What is it about black foods that is sweeping through Sacramento's health food community -- the health benefits of foods that naturally have black coloring when fresh, foods such as black beans, black rice, squid ink, and black rice bran? The key words is that the black coloring may help fight inflammation, according to studies on the phytonutrients and micronutrients in foods that naturally are colored jet black.
There are also black vinegar, black soy beans, black sesame seeds, black quinoa, black olives, nigella seeds from India, black chick peas, and black mushrooms. But black squid ink in pasta is usually only about 10 percent in many brands. You'd be better off with the fresh plant food or using black squid ink as it comes from the squid.
Ohio State University, found that black carrots slowed the growth of cancer cells by up to 80 percent, and black raspberries helped reduce the growth of esophageal and colon cancer tumors. Black garlic is fermented. You need to find a black food that actually has studies behind it showing its properties have specific validated health effects.
Check out the various black foods at Sacramento's Whole Foods Market. New studies reveal that foods containing black squid ink fight cancer and tumor cells by preventing the growth of new blood vessels which causes tumor and cancer cells to grow. See, Quiz: Are black foods better for you? - CNN.com and Is Black the New Black in Foods? « Real Life Nutrition.
In Japan, for example you can sip on black soybean tea and black vinegar drinks, which are promoted as tonics to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Europe has its restaurants that serve black foods to people who want to dine only on black foods for that day. It's referred to as "dirty dining." Nothing dirty about black foods or black raspberries. The dark colored foods have research studies that look at their nutrient properties. See, 'Food raves' are the future of eating, new report claims - Telegraph.
Sacramento's new food trend also is to eat black foods, especially squid ink pasta with black beans one day and black rice with blueberries the next. If you look at Sacramento's various natural food markets, stores are carrying more black foods such as black rice (also known as 'forbidden' rice) and squid ink pasta. See, Squid Ink Pasta: Cooking Terms: RecipeTips.com.
Basically, black foods are healthy for their anti-cancer properties and the high amount of anti-oxidant in foods that are colored black. When it comes to black beans which contain high amounts of antioxidants, the black-colored plant foods also have health benefits. It's the chemicals in the black color in black beans that also fights cancer. See, Foods That Fight Cancer - American Institute for Cancer Research Blog. Also check out the articles on black beans at the Bean Institute site. Check out, What are antiangiogenic foods? — Eat them to starve cancer.
For example black squid ink, usually sold in black pasta is supposed to stop tumors in their tracks by preventing new blood vessels from growing in tumors. See the latest studies on how squid ink stops new blood vessels from growing in cancer and tumor cells, "Angiogenesis Foundation - Squid Ink Discovered to be Antiangiogenic."
Another amazing study focuses on the health benefits of black rice bran. If you can't find black rice bran yet in the stores or online, make your own by grinding black rice into a meal. You won't get just the bran, but you will get a healthy meal or flour for making other foods such as crackers, breads, and brownies. Or check out the black rice bran sales online, for example, the site, Black Rice Bran Sale. Also see, The next big food fad is black rice bran | Smartplanet.
Black beans are supposed to have anti-oxidant properties to knock-out free radicals. And black rice, often called forbidden rice, is supposed to contain more anti-oxidants than blue berries and also due to the black coloring, help to destroy cancer and tumor cells. Check out the site, Black Foods Are the New Green | The Dr. Oz Show.
You can buy black rice in Sacramento in bulk food bins at the Whole Foods Market on Arden Way and Eastern Avenue. It's labeled as "forbidden rice." In fact, if you watched the Dr. Oz show this morning, May 5, 2011, on Dish Satellite Network channel 58 in Sacramento, you may have heard the show that featured black-colored foods such as squid ink pasta, black beans, and black rice.
Sacramento is ready for black rice. In fact, Whole Foods Market on Arden and Eastern Avenues in Sacramento sells black rice in its bulk containers under the label, "Forbidden Rice." Centuries ago in China black rice was called "forbidden rice" because only the emperor could eat it, possibly because of its health benefits and delicious taste.
You can also mix black rice with brown rice or mahogany rice. Check out the articles, Influence of Cooking on Anthocyanins in Black Rice (Oryza sativa L. japonica var. SBR) and Phenolic Profiles and Antioxidant Activity of Black Rice Bran of Different Commercially Available Varieties.
