How To Use Cream Rice for Effective Bodybuilding

Cream rice has many qualities and components that make it an ideal food for the dedicated bodybuilder. If you want to be able to power through the toughest workouts, you should consider including these ingredients in your diet.

Rice

Carbohydrates are a staple of the bodybuilding diet because they’re essential to building muscle and providing the energy you need to achieve peak physical fitness.

A few hours before and after intense workouts, you should eat meals heavy in complex carbohydrates to build up your body’s stores of glycogen, extra glucose that your body stores in the muscles. 

Unlike simple carbohydrates, like sugary snacks, which are absorbed quickly and cause a subsequent “crash,” complex carbohydrates like rice, pasta, bread, and other starches take a long time to digest. As such, they will fuel you all day and help you recover later.

If your body doesn’t have enough glycogen, it will consume muscle tissue instead to get energy from amino acids. You don’t want that after all the hard work you did to build those muscles!

Rice is a very healthy choice of carbohydrates. While it doesn’t contain as many essential vitamins and minerals as richer grains, like oats or barley, it’s high in vitamin B5 and folate (vitamin B9). 

Vitamin B5 promotes the creation of red blood cells, which oxygenate the body, and play a critical role in breaking down the carbs and fats you eat for energy. Folate is also crucial to red blood cell health and cell growth as a whole.

Rice is also low in fat and high in iron, potassium, magnesium, fiber, and other essential nutrients.

Milk and Cream

Cream rice for bodybuilding often incorporates milk or cream. This addition makes cream rice higher in protein, calcium, casein, and B vitamins that enable muscle growth.

For vegan cream rice, you can substitute dairy milk for vegan alternatives, such as almond, soy, or oat milk. Each milk has its benefits that you should consider along with your flavor preferences.

Soy milk is the highest in protein, making it perfect for making a cream rice dish that’s satiating and muscle-building. Soy milk also is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, calcium, folate, potassium, and vitamin A.

Almond or macadamia milk may be the better option if you’re looking to enhance the taste of your cream rice. However, due to their high water usage, these milks are less environmentally sustainable.

Oat milk is a healthy and sustainable option that will add creaminess to the dish. Oat milk is packed with essential nutrients, such as:

• Phosphorus
• Calcium
• Riboflavin

It’s also often fortified with vitamin B12.

Coconut cream is a fantastic alternative to dairy cream, but it should be used in moderation as it has a high-fat content.

Extra Ingredients

Many variations on cream rice add other ingredients to give the dish more body or flavor. It’s common to throw an egg into the mix to thicken and enrich the cream rice.

If you don’t eat eggs, there are plenty of other ways to make cream rice nutrient-dense and delicious.

Adding chia seeds and fruit to your cream rice will give you a more well-rounded meal. The chia seeds will add additional fiber, iron, and selenium to the dish. They also contain an antioxidant called quercetin, which helps reduce your risk of heart disease. 

Berries will give you even more antioxidants, or you could go with other nutrient-dense fruits, like bananas or mangos.

If you’re looking for a way to enhance rice cream’s texture, add some roasted nuts. This addition will add a protein-packed crunch. For a hearty sweet version, add maple syrup and robust spices, such as cinnamon.

Alternatively, you could add some savory meat alternatives for an umami meal that will give you enough energy to power through any workout.

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