Brown rice vs. White rice. Fried vs. Steamed

frmrdtr

Ok, so we all know that brown rice is better for you than white rice, and steamed rice is better than fried rice. So which is better for you- steamed white or fried brown? :ohwell: I notice at the local chinese restaurants, that's the only option (Why can't they have steamed brown rice?).

But anyway, what is everyone's opinion on fried brown vs. steamed white?

JanSmelly

Fried rice isn't generally made with brown rice.

beccadaniixox

Fried rice isn't generally made with brown rice.

This!
It browns when it's fried (lots of soy sauce is normally used in it).

Also, some Chinese restaurants now offer brown rice, but you may have to ask.

tbodega

I don't believe that I've ever seen fried brown rice even at a chinese kitchen.

tigersword

Ok, so we all know that brown rice is better for you than white rice, and steamed rice is better than fried rice. So which is better for you- steamed white or fried brown? :ohwell: I notice at the local chinese restaurants, that's the only option (Why can't they have steamed brown rice?).

But anyway, what is everyone's opinion on fried brown vs. steamed white?

Brown rice isn't actually better than white rice. A bit more fiber, but less nutrients due to the phytonutrients. I'll get fiber from veggies, and stick to white rice.

dvisser1

While I agree with all the comments as far as having never seen fried brown rice on a chinese restaurant menu and the soy sauce being the primary culprit for turning any fried rice brown, the healthy option would be the steamed white rice if that is indeed the only other option.

Obviously steamed brown rice would be the best, and since they have to steam cook the rice before frying it, it's worth asking and perhaps paying a slight extra charge (I've seen chinese and teriyaki places offer steamed brown rice for ~$1 more). Fried rice (either white or brown) is going to have a fair bit of oil and soy sauce added during the wok frying, to keep it from sticking to the wok and for flavor. Lots of extra calories and sodium there.

geezer99

Fried rice starts with cooked rice (steamed) so the issue with fried rice is what is added in the frying. If it is just vegetables and little oil is used, the calorie count is much like steamed rice. Lots of oil and a fatty meat like pork can up the count by quite a bit.

We make a lot of fried rice using left-overs, only a bit of oil to brown some onions, garlic and ginger. If working from raw vegetables rather than left-overs pre-cook them in a microwave so frying is not needed. Actually, if you watch Chinese chefs, you will see they have a second wok full of boiling water (perhaps with a little broth.) The vegetables get cooked there first and then added to the fried rice or stir fry very near the end of cooking.

tehzephyrsong

I prefer white rice. Brown tastes like cardboard and has the texture of undercooked white rice. Brown rice, in fact, is just white rice with the skin on, basically, and it's just got a little more fiber in it, is all.

Steamed is always better than fried, and this guideline applies to the rest of the buffet as well. Also, despite being brown in color, the fried rice you see at Chinese buffets /is/ white rice. It's just been stir-fried in oil and covered in soy sauce. Reach for the steamed white rice and pile your plate high with steamed veggies and grilled meats. Just be aware of things with sauces; those are likely to be crazy-high in sugar and/or salt, and therefore calories.

frmrdtr

Huh. Well, thanks for that information! I had no idea soy sauce was added....well, I will now be having steamed when I frequent a chinese restaurant. Thanks again!

iloso

Im also curious of this....considering I will be eating 3/4 of a cup of shrimp fried rice.

KarmaxKitty

I have NEVER seen brown rice fried... That CAN'T taste good... :sick:

RobynMWilson

I'd get the fried brown b/c white rice and my IBS DO NOT get along but I do great with brown rice.

icculus19

actually black rice or "forbiden rice" is the best. you can find this rice at trader joes or whole foods

Smallsteps3000

Brown rice is full of essential and full carbs that we need in our system while white rice is halved and softer. While brown rice is harder and full of nutrients
Fried rice is horrible lol
Brown fried rice sounds ridiculous lol

Snail313

Steamed is better than fried anything most of the time. I had beef and broccali today with white rice, it was sooo good too, lol.

CassieReannan

I eat brown rice and simmer it in water for about an hour.. I use it in fried rices too. Its not too bad. I rarely eat white rice.

Hezzietiger1

Love some fried rice LOL

EDesq

Well, you can't make fried rice w/o steaming it first...fried rice is a redundancy or at best a misnomer, like refried beans. Save some calories and put the stuff in the steamed rice. Personally, I have started doing a 50/50 mix...tastes much better! (Got the idea from a cooking show I was watching).

