‘Probiotic bacteria in fermented rice in rural areas’

FOR some years now, doctors have said that traditional fermented rice or pazhayasoru is your gut's best friend.

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Now, doctors at the Government Stanley Medical College Hospital have found that parboiled ration rice cooked and fermented in rural areas contain more gut-friendly probiotics than the rice prepared in urban areas.

Doctors at Stanley's Institute of Surgical Gastroenterology made the discovery as part of an ongoing study into fermented rice, which has been found to support digestion and cure inflammatory bowel disease.

Researchers said difference between gut-friendly probiotics found in rice fermented in rural and urban areas could be due to environmental factors.

Researchers had compared the parboiled ration rice with eight other rice varieties including cooked red rice and parboiled ponni rice.