There are many foods made from glutinous rice, some are easy to digest and some are difficult to digest.
Tangyuan and glutinous rice
Tangyuan is made of blanched glutinous rice flour, while Yuanxiao is made of raw glutinous rice flour. Fillings are added, mainly lard, butter, margarine and other fats rich in saturated fat, plus sugar and other flavoring ingredients. They are not exactly the same thing as glutinous rice itself.
According to domestic and foreign experimental results, the blood sugar response of hot glutinous rice right out of the pot is indeed very high, exceeding that of white sugar and higher than that of ordinary japonica rice. Enzymatic hydrolysis experiments also prove that compared with japonica rice, glutinous rice contains a larger proportion of amylopectin, which is easier to react with amylase and releases glucose molecules faster.
Therefore, the so-called glutinous rice food is difficult to digest does not mean that the amylopectin in it is difficult to digest, but that these foods are too sticky and tough, and cannot be chewed or kneaded, which hinders the digestive enzymes from digesting. It works quickly and fully. As long as it can be broken up and cooked, glutinous rice food is super easy to digest, such as hot glutinous rice porridge, which is soft, soft and fine, and even people with weak digestion ability after diarrhea can accept it. This verifies what the ancients said: freshly cooked glutinous rice and glutinous rice porridge are very easy to digest, foods that nourish the stomach and strengthen the spleen. Therefore, traditional health sayings believe that glutinous rice can "replenish deficiency" and "stop diarrhea". Since people who are weak can eat it and people with diarrhea can eat it, how can we say it is difficult to digest?
Tangyuan or Yuanxiao are not just glutinous rice, they also add a lot of saturated fat. For people with weak stomachs and poor digestion and absorption capabilities, a large amount of meat and oil will obviously put a burden on the digestive system. However, if eaten while hot, the glutinous rice flour has a soft texture, and lard is liquid at body temperature and easily mixed with bile, so it is not difficult to digest. Therefore, Lantern Festival should be eaten hot.
Compared with glutinous rice balls, yuanxiao is made from dried powder and cannot completely soften within a few minutes like glutinous rice balls when cooked. Therefore, it is slightly more difficult to digest than glutinous rice balls. Therefore, for people with weak stomachs, they should not eat Yuanxiao too fast. They should chew it slowly and then swallow it.
Glutinous rice and sticky cakes
People know that after glutinous rice or other glutinous foods are cooled, their stickiness and toughness will increase. In particular, the beaten glutinous rice balls have a tight texture and excessive viscosity and toughness. No matter how they are "kneaded" in the stomach, it is difficult to break into fine pieces. It is difficult for digestive enzymes to "intimate contact" with it, making it more difficult to digest. People have heard that rice cakes are particularly resistant to hunger. The so-called "Thirty-mile noodles and forty-mile cake" refers to yellow rice cakes that have been beaten and fried. It is also a waxy food, which makes it a bit "stuffy" after eating and digests very slowly. This is the reason why the so-called waxy food is "sticky and difficult to melt".
If lard is added to cold glutinous rice, the effect will be, needless to say, it must be quite difficult to digest. This is the case with cold glutinous rice balls and cold meat rice dumplings, for example. The sticky stuff is difficult to chew and knead, and then it is wrapped with the saturated fat that solidifies when exposed to cold. It is even more difficult to fully mix with the digestive juices in the gastrointestinal tract.
However, this "difficulty to digest" also varies from person to person. For people with very good gastrointestinal function, with large secretion of digestive juices, high enzyme activity, and strong gastrointestinal motility, they can still digest normally even if it is a little difficult. So there is nothing wrong with eating cold glutinous rice balls and cold rice dumplings. But for those with poor digestion ability, the feeling is very different. They may feel bloated and even fail to digest food.
In fact, few people with diabetes suffer from stomach problems. They usually eat delicious food and have good digestion ability. Therefore, for people with diabetes, on the one hand, glutinous rice food may not be "difficult to digest" and blood sugar will rise quickly; on the other hand, a large amount of saturated fat itself has an adverse effect on blood sugar control and is even more dangerous to increase blood lipids. . In any case, glutinous rice balls and yuanxiao are not suitable foods for them to eat frequently.
Conclusion:
1. Freshly cooked, oil-free glutinous rice food is not difficult to digest, and the blood sugar response is very high. This type of food includes glutinous rice, glutinous rice porridge, etc., which are suitable for people with poor digestion ability.
2 Yuanxiao is denser and harder to digest than glutinous rice balls. If you have a weak stomach, you should not be hard-boiled when cooking, and you do not need to pursue clear soup. It is best to cook it for a while and eat it softer before eating.
3. Cold glutinous rice foods, especially glutinous rice foods with a large amount of saturated fat, are relatively difficult to digest. People with weak digestive ability should eat glutinous rice balls, yuanxiao, glutinous rice chicken, glutinous rice balls, fried rice cakes, rice pudding, fried cakes and other foods while they are hot, and should eat less and chew carefully. Don't eat it after it's cold.
4 For people with strong digestion ability, even if it is cold glutinous rice food, the rate of rise in blood sugar is likely to be high. People with impaired blood sugar control should try to eat less sticky staple foods, especially sticky foods with a lot of fat added.