The Rice Cooker and the Renal Diet

Abstract

I LIKEMY rice cooker. It makes perfect rice every time. Rice is a great food for the kidney healthy diet, it is low in potassium and sodium, it is a good source of carbohydrate and energy, and it is versatile for meal planning. Although half of the world’s population eats rice and the US consumption of rice has increased, rice is not a staple of many typical American diets. The rice cooker had its start with the Japanese army and Mitsubishi; however, it was not until Toshiba perfected the electric rice cooker to a simple shut on shut off product in the 1950s that it gained acceptance for home use. The rice cooker is now a staple appliance in Japan and many Asian countries. Asia accounts for 90% of the rice consumed globally. The Wall Street Journal states rice cookers have recently gained popularity, as it reports rice cooker aficionados, tourists, are buying high-end models in Japan. Although rice cookers range in price, size, and technologic advances, it is the simple rice cooker with its inexpensive price tag, small size of 1 to 3 cups, and its binary function of cook and warm that is the focus of this article. The simple rice cooker consists of an electric base, the removable bowl to cook the rice, a measuring cup, a lid made of tempered glass, and often a rice paddle. See Figure 1. The enclosed measuring cup is about 6 ounces, the size of the traditional Japanese rice-measuring tool. The 3-cup rice cooker, which makes up to 6 cups of cooked rice, is widely available in stores and on online for under 20 dollars. See Table 1. An online search found 1 version of a 11⁄2 cup–sized rice cooker. Rice cookers for home use can be easily found in up to 10-cup raw or 20-cup cooked sizes. An expert rice taster considered rice cooked this way as good as those made in the expensive high-end cookers. Moon writes in Today’s Dietitian that it is the dietitians’ role to introduce new cooking methods to the client inter-