This simple trick can turn your rice and pasta into gut-friendly superfoods

White rice and pasta are often termed as guilty pleasures for people on weight loss journey or those struggling with high blood sugar. Labelled as bad carbs, these refined foods are known for causing quick spikes in blood sugar, which can raise risk of many health complications from energy crashes to long-term health concerns. But what if we told you there's a simple kitchen trick that can transform these so-called 'unhealthy foods' into something surprisingly beneficial? Thanks to recent food science discoveries, you can actually turn white rice, pasta, and even potatoes into sources of resistant starch .

What is resistant starchSo, what exactly is resistant starch? According to the Journal of Functional Foods, it’s a type of starch that skips the small intestine during digestion and heads straight to the colon, where it gets fermented by gut-friendly microbes. This fermentation process creates short-chain fatty acids and those come with a bunch of health perks. Think of resistant starch as a kind of prebiotic - it feeds your good gut bacteria and helps keep your digestion running smoothly.

But that’s not all, resistant starch is also great for your blood sugar. It slows down how quickly your body breaks down and absorbs carbs, which means no more sugar rollercoasters after a meal. Instead, your energy stays more stable, and your insulin levels get a nice little boost in the right direction.

Now let's quickly get to the simple trick that could transform the unhealthy carbs into a gut friendly superfood..

The magic trickWhite rice or pasta contain digestible starch which gets absorbed in the body quickly due to which sugar quickly spikes in the blood. This would happen if you prefer your rice fresh and steaming hot.

However, instead of eating your rice or pasta immediately after cooking, you freeze it overnight - of course after it comes to room temperature, it almost turns into a superfood.

Microbiologist Maria Marco, who chairs the Food Science Graduate Group at UC Davis told NBC that as the hot rice cools down, some of those sugar chains transform and they stick together in a way that makes them no longer digestible.

"The chains form twisted shapes and different branches," Marco says, "and our enzymes can no longer reach them."

The enzymes now can no longer break the chains and the release of sugar molecules is blocked and less sugar rushes into our blood. These twisted chains are called resistant starch, because they resist digestion.

Repeated cycles of cooking and freezing may keep increasing the resistant starch which can potentially increase the healthy gut micro biota.

Even if you reheat your rice after freezing it, the benefits remain. The resistant starch also transfers right through our small intestine into our colon. Carbohydrates that we can't digest are called fiber, that is a very important nutrient for overall health including weight loss and blood sugar control.

Apart from rice and pasta, potatoes can be turned healthier by using the same trick. Cook them, then cool them, before perhaps reheating them.