It has been suggested that the traditional rice-based Korean diet has beneficial effects on metabolic abnormalities such as obesity, hyperlipidemia, cardiovascular disease, and hyperglycemia [7] and [21]. However, the studies of these effects have focused on only rice protein, rice bran, or rice bran oil, not on cooked rice itself [8], [9], [10] and [11]. In the present study, we assessed the effect of using cooked rice as the main carbohydrate source on lipid metabolism in hamsters fed a high-fat/cholesterol diet. The metabolic effects of cooked rice are summarized in Fig. 3. We found that the consumption of cooked rice significantly reduced the atherogenic index and the triglyceride, total cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol levels in the serum. These results are similar to those obtained by Andersén et al [12], who reported that consuming a rice-rich diet reduces the levels of very low density lipoprotein triglycerides. To elucidate the mechanism underlying the hypolipidemic effect of cooked rice, we assessed the expression of hepatic genes that are involved in lipid metabolism and fatty acid β-oxidation.