Are Rice Cakes Good For You

How To Properly Store Rice Cakes In The Fridge

DO RICE CAKES INCREASE BLOOD SUGARS? ARE RICE CAKES A GOOD SNACK FOR DIABETICS?

Unfortunately, we dont recommend storing rice cakes inside the fridge. And no, we dont even have exceptions to this rule.

Rice cakes are supposed to be completely dry. When they come into contact with any type of moisture, their crispy and crunchy texture softens and can even become completely soggy.

Furthermore, their flavor will dilute and even be entirely lost. This is made so much worse when you have a spice coating over your puffed rice cakes. The spice absorbs the moisture, becomes lumpy, and just gives you a gritty texture.

So, why do people often ask this question? Well, they confuse it with the dough-like Korean rice cakes. But again, these two products are completely different in structure, flavor, and ultimately, use and storage methods.

Rice Cakes: Are They Healthy Pros Cons + How To Use

By Jillian Levy, CHHC

Risks and Side Effects

If youve ever followed a low-fat diet or a fad diet that prioritized cutting calories as much as possible, then theres a good chance that rice cakes made their way into your grocery cart. But are rice cakes actually good for you?

Like many other packaged snacks, there are pros and cons of eating rice cakes. For example, theyre super convenient, usually gluten-free and they make a good substitute for higher-calorie foods like bread yet theyre also mostly devoid of nutrients and relatively high in empty carbs.

Lets take a closer look at what different types of rice cakes are made of, the benefits and drawbacks to including them in your diet, plus some healthy ways to enjoy them.

Are Corn Cakes Better Than Rice Cakes

With just 10 rice crackers offering as much carbohydrate as two small slices of grain bread, wholegrain, low GI corn cakes and crackers are a much better option nutritionally for snacks and light carbohydrate options at lunch and offer just 10g of total carbs per serve compared to 25-30g in 10 rice crackers.

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You May Lower Your Cholesterol

“If you choose whole grain brown rice cakes, you’ll be consuming whole grains, which have been proven to lower cholesterol and the risk for heart disease,” say The Nutrition Twins.

Research from theJournal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology shows that brown rice, specifically, improves bad cholesterol levels and triglycerides while raising the body’s beneficial cholesterol. It also is providing a good source of antioxidants.

“The research suggests that eating brown rice may even be a good treatment for high cholesterol,” say The Nutrition Twins.

Rice Cakes Regulate Blood Sugar

Research has found that whole grains, including brown rice, can control post-meal blood sugar levels in people with diabetes and may even help prevent type II diabetes altogether. The reason? Whole grains contain high amounts of fibre, which the body cannot break down and absorb for energy, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Therefore, these carbs don’t cause a spike in blood sugar like their refined counterparts. Plus, fibre from whole grains feeds the good bacteria in our gut, like Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, which have been linked to diabetes and obesity prevention.

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Nutrients In Rice Cakes

The nutrient content will vary depending on the type of rice cake you buy. For example, you can find rice cakes in various flavors like chocolate, white cheddar, apple cinnamon, and caramel corn. Those flavors contain additional ingredients that bump up their sugar or sodium content.

Still, in many grocery stores, you can find brown rice cakes made with whole grains and without added ingredients.

The Department of Agriculture lists the nutrients in one small, plain brown rice cake :

Magnesium: 3% DV

One of the standout nutrients in rice cakes is manganese. Manganese is a mineral that supports immune function, collagen production, and strong bones.

Rice cakes also provide small amounts of niacin, a B vitamin. Niacin helps convert food into fuel for the body to use, per the Office of Dietary Supplements. Rice cakes also have trace amounts of other minerals, including magnesium and zinc.

Because portion sizes vary, it’s essential to check the nutrition facts label for the specific brand of rice cakes you purchase. For instance, one lightly salted brown rice cake may be about 18.5 grams. And its nutrient content is similar to that of a standard slice of bread.

Finally What Do You Do If You’re Craving A Snack Half

Stick to foods that are high in protein and low in refined carbohydrates.Some ideas to try include almonds, turkey roll ups, a hard-boiled egg, plain Greek yogurt with berries, and of course veggies.

rpavich on Flickr

Think of it this way: the more you change whole foods from their natural state to something processed the more it loses its nutritional value and the quicker it gets digested in our bodies. Eating whole foods that are full of nutrients, protein, and healthy fats will keep you fuller longer and ultimately help maintain your health and wellness goals.

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How Many Syns Are Chocolate Rice Cakes

Image credit: pinimg.com

There are 4 syns in a chocolate rice cake.