ReinasWrath

How come brown rice is better than white? White tastes better :sad:

HisPathDaily

Stick to the steamed white ... it's the soy sauce that is the killer ... I'm not the sodium police (just in case you were wondering and about to do a background check) but that stuff is crazy high ...

OR ... skip the rice. I do

amyeglann

It's funny that this topic is here, because just a couple of days ago i made shrimp fried rice with leftover brown rice - and everybody loved it! i added a small amount of reduced fat peanut butter, green onion, garlic powder and plenty of soy sauce. it was really good.

shorty35565

I have NEVER seen brown rice fried... That CAN'T taste good... :sick:

I fry my own brown rice & it's delish

Ayla70

While we are on the subject of rice....this has been bothering me for a couple of weeks and would really love some opinions/advice?

MFP logs:
1 cup of long grain white rice as 205 calories
1 cup of long grain brown rice as 216 calories
1 cup of medium grain brown rice as 218 calories.

My packet of medium grain brown rice sitting right here in front of me, says that HALF a cup has 352 calories in it??????

That is a MASSIVE difference.

Can anyone explain what this is about? They are weighing raw rice, not cooked.

HisPathDaily

Your package is probably saying raw/uncooked ... it's usually (depending on how you cook it) about 3x once cooked ... so using my fuzzy math, once cooked, that would yield 1 1/2 cups ... pretty close

While we are on the subject of rice....this has been bothering me for a couple of weeks and would really love some opinions/advice?

MFP logs:
1 cup of long grain white rice as 205 calories
1 cup of long grain brown rice as 216 calories
1 cup of medium grain brown rice as 218 calories.

My packet of medium grain brown rice sitting right here in front of me, says that HALF a cup has 352 calories in it??????

That is a MASSIVE difference.

Can anyone explain what this is about? They are weighing raw rice, not cooked.

Ayla70

While we are on the subject of rice....this has been bothering me for a couple of weeks and would really love some opinions/advice?

MFP logs:
1 cup of long grain white rice as 205 calories
1 cup of long grain brown rice as 216 calories
1 cup of medium grain brown rice as 218 calories.

My packet of medium grain brown rice sitting right here in front of me, says that HALF a cup has 352 calories in it??????

That is a MASSIVE difference.

Can anyone explain what this is about? They are weighing raw rice, not cooked.

Oh, and just for the record, the packet of WHITE long grain rice I have sitting here in front of me says 1 cup has 151 calories in it.

No wonder some of us don't lose weight on certain days. We are probably consuming a LOT more calories in that day than we think, based on trusting the system/database here.

Ayla70

Your package is probably saying raw/uncooked ... it's usually (depending on how you cook it) about 3x once cooked ... so using my fuzzy math, once cooked, that would yield 1 1/2 cups ... pretty close

While we are on the subject of rice....this has been bothering me for a couple of weeks and would really love some opinions/advice?

MFP logs:
1 cup of long grain white rice as 205 calories
1 cup of long grain brown rice as 216 calories
1 cup of medium grain brown rice as 218 calories.

My packet of medium grain brown rice sitting right here in front of me, says that HALF a cup has 352 calories in it??????

That is a MASSIVE difference.

Can anyone explain what this is about? They are weighing raw rice, not cooked.

So are you saying that the 1 cup on the database here is cooked weight, not raw weight?

HisPathDaily

That would be my guess, yes.

I found often the pastas/rices are logged on here as cooked ... I weigh/measure everything raw. Sometimes if I'm looking for something specific I'll use words like raw or uncooked in my search (if that's what I'm trying to find) ... there is uncooked rice logged in here too.

But to your second point, yes, make sure you're logging accurate numbers ... the DB is actually quite good, but there is some odd things logged in there ... or rice that isn't logged as "cooked" or "uncooked" and you have to guess ... most of it is pretty solid.

Your package is probably saying raw/uncooked ... it's usually (depending on how you cook it) about 3x once cooked ... so using my fuzzy math, once cooked, that would yield 1 1/2 cups ... pretty close

While we are on the subject of rice....this has been bothering me for a couple of weeks and would really love some opinions/advice?

MFP logs:
1 cup of long grain white rice as 205 calories
1 cup of long grain brown rice as 216 calories
1 cup of medium grain brown rice as 218 calories.

My packet of medium grain brown rice sitting right here in front of me, says that HALF a cup has 352 calories in it??????

That is a MASSIVE difference.

Can anyone explain what this is about? They are weighing raw rice, not cooked.

So are you saying that the 1 cup on the database here is cooked weight, not raw weight?

Ayla70

That would be my guess, yes.

