Rice allows one to work out nearly 50 percent longer than bread and is more effective in reducing cholesterol, a new study suggested.

The Korea Food Research Institute unveiled the result of its recent research on the health effects of Koreans’ staple food in a public forum on Wednesday.

In a test on university students, researchers measured how long they can perform exercise after eating rice or bread.

The duration of time averaged 456 seconds (with an error margin of 58.3 seconds) for rice, compared with 311 seconds (with an error margin of 41.9 seconds) for bread.

The researchers also probed how rice and bread affect the level of blood cholesterol in hamsters with hyperlipidemia.

After eight weeks, those fed with rice showed lower levels of fat and cholesterol, researchers said.

In the group, accumulation of fat reduced and excretion of bile acid increased, the research showed.

“We observed that rice reduces the manifestation of fat-composing DNA and increases the manifestation of lipid metabolism DNA and decomposing DNA,” the Korea Food Research Institute said.

By Yun Suh-young (syun@heraldcorp.com)
Edited by Rob York