Volantino

FAKE NEWS It is not easy to navigate the world of food, the web is full of news with no scientific basis or rooted popular beliefs. So, I will try to help you shed light on some of the news that is circulating: fake news has existed ever since humans learned to communicate, but science can help us resolve some doubts. “I don’t eat pasta because it makes you fat” IT’S NOT TRUE! This fake news has been circulating on the web for several years now. Pasta, as well as carbohydrates in general, is demonised because they are perceived as a food that contributes to body weight gain. But this is not the case! Scientific evidence clearly shows that pasta does not itself make you fat, if consumed in the correct quantities and frequency. THEY SAY THAT As seen before, there are many grains, of which rice is certainly the most versatile. In fact, given the varieties and hybrids, it would be better to speak of “rices”. Rice is a perfect example when it comes to aroma in food characterisation. In fact, the fragrant compounds contained in rice are responsible for its aroma: if we taste rice boiled in water, we can perceive the sweetness provided by the starch, but do not taste salt, nor umami and much less bitter or acid. If we then think of how many “aromatic” rices there are on the market (basmati, black rice, red rice, etc.), we understand how much the aroma becomes an increasingly important qualitative aspect. This is the category of rice that we eat the most. It is defined as refined because it is deprived of both layers of bran. There are many types that mainly differ by the shape of the grain and use in the kitchen. Commonly consumed white rice is part of the “non- aromatic” variety as it does not have the molecules that characterise its aroma, making it possible to combine it well with several foods and to be used in the most diverse recipes. The production of brown rice involves the removal of only one of the two layers of bran, in particular the outer layer, while the innermost layer, the pericarp, is left. This layer contains various types of pigments that give the variety its characteristic colour (brownish, red, black, etc.) and, above all, some aromatic compounds that unequivocally define its aroma. Therefore, brown rice is a lot more aromatic than white rice, as well as TASTE MOLECULES WHITE OR REFINED RICE BROWN RICE THE HAPPY UNIVERSE OF GRAINS LET’S EAT WELL 81