If you cook rice like this it can reduce its calorie count by 60 per cent

Rice falls victim to the classic curse: it is delicious yet high in calories.

You can thank starch for that. A lot of starch. This make rice an important crop in lower-income countries, according to dedicated online authority Ricepedia.

China, another country that consumes a great deal of rice, just pioneered a technique for growing it in salt water.

10 October 2017, an image of a map of China and the words 'welcoming the 19th Party Congress' created by different kinds of rice in a paddy in Shanghai. (Picture: STR/AFP/Getty Images)

But this high calorific density can be problematic for people with sedentary lifestyles (and who live in areas where Nando's are both irresistible and everywhere).

Scientists have devised a way to cook rice that reduces the calories the body absorbs by up to 60 per cent.

We imagine in this case you'll want the magician to reveal his secret:

Cook rice with a teaspoon of coconut oil in the water then refrigerate it for 12 hours, according to Sri Lankan researchers.

This method appears to make half of the calorie-rich starch in rice indigestible, so it passes through the body without becoming fat.

Scientists hope the technique will help tackle the world's obesity problems.

HT Joe

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