I found often the pastas/rices are logged on here as cooked ... I weigh/measure everything raw. Sometimes if I'm looking for something specific I'll use words like raw or uncooked in my search (if that's what I'm trying to find) ... there is uncooked rice logged in here too.

But to your second point, yes, make sure you're logging accurate numbers ... the DB is actually quite good, but there is some odd things logged in there ... or rice that isn't logged as "cooked" or "uncooked" and you have to guess ... most of it is pretty solid.

Your package is probably saying raw/uncooked ... it's usually (depending on how you cook it) about 3x once cooked ... so using my fuzzy math, once cooked, that would yield 1 1/2 cups ... pretty close

While we are on the subject of rice....this has been bothering me for a couple of weeks and would really love some opinions/advice?

MFP logs:
1 cup of long grain white rice as 205 calories
1 cup of long grain brown rice as 216 calories
1 cup of medium grain brown rice as 218 calories.

My packet of medium grain brown rice sitting right here in front of me, says that HALF a cup has 352 calories in it??????

That is a MASSIVE difference.

Can anyone explain what this is about? They are weighing raw rice, not cooked.

So are you saying that the 1 cup on the database here is cooked weight, not raw weight?

OMG you are so right...I've just tried it all again, and even though I was searching for 'raw', the data that came up is definitely cooked! Who weighs cooked rice? I weigh everything raw, and then log everything I do to it. For example if I'm having roast veges like last night, nothing on my diary would suggest that, you'd have to figure it out by the log of veges, then the spray oil. Simply because I trust nothing where doing this right is concerned. Had I eaten rice the night I was going to based on the database here (which I agree, is amazing!), I'd have gone so far over my calories for the day it wouldn't be funny.

I guess the lesson is you just have to be so careful, you can't get complacent.

frmrdtr

I just read the box my brown rice comes in, instead of trying to find it in the database. I've found sometimes the database is way off and I need to make sure it matches what the box says. The box says 2/3 cup cooked is only 150 calories.

I love brown rice! Sometimes I dabble a little Molly McButter on to for a little zip...

Thanks for all the info on brown vs. white!

mustgetmuscles1

Mmm rice.

Pebble321

That would be my guess, yes.

I found often the pastas/rices are logged on here as cooked ... I weigh/measure everything raw. Sometimes if I'm looking for something specific I'll use words like raw or uncooked in my search (if that's what I'm trying to find) ... there is uncooked rice logged in here too.

But to your second point, yes, make sure you're logging accurate numbers ... the DB is actually quite good, but there is some odd things logged in there ... or rice that isn't logged as "cooked" or "uncooked" and you have to guess ... most of it is pretty solid.

Your package is probably saying raw/uncooked ... it's usually (depending on how you cook it) about 3x once cooked ... so using my fuzzy math, once cooked, that would yield 1 1/2 cups ... pretty close

While we are on the subject of rice....this has been bothering me for a couple of weeks and would really love some opinions/advice?

MFP logs:
1 cup of long grain white rice as 205 calories
1 cup of long grain brown rice as 216 calories
1 cup of medium grain brown rice as 218 calories.

My packet of medium grain brown rice sitting right here in front of me, says that HALF a cup has 352 calories in it??????

That is a MASSIVE difference.

Can anyone explain what this is about? They are weighing raw rice, not cooked.

So are you saying that the 1 cup on the database here is cooked weight, not raw weight?

OMG you are so right...I've just tried it all again, and even though I was searching for 'raw', the data that came up is definitely cooked! Who weighs cooked rice? I weigh everything raw, and then log everything I do to it. For example if I'm having roast veges like last night, nothing on my diary would suggest that, you'd have to figure it out by the log of veges, then the spray oil. Simply because I trust nothing where doing this right is concerned. Had I eaten rice the night I was going to based on the database here (which I agree, is amazing!), I'd have gone so far over my calories for the day it wouldn't be funny.

I guess the lesson is you just have to be so careful, you can't get complacent.

Who weighs cooked rice? Me!
Actually I usually use a cup measure, though sometimes I'll weigh it.

I don't see the point in weighing it raw, because I'm always going to cook more than a single serving size so then I'd still have to portion it out after it's cooked anyway. But hey, if it works for you - go for it!

The key to the MFP database is to remember that most of the data is user entered, so there is no standardisation about entering things like dry vs cooked rice. The way around it is to search on the one you want - "rice dry" or "rice cooked" for example. Otherwise, there is just no way to know what the person who entered it intended. I also usually look for entries with no * in front as these have been entered my MFP and are much more likely to be accurate and to have a range of measurements (cups, gram etc).