Scientists, who have found a new way of cooking rice that can help to cut calories, are now hoping that the process will work on a number of different foods.  According to reports, a student at the College of Chemical Sciences in Sri Lanka and his mentor have found a new way to cook rice that could reduce its calories by up to 50 per cent. It has been stated that the new method may even offer other added health benefits with just a few quick and easy-to-use steps. “What we did is cook the rice as you normally do,” explained Sudhair James. “But when the water is boiling, before adding the raw rice, we added coconut oil – about three per cent of the weight of the rice you’re going to cook." “After it was ready, we let it cool in the refrigerator for about 12 hours. That’s it.” The whole idea is based on basic food chemistry and how starches in food can be changed by making changes to the way that they are prepared. By testing eight different recipes on 38 different kinds of rice, it was found that by adding a lipid such as coconut oil before cooking the rice and then following this with cooling the rice immediately when it was finished cooking they had changed its make-up for the better. “The oil interacts with the starch in rice and changes its architecture,” James continued. “Chilling the rice then helps foster the conversion of starches. The result is a healthier serving, even when you heat it back up. “It’s about more than rice,” said Dr. Pushparajah Thavarajah. “I mean, can we do the same thing for bread? That’s the real question here.”