# Flattened Rice: A wonderful dog food ingredient



## TEZPUR1976 (Jun 29, 2014)

In India flattened rice is an important part of the cuisine, especially in the southern and eastern states. It is called "cheera" in Bengal and Assam. "Poha" in South India. Its nutritional facts are wonderful. See

Calories in Poha (Flattened Rice) Dry Poha - Calories and Nutrition Facts | MyFitnessPal.com

Rich source of calories, but with No cholesterol or sugar.

It also contains 8 percent protein and 9 percent sodium.

I have tried flat rice and boiled chicken or fish as food for my gsds, They respond wonderfully.


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## 115pounds (Aug 27, 2015)

Rice is a terrible ingredient, none of my dogs have been able to eat rice. Their short digestive tracts make it very hard to digest rice and in my dogs case he got hot spots and his coat got very rough and felt awful. Good luck.


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## MishkasMom (Aug 20, 2015)

I actually found rice wonderful when my guy had upset stomachs and even now I sometimes give him the extra white steamed rice we have as a treat. He loves it and I cant see it being bad


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## carmspack (Feb 2, 2011)

it is basically carbohydrates .
I don't see the wonderful in it from a nutritional standpoint.

maybe a yummy factor for me .

is it at least whole grain ?
do you soak it before or germinate it to get rid of phytic acid which prevent mineral absorption .

if that is the complete diet - the dog will eventually run into problems of deficiency.


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## TEZPUR1976 (Jun 29, 2014)

carmspack said:


> it is basically carbohydrates .
> I don't see the wonderful in it from a nutritional standpoint.
> 
> maybe a yummy factor for me .
> ...


Hi Carms, 

Sorry for the late reply. Ws off from the forum. Ok yes its Carb. But probably the best carb, no gluten.

My recipe:

dinner: 300 gms of flat rice soaked in boiled 200gm chicken and fish, with 15 ml Salmon oil. 10ml Cal123 P a multivitamin and calcium supplement for growing kids.

During summer

Breakfast: 300gms flat rice in 250gms yoghurt and a muti-vitamin tab (I usually use Supradyn)


Looking to hear from u. Best T


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## TEZPUR1976 (Jun 29, 2014)

115pounds said:


> Rice is a terrible ingredient, none of my dogs have been able to eat rice. Their short digestive tracts make it very hard to digest rice and in my dogs case he got hot spots and his coat got very rough and felt awful. Good luck.


 My girl too does not rice, steamed or boiled. But did you try flat rice, soaked in yoghurt or chicken stock?


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## carmspack (Feb 2, 2011)

I went to one of my favourite authentic Bombay greengrocers today to pick up some ingredients to make Kerala style biryani .
I did see bags of hand pounded "flattened rice".

for those that haven't experienced it this rice looks like large flake oatmeal meats rice crispies.

I did see bags and bags of basmati rice - including BROWN basmati rice which , as the label said has 4 times the nutrition.

Can you use brown , whole grain , basmati and soak overnight to remove the phytic acid which blocks mineral absorption.

soak . after an hour or so drain, rinse , start over.

the rice I use for myself is sprouted -- 

can you look into forbidden / black rice very very rich in antioxidants .

the rice used in kibbles is white , empty of nutrition, floor sweepings. little value.


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## TEZPUR1976 (Jun 29, 2014)

carmspack said:


> I went to one of my favourite authentic Bombay greengrocers today to pick up some ingredients to make Kerala style biryani .


Assam Tea, Kerela style biryani wow! way to go. You are a person of fine taste. I believe in Eighties biriyani in an American kitchen was probably unheard of. Its good that we are competing with Italians and Chinese in cuisine :wink2:.


carmspack said:


> for those that haven't experienced it this rice looks like large flake oatmeal meats rice crispies.


Yap! accurate description. 



carmspack said:


> I did see bags and bags of basmati rice - including BROWN basmati rice which , as the label said has 4 times the nutrition.
> 
> Can you use brown , whole grain , basmati and soak overnight to remove the phytic acid which blocks mineral absorption.
> 
> ...


We donot get to eat the best quality Basmati, as they are exported all over the world. And its a hybrid. We enjoy our local variety.

The exotic rice varieties come with a high price tag, we cannot afford eat in our day to day meals. We are family of six to eight, including our K9 members. Instead I would rather increase the ration of meat and fish for my dogs and kid as often as I can.

But very good point about removing the phytic acid. I did not know about it. Thanks


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## carmspack (Feb 2, 2011)

"We donot get to eat the best quality Basmati, as they are exported all over the world"

well that is criminal , especially when the mainstay of your diet depends on rice .
a lot of the world's food problems have little to do with supply and everything to do with distribution .

"And its a hybrid."

do you mean GMO? Monsanto has its hands everywhere . 
I think some of the health , allergy / sensitivity problems has to do with tampering - GMO

at some conference a Vet said that allergy (sensitivity) is the bread and butter of veterinary practice.

he also said there is no cessation in new customers ! It is a tsunami . 
I am sure some attending looked on this as an opportunity .