The time has come for black rice bran also to be on store shelves. It's not available yet in local stores. But keep watching. In fact the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry has a whole column of studies on black rice and its health effects. See the articles at this website using the key words in the site's search engine "black rice." Black rice may be bought online or in stores such as Sacramento's Whole Foods Market, at least as far as this week, it was in the bulk rice and grain bin aisle listed as "Forbidden Rice--black rice." And it's very affordable.
Scientists are reporting evidence that black rice — a little-known variety of the grain that is the staple food for one-third of the world population — may help soothe the inflammation involved in allergies, asthma, and other diseases. Their study appears in ACS' bi-weekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Chinese black rice could replace blueberries as the supreme superfood for a fraction of the price and deliver more health benefits announced researchers at American Chemical Society's (ACS) annual fall meeting, according to an American Chemical Society Septemeber 7, 2010 press release, "ACS in the News."
According to an October 20, 2010 study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, black rice bran may cut inflammation. See the article, "Black rice bran may help fight disease-related inflammation." See the article, "The Next Big Food Fad is Black Rice Bran."
UC Davis in the Sacramento-Davis regional area also researches rice. In the Sacramento area, UC Davis also studies the health benefits and production of rice bran oil, rice bran, and whole-grain brown rice.The University of California Cooperative and Extension (UCCE) Rice Project is an interdisciplinary collaboration that fosters research in rice production management and facilitates the exchange of information and the development and spread of promising technologies.The project studies rice production in California, especially in the Sacramento area.
You'd have to eat many times more servings of black rice to get the same nutrients from black rice bran, which is difficult to find at this time in stores. But you can buy black rice and grind it to a flour in a coffee grinder or a dry grinder (such as a Vita-Mix dry grinder) and then sprinkle the black rice flour or meal over other foods.
As the studies on black rice bran reach the stores, availability of black rice bran may change. In the meantime, keep on grinding the black rice into flour and sprinkle it on foods. If you cook black rice, you'll find it's a very sticky rice and tastes good as a fruit-sweetened rice pudding, the way some people may eat it in China, for example. Black rice also is popular in Thailand and Indonesia.
For more information on black rice, see the California Rice Commission website. You might also look for black, Japonica and mahogany Japonica short grain rice in the Sacramento area. In fact, Sacramento and the surrounding valley areas are California's main rice-growing regions.
To buy black Japonica rice online, which may be a field blend of black and mahogany Japonica rice, check out the Max Vite, website where you can order just one bag of Lundberg Black Japonica Rice or as many as you want. Or you can also see the site, Lundberg Black Japonica Rice, 16-Ounces (Pack of 12): Amazon.com . Lundberg is located in N. California in Richvale, located approximately 80 miles north of Sacramento.
Black Japonica rice grains have a thick bran layer that is black or mahogany in color. The grains are sweet, nutty and musky in flavor and chewy, with a moist,crunchy texture. Best uses for black rice are for salads, soups, stuffings, and casseroles.
Zhimin Xu, associate professor at the Department of Food Science at Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, explained in a September 1, 2010 American Chemical Society (ACS) announcement, "Just a spoonful of black rice bran contains more health promoting anthocyanin antioxidants than are found in a spoonful of blueberries, but with less sugar and more fiber and vitamin E antioxidants."
Is there a way to make it easier to find black rice bran in Sacramento? The anthocyanin antioxidants are high in black rice and black rice bran. These are substances that may help fight heart disease, cancer, and other diseases.
If black rice bran has more antioxidants than brown rice bran, why is black rice harder to find in stores, but easy to obtain online? And a search for black rice bran online, brings up few places to order it, whereas black rice is easier to find online than in some stores locally, but the black rice is some brands may be often mixed with mahogony Japonica rice.
In Albany, California, Mendel Friedman, of the US Dept. of Agriculture, and colleagues have also done previous research showing some potential health benefits of eating black rice bran. But will you get the same benefits if black rice is easier to find than black rice bran in the stores or online? Keep on searching.
Stores may get the idea and start selling it. In the meantime, if all you can find is black rice, then be sure to soak it at least an hour before you cook it. Black rice takes longer to cook than brown rice. But after it's soaked and softened, then it cooks up like any other rice.
Also see the following sites selling black rice online, "Temple of Thai.com," and Black Jasmine Rice at the Alter Eco Fair Trade site. Lotus Foods sells back rice. It has been known in historic times in China as "forbidden rice." Some sites sell black rice from Thailand. Other sites sell black rice from China or other nations. Other sites sell California-grown black rice. Check out the search engine sites under the key words, "black rice."
