DETROIT – Ozempic and weight loss drugs like it are expensive and hard to find -- leaving many people turning to social media for a natural, readily available, and inexpensive alternative -- and social media has been happy to comply.
One of the latest home-brewed weight loss mixtures is called “ricezempic.”
I don’t want to just dismiss a potential miracle cure without giving it a little thought -- but it seems every time I look -- social media has come up with some new trend that makes incredible promises. So I spent some time watching dozens of ricezempic videos to see what this was about.
To be fair, different things work for different people -- and often these trends start with a grain of actual science -- with that in mind here’s a look at ricezempic.
It’s being spread as a “rice water” hack to help lose weight -- the name ricezempic is just being used because of the weight loss goal, not from a claim that it works in any similar fashion as actual Olympic or any GLP-1 Agonist.
There are a variety of “formulas” being suggested -- but they generally involve one cup of uncooked rice, one cup of hot water and a half of a squeezed lemon or lime. The idea is that you soak the rice in the hot water long enough to release some of its starch -- roughly 5 or 10 minutes -- strain out and discard the uncooked rice and add the juice of the squeezed lemon or lime and drink the resultant starchy water.
Part of the theory behind this technique is that you may be releasing what are known as “resistant starches” -- these are starches that are not digested in the small intestine and make it all the way to the large intestines where they can feed the healthy bacteria there -- essentially a probiotic for the gut microbiome.
There is research showing that foods rich in resistant starches are associated with potential health benefits. This also explains a couple of other related social media trend cousins to rice-zempic -- they are oat-zempic and potato-zempic -- basically, a similar starchy water made from oats or potatoes.
The influencers promoting ricezempic say they drink the brew first thing in the morning -- and wait until the early afternoon to have a small meal of a healthy protein and a vegetable -- they often also incorporate some form of additional physical activity into their day.
I can’t say one way or another whether the ricezempic brew -- as it’s being called -- does anything to create weight loss -- but, I can say that being mindful about what you’re eating, waiting until later in the day -- essentially a form of intermittent fasting -- and increasing your activity level are well-accepted ways to lose weight. So I would bet it’s really more of a combination effect.
Big picture though -- unless you plan to drink this concoction every day for the rest of your life -- it’s not sustainable. So you still need to add long-term diet and lifestyle changes
As for potential harm, rice is meant to be cooked and using hot water to draw out the starch, but not cook the rice thoroughly, has the potential to release some of the bacteria or other contaminants in the rice and that has the potential to essentially cause food poisoning. Back to you.
Ricezempic is just one example of the growing trend of people searching for medical advice on social media.