Dietary therapeutics of rice and Ayurveda: A bird’s eye view

Abstract

Rice is a major staple food and an ideal form of nutrition for all age groups from infants to old ages, in healthy as well as disease conditions, and during pregnancy and lactation phase of mother. Being rich in glycemic index (GI) and starch, the recent wave of dietetics is keeping caution on using rice, especially for people suffering from obesity, cancer, and diabetes. Ayurveda has described various recipes for rice along with its dietetics and therapeutic aspects. The paper presents classical review on various rice based preparations compiled from texts of Ayurveda and its nutritional importance derived on the basis of individual components from nutritional facts sheets. The classical review states that rice and its recipes have been mentioned as a therapeutic diet for the management of various disease conditions like fever, diarrhea, vomiting, insomnia, diabetes, obesity, and postpartum diseases. A total of 33 recipes, their preparation methods, processing, pharmacological actions, impact on digestion (13 recipes Guru and 8 recipes Laghu), therapeutic indications along with nutritional significance, and recent research studies have been discussed in this study. It is observed that, rice recipes are described in various combinations namely water, pulses, meat, vegetables, fruits, dry fruits, milk, sugar, ghee, curd, and millets. The preparation and processing methods impact starch content and GI. Various preparations of rice are indicated in disease conditions like piles, diarrhea, vomiting, hiccups, asthma, skin diseases, cold, diabetes, tuberculosis, bleeding disorder, edema, ascites, gouty arthritis, erysipelas, anemia, fever, and insomnia. It is also indicated for post-partum diseases and for improving lactation.