Bran is the outer husk of the grain. Experiments, which were done in cell cultures, hinted that black rice bran suppressed the release of histamine, which causes inflammation, according to the news release, "Black rice bran may help fight disease-related inflammation."
In the new study, scientists tested the effects of black rice bran extract on skin inflammation in laboratory mice. When they injected the extract into the mice, it reduced skin inflammation by about 32 percent compared to control animals and also decreased production of certain substances known to promote inflammation. But will black rice bran work with people in a similar way to what worked with mice?
Brown rice bran extract did not have these effects, according to researchers. When the scientists fed the mice a diet containing 10 percent black rice bran, it reduced swelling associated with allergic contact dermatitis, a common type of skin irritation. The findings "further demonstrate the potential value of black rice bran as an anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic food ingredient and possibly also as a therapeutic agent for the treatment and prevention of diseases associated with chronic inflammation," the article notes.
You can read and download the original article based on the study, "Protective Effects of Black Rice Bran against Chemically-Induced Inflammation of Mouse Skin. " The study's contact is Mendel Friedman, Ph.D. Western Regional Research CenterAgricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Albany, Calif. 94710.
If you're looking for black rice or black rice bran in Sacramento, try some of the ethnic Japanese grocers for Japonica black rice. Or buy from N. California's Lundberg company. Or buy online from Amazon.com. For more information on rice in Sacramento, see, Farmers' Rice Cooperative, P.O. Box 15223, Sacramento, CA 95851.
The Farmers' Rice Cooperative (FRC) is the largest grower-owned Rice Cooperative in California. FRC is the leader in rice milling and packaging technology in its facilities and a major supplier of premium medium grain and short grain rice for retail, food service, industrial and export. Products offered include rice flour, brewers, brown, second heads, waxy sweet, regular milled white rice, short grain, medium grain, long grain, stabilized rice bran.
Can a breakfast of brown and black rice with wild organic blueberries help to reduce certain types of hypertension? Research shows that brown rice with no added salt may help to reduce blood pressure, in some cases, especially when eaten with wild blueberries for breakfast. See the article, Blueberry Research | Antioxidant Benefits, Disease Prevention.
In the Sacramento regional area, at the University of California, Davis, a study found that blueberries may reduce the build up of so called "bad" cholesterol that contributes to cardiovascular disease and stroke, according to UC Davis scientists. Antioxidants are believed to be the active component. See the UC Davis study published in the USDA Agricultural Research Service. July 2004; Food Navigator. August 2004.
Here are some facts about high blood pressure. What causes 90% of the older population to develop high blood pressure? See the May 3, 2010 Natural News article, Eat brown rice to prevent high blood pressure, lower heart attack risk.
According to an October 20, 2010 study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, black rice bran may cut inflammation. See the article, "Black rice bran may help fight disease-related inflammation." See the article, "The Next Big Food Fad is Black Rice Bran."
UC Davis in the Sacramento-Davis regional area also researches rice. In the Sacramento area, UC Davis also studies the health benefits and production of rice bran oil, rice bran, and whole-grain brown rice.The University of California Cooperative and Extension (UCCE) Rice Project is an interdisciplinary collaboration that fosters research in rice production management and facilitates the exchange of information and the development and spread of promising technologies.The project studies rice production in California, especially in the Sacramento area.
You'd have to eat many times more servings of black rice to get the same nutrients from black rice bran, which is difficult to find at this time in stores. But you can buy black rice and grind it to a flour in a coffee grinder or a dry grinder (such as a Vita-Mix dry grinder) and then sprinkle the black rice flour or meal over other foods.
As the studies on black rice bran reach the stores, availability of black rice bran may change. In the meantime, keep on grinding the black rice into flour and sprinkle it on foods. If you cook black rice, you'll find it's a very sticky rice and tastes good as a fruit-sweetened rice pudding, the way some people may eat it in China, for example. Black rice also is popular in Thailand and Indonesia.
You can buy black rice in Sacramento in the bulk bins at the Whole Foods Market on Arden and Eastern Avenues. The black rice, a product of China, are marked "forbidden rice," which is another name for black rice. It goes back to the historical era in some areas of Asia when only the king or royalty was allowed eat the more nutritious black rice, and the rest of the population had to do with white rice.
For more information on black rice in Sacramento, see the California Rice Commission website. You might also look for black, Japonica and mahogany Japonica short grain rice in the Sacramento area. In fact, Sacramento and the surrounding valley areas are California's main rice-growing regions.
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