" We enjoy our local variety."

is it better?


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

Carmen, lots of questions...

How do you sprout your brown rice for human or dog consumption? Do you have to put it in a jar and do daily water rinses like you would for vegetable sprouts? 

Once sprouted, what does it do to the cooking time? I pressure cook my grains, so I would expect to need fewer minutes at pressure...

I go through lots of organic brown basmati, and occasionally I soak it 8 hours (like dried beans), but it's not _sprouted_. That would take longer. (For anyone who soaks organic rice: don't throw out the soaking water -- water your houseplants with it. They LOVE that water.) 

A physician who focuses on diet/lifestyle medicine recently convinced me to soak my wheatberries at least 8 hours before I pressure cook them, to make them more digestible. Those would be sproutable too (they're organic from my local CSA)...like the Ezekial bread, I guess.

My hunch is soaking and/or sprouting should also help pull some arsenic out. It's a big, big problem in some U.S. grown rice...even organic...as it's pulling it out of the soil.


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## carmspack (Feb 2, 2011)

the key is to use WHOLE grain rice in raw natural form --
not par boiled 
not white rice (which has had everything of value removed and is basically a "flour")

I buy most of my organic brown rice already sprouted . My source is found in Korea town of
ethnically diverse Toronto . The company that sprouts it is in British Columbia but they only 
sell wholesale quantities. I buy it in 4 pound bags.
I usually make a big pot , use what I want for that day's meals and keep out a bit to add to soup
or salads . The rest is bagged and put in the freezer.

I do sprout my own organic brown BASMATI rice .

How ?

Rinse first. Then put a quantity into a clean mason jar and cover with non chlorinated water.
Leave for a few hours . Drain. Rinse.

now this is what I found really works for me .

take a clean linen tea towel or cheese cloth which have been in water and not wrung out to dry.
place the material on a cooling rack so that you have air circulating underneath.

put the grains, rice, lentils , chick peas or even red kidney beans , onto one half of the wet material 
and fold over (cover) the grains 
you want to keep it moist so a spritzer comes in handy to give the occasional misting

next day you should have little hair growth at one end of the grain.

you are not looking for green growth - you are not creating micro greens , just sprouting or initiating growth which starts to change the enzymes in the endosperm making it more digestible and enhancing nutrient valiue , and no more
phytic acid which disables some of the mneral absorption 

the flavour is better . More nutty.

OR you can buy NOW products 
https://www.luckyvitamin.com/p-7236...XK66gRWlotwFWBh_gpZjr13eg-rCmCzu3YaAlcZ8P8HAQ 

OR Lundberg short grain or basmati (SPROUTED) rice ORGANIC SPROUTED BROWN BASMATI RICE | Lundberg Family Farms


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## TEZPUR1976 (Jun 29, 2014)

carmspack said:


> "We donot get to eat the best quality Basmati, as they are exported all over the world"
> 
> well that is criminal , especially when the mainstay of your diet depends on rice .
> a lot of the world's food problems have little to do with supply and everything to do with distribution .
> ...


I don't think any variety of Indian rice grown by villagers by native traditional cultivation methods, are GMO. Some big companies like Monsanto may be doing it, with the help of some rich farmers. We do not buy rice from supermarkets that sell packed rice from so called branded companies. Apart from their fancy price tag, as you say white rice does not have any other nutritional benefit than carbs and calories. We prefer Aijung Rice, Shanti Bhog - Aijung Rice 
or Joha Rice, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joha_rice which are native of Assam. 

White rice is different from wheat flour. Wheat contains lot of gluten, hence not good for dogs.

We eat rice with dal (a soup like preparation of lentils), different varieties of vegetable preparation, and fish/ and or meat curry for nutrition.


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## WIBackpacker (Jan 9, 2014)

This thread is very interesting, thanks for starting it Tezpur.

I'm a fan of sprouting... I started sprouting wheat seed for my chickens (wheatgrass), which led to experiments sprouting safflower seed and wild rice (actual wild rice, not cultivated). Without changing any other element of their environment or routine, the regular addition of fresh sprouts in winter caused off-season egg production go to up significantly. That's proof positive in my book.


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## carmspack (Feb 2, 2011)

bam ! and bing ! WIBackpacker 

one question about wild rice though " wild rice (actual wild rice, not cultivated)"

what is that? are you talking about the "wild rice" lwhich is long and black and harvested by
going out onto the water and whacking the seeds into the boats ?

not rice . close - but not the Asian variety --- 

this seed is a member of different grasses enjoyed by our native peoples .

If you soak it to sprout it just splits like a wiener too long on the grill.

Rice again --- 

In the 1980's , at the U of Toronto , Dr Jenkins developed a scale that everyone is familiar with --- the Glycemic Index .That measures the conversion of carbohydrates into sugars and blood sugar levels which need to be controlled in diabetic patients. 

