Monday, March 31, 2008

Brown Rice Cream Power

A friend and I were in the hospital this weekend visiting someone who is quite ill. As a result of his illness, he's having difficulties eating and he's lost a significant amount of weight. In order to give him an alternative to the "food" the hospital provides (namely Ensure and unidentifiable pureed stuff that made us both gag upon looking at it), I made some brown rice cream that we brought in for him.

Brown rice cream is rice that is cooked for a long time with significantly more water than normal, and then the cream is squeezed from the pulp through cheesecloth to leave a very nourshing and comforting result. It's beneficial for people who are having trouble swallowing, digesting, or who are very sick and weak.

Because our friend was so weak, we had to feed him spoonfuls of the brown rice cream. The change was amazing! He became more coherent in speech, more active and aware, and then slept more soundly when he fell asleep. The nurse's aid came in to take his blood pressure, and this had normalized since the previous measurements which had been too low.

It was truly remarkable to see!

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