How many SYNS are there? Kallo Apple and Cinnamon Rice Cakes Thins 127g 1.5 syns per cake. Kallo Belgian Milk Chocolate Mini Rice Cakes Multipack of 4 x 21g 5 syns Rice cakes may be beneficial in terms of weight loss, but they are not the best choice because of their low calorie count. If you are looking for something that contains no free food components, use a simple formula of every 20 calories is one syn. It makes no difference whether a chocolate bar has 99 calories or not because the number of syns is insignificant. The cakes are sweet and salty, with each having 1.5 syns. Each square contains one Salted Caramel Cake. 4 syns are included in a pack of 24 grams .

Kallo Rice Cake Thins are a great way to enjoy delicious rice cakes without being guilt-ridden. This product contains whole grain brown rice, sugar, fructose, milk chocolate chips , salt

Does Pooping Help You Lose Weight

Rice Cakes with Orlin MUKBANG

While you might feel lighter after pooping, youre not actually losing much weight. Whats more, when you lose weight while pooping, youre not losing the weight that really matters. To lose disease-causing body fat, you need to burn more calories than you consume. You can do this by exercising more and eating less.

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Are Rice Cakes A Healthy Option

Brown rice makes a rice cake healthier. Rice grains contain a high concentration of carbohydrates and proteins. Rice that has been refined has a higher nutrient value than rice that has not been refined because it has been stripped away during the refining process.

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Why Do I Gain Weight When I Start Exercising

Glycogen or sugar that your muscle cells convert to glucose is the energy source for your muscles. When you exercise regularly, your body stores more glycogen to fuel that exercise. Stored in water, glycogen has to bind with water as part of the process to fuel the muscle. That water adds a small amount of weight, too.

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Are Rice Cakes A Healthy Snack

26 Oct 2021

When you think of rice cakes, what do you think of?

Most people think of puffed rice cakes, used as low-calorie alternatives for bread and crackers or a low-calorie snack to keep you going between meals.

While they certainly are a low-fat snack, puffed rice cakes also offer little in the way of nutrients and are far from the only healthy rice cake option available to you

Lets dig into the details of rice cakes, including 9 ways you can enjoy them, shall we?

What Skillet To Use For Rice Cake Stir Fry

I highly recommend using a nonstick skillet for this recipe. Rice cake is quite sticky and starchy once its rehydrated, which might cause sticking to the pan. It is possible to use a cast iron or carbon steel skillet to cook this dish. In this case, you need to make sure the rice cake is properly browned before stirring them, which minimizes the sticking.

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Health Benefits Of Rice Cakes

Post author Scientific review: Dr Heben’s Team

Still in the theme of health benefits, now we will talks about health benefits of rice cakes. Rice cake is one of the traditional foods that we often encounter in traditional markets. Did you know the example of rice cake? For example: Tteokbokki , glutinous tape, layer cake, and many more. With many variations, the rice cake is divided into two main ingredients: sticky rice flour, and rice flour.

The benefits of sticky rice flour is very good because it can add energy in a very large amount. Snack of sticky rice flour, is a traditional snack commonly found in markets in Southeast Asia. Consuming snacks made from sticky rice flour it offers various health benefits by increasing the intake of minerals and vitamins essential for the body.

Can You Freeze Puffed Rice Cakes

Just like you shouldnt refrigerate puffed rice cakes, you also shouldnt freeze them. Inside the freezer, they will be exposed to a ton of ice crystals.

When they are eventually thawed, these crystals will melt away and make the rice cake soggy. Not to mention the detrimental effects it will have on the spices on these cakes!

How To Tell If Rice Cakes Have Gone Bad

As we have said before, rice cakes will usually go stale before any other signs of spoilage present themselves.

Nevertheless, nothing is impossible. And under the right circumstances, these crackers could form mold in mere hours!

So, here are all of the possible signs that your rice cakes have gone bad. These signs dont always appear in any particular order, so be on the lookout for all of them simultaneously.

Rice Cakes And Their Nutritional Value

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Rice cakes seem like a healthy alternative to breads and crackers, but are they really? Rice cakes may actually be masquerading as a “health food,” especially when you start to compare their nutritional value to that of bread. Sure a rice cake is lower in calories, but it is also less food overall. Two rice cakes are the equivalent of 18 grams of food while two slices of bread are approximately 56 grams.

Based on this information alone, in a gram for gram comparison, rice cakes actually have more calories. Rice cakes also have no fiber whereas bread has around three grams. In fact, rice cakes are really nothing more than carbohydrates which means once you eat a rice cake, it is digested and quickly converted to sugar. On the glycemic index, which ranks carbohydrates in foods by examining how they raise blood glucose levels, rice cakes come in at an astounding 82. Compare that to sugar cane which ranks at 100 and the picture starts to come into focus . To curtail that sugar spike, My Fitness Pal suggests eating your rice cake with some hummus or meat and cheese on top.

Bottom line: rice cakes aren’t necessarily the most nutritional food, but if you enjoy eating them, there’s no reason to stop but keep in mind that they’re not a “health food.”

