Are glutinous rice foods difficult to digest?

Rumor: Tangyuan/Yuanxiao are made of glutinous rice, which is difficult to digest, so you can’t eat too many Tangyuan/Yuanxiao.

The truth: In fact, glutinous rice is easier to digest, but it is indeed not advisable to eat too much.

Glutinous rice is used to make Tangyuan. Many people think that glutinous rice is sticky and difficult to digest, which is a bit of a misunderstanding of glutinous rice.

The starch structure of rice and white flour is straight-chain starch, while more than 99% of glutinous rice is amylopectin, which has more branches in its structure and is easier to gelatinize. When people digest starch, they hydrolyze it from the ends of the molecules, and amylopectin is easier to hydrolyze and digest because it has many branches.

Therefore, compared with the rice and flour we usually eat, the glycemic index of glutinous rice rises faster. The GI of rice is 82, while the GI of glutinous rice is 87. People think that glutinous rice is difficult to digest, probably because foods such as glutinous rice balls, Yuanxiao, and eight-treasure rice that use glutinous rice often add a lot of sugar and fat, giving people a "greasy" feeling.

In short, it is easier to digest warm glutinous rice balls/yuanxiao if you chew them slowly and eat them in small amounts. However, if you wait until the glutinous rice balls/yuanxiao are cold before eating them, not only will the texture become harder and more difficult to chew, but it will also increase the difficulty of digestion and may cause acid reflux and heartburn.