do it.
The germinated rice will be much easier to cook, depending on the rice quality it normally takes half the time (e.g., 20 minutes instead of 40).
The sprouted rice has a sweet flavor because the liberated enzymes break down some of the sugars and proteins.
Also, remember that white rice will not germinate, it’s only brown rice that will work the magic.

The Iron You