Like many people, I grew up thinking that rice in general is a really healthy food. When I was much younger all I'd ever eaten was what we call white rice. It wasn't until my teen years that I was introduced to brown rice at all. Well into my twenties though I went on thinking that these were two separate types of food. Since all I'd ever heard about rice was that it was super healthy, I never stopped to question it.
Several years ago, when I first began my heavy interest in nutrition, I was pretty shocked to find out that what I had thought the whole time about rice was actually very wrong. Now I want to make sure that you weren't making the same mistake as I was.
So what's the difference between brown and white rice? Quite a bit really.
The fact is, there is no brown or white rice plant. There is only the rice plant (yes there are many types of rice grown but its not relevant here).
After the rice plant is harvested the seed is placed in a husker which removes the outer grain husks. What you're left with is what we refer to as brown rice. Its loaded with nutrients and fiber and its ready to be cooked and eaten.
White rice requires a few more steps though. These include removing the germ and the inner husk. Unfortunately, its in these two parts that the plant hold almost all of its fiber and nutrients. They then have to polish it in talc or glucose and then in some parts of the world, in order to sell it, it must be enriched. This is a process where they attempt to add back some of the vitamins and minerals that they remove through processing.
So what do you lose through this process of making enriched white rice out of health brown rice?
Well to start, about 3/4 of the dietary fiber is lost. Here's what else... Polished, enriched plain white rice has far less Vitamin E, Thiamine, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folic acid, Potassium, Magnesium, Iron, etc, etc, etc than brown rice offers you.
This is basically exactly the difference between wheat flour and white flour or white bread and whole wheat.
Before I go though I do want to say one more thing. Many of you know that I'm not a huge fan of grains myself. I'd rather people eat healthy meats and organic vegetables to get their nutrition but if you must eat grains like rice, make sure you at least make the healthier choice and get the whole grain. Everything else is just empty calories and carbs that do nothing but damage your body, spike your insulin, and make you fat.
Until next time,
Kris
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