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Nutritionally Speaking What’s Healthy About Rice Cakes

In general, rice cakes tend to be made from minimal ingredients. Unlike other processed snacks that can come with a laundry list of unrecognizable ingredients, rice cakes can be made from brown riceand nothing else. They’re also super low in calories.

“One serving generally contains 60-100 calories, so they’re great for people who like to eat something crunchy, but might normally choose a less healthy snack, like potato chips,” says Frances Largeman-Roth, RDN, nutrition and wellness expert and author of Eating in Color. Another advantage: “Rice cakes are low in sodium at about 35 to 70 milligrams per serving, which is much less than other crunchy snacks.” Sodium-free options are also widely available.

Substitutions You Might Make

The rice cake stir fry is a lot like fried rice or fried noodles, since you can use various kinds of meat and veggies in them, to adapt the dish to your current mood .

Here are some possible tweaks you might make to the recipe to make it your own:

Use mushrooms in addition to no need to marinate them. In this case, you can also use a vegetarian oyster sauce to make the dish vegan.
Use napa cabbage or any other green veggie instead of the baby bok choy
Replace the chicken with your favorite sausage
Instead of scrambling the egg, fry it sunny side up and add it at the end

What Are The Negative Effects Of Eating Rice Cakes

Rice cakes can raise your blood sugar, especially if you eat them in large portions or if they’re sweet-flavoured. It’s mostly carbs with very little protein and fibre to slow the blood sugar spike. People with diabetes should avoid rice cakes .

Combining them with protein, like meat, cheese, hummus, or nut butter, and fibre, like fruits or veggies, will help you control your blood sugar levels . However, it may not be the best option for a snack if you choose them only because they are low in calories.

What Are The Disadvantages Of Including Rice Cakes In The Diet

Winning Without Gluten: Rice Cake Combos

The disadvantages of including rice cakes in diet include

Rice is a high glycemic index grain even when it’s eaten as a whole grain , so it may spike blood sugar levels. Some brands add sugar or corn syrup to their rice cakes.
Most rice cakes do contain added salt. Individuals at risk for heart disease should reduce their intake of sodium and limit the intake of rice cakes.
They are not nutrient-dense foods and are not considered a healthy replacement. Even though their primary ingredient is whole-grain brown rice, rice cakes are low in total nutritional value.
The preparatory process makes rice cakes difficult to digest physically and chemically. Rice cakes become hard and sticky when cold and they are not easily dissolved in hot water.

If an individual wants to try rice cakes as a snack, they may top them with some peanut butter, cream cheese or another spread that contains fat and protein, so that blood glucose levels do not spike. Avoid rice cakes with added corn syrup, honey, sucrose or fructose.

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Rice cakes are a great alternative to high-calorie and high-fat snacks. Rice cakes have become a staple diet fad. They are large, round, crunchy, and bland. They promise a quick snack that can satisfy cravings without any guilt. However, they are not nutrient-dense foods and are not considered a healthy meal replacement. Although their primary ingredient is whole-grain brown rice, rice cakes are low in total nutritional value.

How To Make Rice Cakes Healthier

The nutritional value of rice cakes depends on how an individual is eating them.

Plain rice cakes may be topped with a little bit of honey, hummus, avocado, and vegetables.
Eating them with nut butter can up the nutritional intake and slow down the release of sugar in the blood.
One can eat rice cakes with toppings such as tuna and tomato rather than any type of spread or jam to stabilize the blood sugar levels and to keep the appetite in control.
Look for healthier ones made from whole grains and seeds that raise the fiber and nutrient content. Rice cakes with whole grains, seeds, and seaweed make them higher in fiber, nutrients, and taste than the traditional white cakes.

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How To Top Your Rice Cakes

Here are some healthy options to liven up a plain rice cake.

Turkey BLT. Add slices of turkey bacon, lettuce, tomato, and cheese spread on your rice cake for protein.

Cottage cheese and avocado. Top with Â¼ cup of cottage cheese and sliced avocado. Cottage cheese is a good source of protein, and avocado has good fat.

Tuna salad. Mix Â½ cup of tuna with 1 tablespoon of mayo. Add a leaf of lettuce on top for some greens.

âNut butter. A peanut butter powder mixed with water, cashew butter, and almond butter are good sources of protein.

Hummus and cucumber. Topping with 2 tablespoons of hummus and Â½ cup of sliced cucumbers is a healthy way to add flavor to your rice cake. Hummus is a good source of protein and fiber.

Greek yogurt and berries. If you prefer sweets, try Â¼ cup of plain Greek yogurt and a handful of raspberries, blueberries, or sliced strawberries. Greek yogurt is a good source of protein. You can also add a dollop of honey to make it even sweeter.