I said it before, some time back, and it's still true: Too many starches in the system make me cranky, and pasta and rice are the worst offenders. I discovered today that the rice being brown makes zero difference.
Rice is permitted on the Daniel Fast if it is brown. The distinction is important. A grain of brown rice is a grain of whole, intact rice, with all the parts God gave it when He created it, except for the outermost layer, called the hull. White rice, by comparison, is the starch capsule that's left when all the layers under the hull are removed. This is done by polishing the rice until it is white. Once the rice has been polished white, the remaining starch capsule is enriched with a few vitamins to save it from being nothing more than just another source of empty calories. However, the resulting product is still a very poor source of nutrients and fiber compared to how it would have been in its unpolished state with only the hull missing. Pair brown rice—or any other whole grain—with a legume, and you've got a "complete" protein.
But brown rice, as nutritionally dense as it is, is still rice. And when I finally bought some today, cooked some, and ate maybe a 1/3 cup amount over the course of an hour, I became a little irritated. I actually needed to listen to some music to distract myself. Since no one had done anything to me, and nothing upsetting had happened, I finally figured out, after a few minutes of listening to the calming music selection I'd chosen, that I was reacting to the rice. The good news was that I was able, within maybe a half hour of becoming symptomatic, to ingest a large salad composed of mixed lettuce greens, tomato chunks, cucumber slices, and sunflower nuts and dressed with apple cider vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper, followed by a sweet, crunchy, Red Delicious apple. This mitigated the effects of the crankiness and I mellowed out quite nice.y. Also, before eating the rice, I'd had a light lunch of baby carrots and sliced cucumber with black bean hummus and red pepper hummus. Breakfast, since I'm telling you everything else I ate today, was a bowl of pinto beans, and I just ate a bowl of pintos mixed with the brown rice. I'm going to bed shortly, and since not only do I take melatonin nightly, but I also am due to apply a fresh patch of a transdermally applied medicine that makes me sleepy, I do not anticipate that I will be unduly bothered by any recurring crankiness from eating more of the rice.
In fact, I'm beginning to be tired enough that concentration is a bit of a problem just now, so I think I'll just stop right here and call it a night.
I will say, before I go, that while I was shopping for the rice, I came upon the little section reserved for gluten-free store offerings, and I found some pasta made from brown rice: Lasagna, rigatoni, rotelli, fettuccine, spaghetti, a good selection. There was also some made from corn and quinoa, and I kid you not, those were the only two ingredients listed. I'd like to try that! I also found some selections of grains and flours from the Red Mill Company. I even saw some soups from Amy's Kitchen, and at a lower price than at Whole foods! Someone's getting the message, at least a little bit, about what some of us want to eat. I like that. it makes it possibly easier for me to become a pescetarian after I've completed this fast. I just wish I'd eaten that summer sausage roll first :-)!
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