Is brown rice healthier than white rice?
Eating healthy, these days, top the list of all and sundry. A simple
statement that is doing around - brown rice is good, clean and healthy for the
body while white rice is bad and unhealthy.
Brown
rise has a different texture and taste, with a more chewy and nuttier flavour
compared to their counterpart, white rice. However brown rice is not popular
across the globe because it needs more time and fuel to cook making them
unaffordable for a major population of the world that is poor and depends on
rice for daily
energy consumption.
Contrary
to it, the bran in the brown rice might trigger digestive issues. In addition,
the oil in the bran layer turns into rancid at the time of storage even at moderate
temperatures. Here are some myths about white rice and brown rice in detail:
Brown
rice contains low Glycaemic Index than white rice!
As
per the most people, foods containing high GI are not good for health as they
raise the blood sugar levels. The main problem related to the GI concept is
that when you add fats, fibre and proteins to a portion of food, the Glycaemic
Index value of the individual food is not taken into consideration.
It
is often we add legumes, pulses and vegetables to it along with salads that
normalises the blood
sugar response and thus the concept of GI is not used, however, instead we
calculate the Glycaemic Load on the entire meal.
Brown
rice does not contain more protein and fibre than white rice
If
we compare a ¼ dry serving
of white and brown rice, there is no noticeable difference. The problem is
that most buyers either do not understand what the label actually mean or never
read labels and cry foul over small differences.
In
this case, there is merely any difference in the carbs content. The fibre
content that a lot of brown rice proponents flaunt about, is only 1-3gm and so
is the case with protein that differs by only 1-2 gm. Contrary to it, the fat percentage
present in brown rice is slightly more because of oil in the bran layer from
which the rice bran oil is extracted. That is why a cup of long grain brown
rice has high calories compared to the same quantity of long grain wild rice
and white rice.
Brown
rice has more micronutrients?
Well,
No!!! Brown rice has its germ as well as bran intact thus the micronutrient
content is slightly higher than white rice. Is that a happy
news for the proponents of white rice?
Not really.
First
things first, the difference in brown and white rice is not much in terms of
micronutrients and addition of a basic multivitamin would give many times the
micronutrients that are found in brown rice.
Contrary
to it, a fact that most are not aware of is that brown rice contains a
substance known as Phytate, an anti-nutrient which minimizes the ability of the
body needed to absorb the beneficial nutrients.
To
conclude
To
sum up, brown rice is not healthier than white rice. However, what matters the
most is the total amount of rice you consume. Too much of black, red, brown or white rice, too
much of carbohydrates is not good either.
Little knowledge is a dangerous thing. And, if
you are not aware of things then stop making assumptions. There are many
athlete, including champions in several sports, for whom rice makes for a major
source of energy. And of course, they win.
