Awareness on the Rice (3)

Altho' Brown Rice is the foundation of

a healthy diet (I couldn't emphasize more),
there are several pitfalls that one needs to look out for:

Pitfall 1:
Not soaking brown rice before cooking:
-- it's not a fatal mistake, but without soaking,
brown rice may be difficult to digest for those
with weak stomach.
-- This is because, brown rice, like any seed on Earth
contains enzyme inhibitor (mild toxin born with all seeds
to protect themselves from being eaten up, and also to preserve
the nutrients in the endosperm for as long as 500 years!)
-- soaking will help release "locked up" nutrients in the seeds
(in scientific term, increase bioavailabiity of the nutrients),
hence soaked brown rice can be 2-3x more nutritious than non-soaked ones.


Pitfall 2:
Not chewing thoroughly.
-- brown rice is generally more complex in structure than white rice,
hence thorough chewing thoroughly will ensure maximal digestion,
and nutrients intake.
-- If one is too busy to chew, try brown rice porridge,
brown rice powder as breakfast cereal or even delicious brown rice milk.
(learn how to make tasty brown rice milk at Kampung Senang Eco-Kitchen)


Pitfall 3:
Not taking Organic brown rice:
-- Very few people realise, rice is one of the most toxic crops on Earth..
-- Because rice is the main staple for bulk of the population on Earth,
people can/will do anything desperately to preserve and  protect the yield of rice.
This means that fungicides and pesticides etc are heavily used.
-- Organic rice may be a bit more expensive,
but it is much healthier and is worth the investment.

Hope the info on brown rice so far,
will bring good health to more people :)

Well regards,
Kee Yew

Awareness-on-the-Rice
{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Awareness on the Rice (2)

While many people understand

the healthfulness of brown rice,
and would like to adopt brown rice in their routine diet;
some may be troubled/confused with technical issues
such as the accessibility of brown rice, the method of cooking,
and the type of brown rice to consume.

Here are some FAQs that I come across very often in
my vegetarian classes:

I) I don't see brown rice around my work place, what should I do?
3 suggestions:
a. Buy brown rice powder from supermarket and
stir into plant milk as breakfast cereal/afternoon tea.
b. Cook brown rice porridge the night before using thermal cooker
and bring to work.
c. Take whole wheat noodle or wholemeal bread for lunch
as replacement.

II) My family members complain about the taste/texture of brown rice, what can I do?
3 suggestions:
a. Learn to cook brown rice the proper manner.
Use 1.5~2 cups of water for every 1 cup of brown rice.
b. Try Golden Brown Rice Recipe in "Simple Vegetarian" cookbook :P
c. Cook brown rice as porridge, it is usually more acceptable for newbies.

III) Which type of brown rice is better? Long grain, short grain, red, black or brown?
Different types of brown rice have different nutritional profiles.
Do not be selective/discriminative about the shape and colour they come in;
as we need all the nutrients from all types of rice.
So, rotate among different types from time to time :)

IV) Brown rice is 'heaty' to me, what do I do?
3 suggestions:
1. get into habit of drinking 12 cups of water daily
2. drink 2 cups of fresh juice daily
3. do more exercise to circulate the 'chi' in our body evenly

V) Do I throw away the water after soaking my brown rice?
YES, after soaking brown rice for 4~8hours,
the soaking water now contains metabolic waste
released from the awakened brown rice.
The water is acidic, hence it should be thrown away
or used for watering plants ;)


With metta,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

Awareness-on-the-Rice{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Awareness on the Rice (1)

It's has been very encouraging to see

that brown rice is getting more and more common at vegetarain outlets
and more people are switching from white rice to brown rice.

I was teaching a cooking class
at Buddhist Life Mission Assoc a few days ago.
A quick survey among the ~40 students,
revealed that brown rice was acceptable in 90% of the crowd.

It's not significant statistics with such a small pool size of 40 people,
but it's definitely a good indicator.
Multiple years back, when I talked about brown rice,
many of my students outright complained about
its taste, difficulty to cook, the price, accessibility etc..

Consistently in the past 7 years,
I make effort to emphasize the importance of
brown rice in our diet;
raising the awareness
that brown rice is a critical switch into a healthy diet.