In the 1980's dogs were fed some pretty poor kibbles. Hamsters would have thrived on it . Full of corn. 
Some of the corn was easy to identify because it was a full hard kernel that went in and came in the same way.

Roughage.

People saw the waste . Plus corn has competing interests -- used in the making of drugs, cosmetics, fuel, alchohol, 
sweeteners and feed-lot plumper upper of meat-animals and even at one time "money". 

Read Michael Pollan's the Omivore's Dilema. A surfeit of post war ammonium nitrate , bomb-making material, was spread on fields and so the chemical fertilizer industry began . Corn needs huge amounts of nutrients and can lay an already fragile topsoil to depletion.

one of my favourite U of Toronto writers and lecturers was Margaret Visser whose first book was Much Depends upon Dinner .

I was never able to look at a field the same way again. 

Every time I pass a field with a test sign on it for Pioneer or Hi-Bred corn I have to think of visionary USA Vice President Henry Wallace . Secretary of Agriculture in FDR's cabinet.
Food stamps , crop insurance, lunches in schools , health care , and improved genetics for crops - able to endure the drought of the dust bowl years.
With a nod to black history month , fellow agronomist George Washington Carver , was taken in to the home of the Wallace family.
A daring move for the time. 
Wallace learned a great deal from Carver.
Later in life he would proudly ride through segregated south with his black secretary beside him.

He believed in the common man -- his famous speech dawning the Century of the Common Man celebrating freedom and the dignity of the individual.
That speech and philosophy inspired Fanfare for the Common Man , chosen by former President Obama for his inauguration. 

Don't know it? I am sure you do -- have a listen 




I wonder what and how we would be in a different place had Wallace been President instead of Truman.

eat an egg lately, had some corn or corn by product -- then Wallace has touched your life.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

so in comes Rice . Embraced as a better and virtuous grain . Meanwhile all you were getting in kibbles was floor waste .Broken bits of white rice and flour dust.

Low nutriton. Carbohydrates.
Can we plot the tsunami wave of skin problems , YEAST and fungal problems dogs have been experiencing since the late 1980's to the trending of white rice in kibble?

I think it does. Because there is no FIBRE , the pure starch of the rice endosperm converts to sugar favouring yeast and cancer and spikes . Full circle to the opening on the glycemic index. Same would go for potatoes and sweet potatoes. 
mmm. 

they don't even use brown rice and never would have sprouted brown rice. (white rice can't aprout).

that requires an educated consumer.

brown rice isn't even marketed as a dinner table alternate , because of the perception of white and purity of food .
too much marketing going to promote a product -.

slim to no commercial availabilty so even the health food magazines don't make mention.

meanwhile --- sprouted brown rice is sold at a premium as a protein supply in supplemental food formulations , 
those people , many of them would be vegetarian or vegans would be informed - so selling easy "preaching to the choir"

Margaret Visser's book takes a look at a common food item and explores history, commerce, botany, agricultural and social issues . good read !


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## WIBackpacker (Jan 9, 2014)

carmspack said:


> bam ! and bing ! WIBackpacker
> 
> *one question about wild rice though " wild rice (actual wild rice, not cultivated)"
> 
> ...


Yep! I'm able to get it when I visit a friend who lives on the Minnesota / Canadian border (edge of Boundary Waters wilderness). They call it "wild rice" rather than the accurate botanical name, but you're right, it is a different food entirely. Buying the canoe-harvested wild type is expensive unless you have friends with harvest permits, or go get a permit and do it yourself. Most of the black "wild rice" in the store is actually cultivated (irony, anyone?). The cheaper brands and bags have misleading labels... 

*Wild Rice* (in huge letters)
For Soup (in little tiny subtext) 

Meaning that most of the individual pieces are crushed, broken or split already - soup grade. They won't sprout in a million years. Even when you buy a bag that looks whole, most of the time it's pre-roasted or not stored ideally, so it won't sprout, it'll just explode. Needs to lie dormant in cold temperatures for 90 days (give or take), it naturally wouldn't sprout until the spring after it ripened and fell the previous fall.

I'm an enduring fan of Michael Pollan, I'll have to look into Margaret Visser's book.


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## 115pounds (Aug 27, 2015)

Nope, but he sure loves and does good on potatoes. Don't get me wrong, I don't feed him potatoes, I just tried him on it to see how it worked for him. Rice all rice are hard on a dogs digestive system's because of how short they are and none bring anything good to their diets. If your dog nibbles at his feet, lose hair or show other strange signs, then get them away from rice.


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## carmspack (Feb 2, 2011)

dogs are meant to eat meat, fat , bones and some vegetation 

rice and corn and potatoes and starchy legumes are used as BINDERS 

at best they should be a necessary evil in the making of kibbles , not a large part of the nutritional
dietary needs.

even so I can think of better binders.


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