JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
When it comes to carbohydrates, dieticians have some pretty standard advice - whole grains like brown rice and whole wheat are better than refined grains like white rice and pasta. Well, it turns out there's a way to make those refined grains healthier. Michaeleen Doucleff reports on a superfood hidden in cold pasta salad and leftover rice.
MICHAELEEN DOUCLEFF, BYLINE: Mindy Patterson is a nutritionist at Texas Woman's University in Houston. She says that pasta and white rice are a bit, well, naughty.
MINDY PATTERSON: Well, they're, in a sense, naughty because they are rapidly digested, typically. So therefore, it creates a rise in blood sugar, and that happens pretty fast.
DOUCLEFF: That quick rise in blood sugar isn't great for your health, especially if you have diabetes. Patterson says that over time, it can trigger inflammation, contribute to insulin resistance, and it just makes you feel tired.
PATTERSON: If we don't have these spikes and dips in our blood sugar, then we tend to have more energy and just feeling better about ourselves - right? - healthier.
DOUCLEFF: Whole grains, on the other hand, don't cause such high spikes in blood sugar because we digest their carbohydrates much more slowly. But in the past decade, scientists have figured out a way to make white rice and pasta less naughty to help us digest it more slowly. The trick?
PATTERSON: If you put it in the refrigerator and cool it down, it contributes less sugar that can go to the blood.
DOUCLEFF: That's right. If you take a hot plate of pasta or a steaming bowl of rice and chill it for six or eight hours or even overnight, then when you eat the cold grains, your blood sugar won't spike as high. So, in a way, cold pasta or leftover rice is healthier for you than their freshly cooked versions?
PATTERSON: Yes. Yes. Yes, for sure.
DOUCLEFF: And this trick also works for whole grains and beans, too, making those superfoods even healthier. If you're wondering how this works, Maria Marco, a microbiologist at UC Davis, can help explain it. She says that as the pasta or rice sits in the refrigerator, some of its carbohydrates tangle up and stick together.
MARIA MARCO: They're just twisted shapes or different branches, and what that means is that our enzymes can't reach it.
DOUCLEFF: We can't break down the long chains of carbohydrates into simple sugars, so we can't digest them. Now, if you think about it carefully, scientists have a particular name for a carbohydrate that we can't digest - fiber.
MARCO: This one kind of fiber.
DOUCLEFF: And it's a special one. It's called resistant starch. Ravinder Nagpal is a gut microbiologist at Florida State University. He says that resistant starch is linked with a whole host of benefits. It reduces inflammation and helps you manage your blood sugar. It also helps improve your gut health because it feeds the trillions of microbes in your lower intestine.
RAVINDER NAGPAL: Yes, our microbiome thrives on fiber and resistrant starches.
DOUCLEFF: Now, if you don't like the sound of eating cold rice or pasta, Nagpal says you can reheat it, but do it gently. Don't overdo it. Reheat it quickly in the microwave or...
NAGPAL: Fry it lightly with some of your favorite veggies.
DOUCLEFF: Otherwise, you'll lose this super fiber and its health benefits. For NPR News, I'm Michaeleen Doucleff.
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