Often, I tell people that
brown rice is the solid foundation of
a nutritionally balanced vegetarian diet,
because:

i) brown rice is 10x more nutritious than
polished white rice
(potentially 20-30x more nutritious
if soaked before cooking)

ii) on top of complex carbohydrates, essential fats,
phytonutrients, vitamins etc,
brown rice also contains a lot of minerals
which supply us with vital life force

iii) brown rice provides stable energy
in a sustainable manner over longer period of time
(due to low GI)

iv) brown rice is high in fibre which cleanses
our gastro-intestinal tract

v) brown rice is rich in VitB which
helps in making blood and
maintaining a good nervous system

vi) brown rice balances the Yin elements from
some veggies and fruits.

vii) brown rice is loaded with IP6, a kind of
plant-specific nutrients that is highly potent in
battling cancer and mitigating diabetic condition.

...

There are a lot more reasons to go brown rice,
but talking alone does not change our lives,
so, start taking brown rice today! =)



With metta,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

Awareness-on-the-Rice


aotr.
{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Putting Vegetarian Theories into Practice

As I have been teaching vegetarian classes
for quite a few years now,
I noticed that large number of people
seldom put the theories that they have learnt in lectures
into real life.
 
For example,
a typical advice of refraining from fried foods
often remains an advice and
people usually will just go ahead having fried stuff
whenever they feel like it.
-- not that they do not know how bad fried foods are,
but knowing and putting the knowledge into practice
can be very different.

In 2009, when invited by Cixin
to teach at Awareness Place Wellbeing Centre,
I wanted a break through.
I wished that my students
would deeply impart the knowledge into their lives
and practically get benefited.

Then, I designed a 9-lesson Vegetarian Wellness Course
that comprehensively delivered the A-Z of healthy vegetarian diet,
cooking skills, detoxification, organic tour and the philosophies of vegetarianism.

To ensure that the theories were put into real life practice,
I assigned 3 group-projects to the students.

In these 3 projects, students were tasked
to do literature reviews on 3 separate topics:
Healthy Oil, Healthy Diet and Healthy Water.

At the end of the projects,
other than writing up on their findings,
students also had to survey and rank
different brands of edible oils, brown rice sets or water filter systems
that are available in the market.
That was to ensure the in-depth appreciation of the theories learnt in class
and to translate theories into practical benefits for themselves and broad public.

When they submitted their reports eventually,
I was very impressed and touched.

The reports revealed that
the students truly had very good understanding of the topics
and did reaped a lot of practical benefits from the exercise.
(I myself learnt so much from the reports too!)

I can't help praising my VWC students for their admirable effort.
Now, you can see for yourself the amazing work they have done
as their enriching reports are now available online =)
Check them out!


Well regards,
Kee Yew

p/s: The survey portion of the reports may not be comprehensive and professional (due to many limitations), but do focus on the principles they based on to assess the different brands :)




{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Reviewing past content @ Learning Holistic Wellness (May 2009 - Mar 2011)

It's has almost been two years
since I first started to do blogging.
And before I realise,
there have already been almost 200 posts.

Hence, I thought it would be useful to
consolidate some special blog postings that
are worth re-visiting.
This content page will also provide convenience
for readers to access to some important wellness information :)

Happy reading!


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Vegetarian Wellness:

Appreciating the intrinsic ingredient of life -- Water
Awareness on the Rice
The Fats of Life
The Healing Power of Juices
The critical veg issue of Vitamin B12



Organic Living:

When is organic food truly organic?
How to kick start with Organic Living




Biogenic Living:

Raw Food with the OMMH!
Super Whole Food: Raw Sprouted Beans
The true life force behind Biogenic Cuisine
Life Force Recipes - Explanatory Notes



Holistic Science:

Stories Untold Behind Cancer
The humble truth of genes



Holistic support:

Vegehub.Org: A new landmark for vegetarian landscape
Enhanced Search Engine for Organic Living!
Putting Vegetarian Theories into Practice (Comparative listing of good water systems, edible oils and veg outlets)
The stories behind Simple Vegetarian



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Should there be any questions about the topics discussed above,
please do email pureland2012-at-gmail.com :-)



********************************************


You may also subscribe to Learning Holistic Wellness by Email,
if you would like timely notice of future blog posting.






Well regards,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}