- The reason why rice
is such a phenomenally
important food is the
sheer amount of energy
that is packed into each
one of these tiny grains.
And I can actually show you how much
energy they have visually, but first
I gotta break them open.
- [Narrator] Grinding the rice tears
the tightly packed starch chains apart,
making the energy and the
carbohydrates easier to unleash.
- This stuff might not look very exciting
but it's packed full of energy.
You can convert the potential
energy that's stored
in the rice grains into
heat and light energy
just by doing this.
- [Narrator] Each puff is
around a third of an ounce.
- I could do this all day.
- [Narrator] And contains
about 35 calories of energy,
all going up in flames.
And almost all of it
comes from carbohydrates.
- Now our bodies might not do this
in the exact same way because we use
complex biochemistry to do it.
- [Narrator] And rice doesn't give up
it's energy without a fight.
But we have discovered another
way to harness its power.
- Even once fully processed,
rice is essentially
indigestible 'cause starch
really stubbornly holds on
to its energy until you do this.
(water splashes)
- [Narrator] Cooking is the game changer.
(upbeat music)
The starch in the rice is
made up of two energy giving
carbohydrate molecules,
MLOs and MLO pectin,
but their long chains are packed together,
making them mostly indigestible.
The combination of heat and water has
the power to break the
tangled chains apart.
This chemistry is going
on inside every grain,
and magnified 600 times
we can see the effect
on the cells as the boiling
water makes them swell.
Even the moment when they burst open
and the digestible carbs erupt.
