What's so special about brown rice?

neanderthin

I'm from a long line of diabetics. So my doctor many moons ago sent me off to a nutritionist and I asked her this same question. She told me, that in calorie content there is no difference. The difference comes in the ease of access to those calories. The carbs (sugars) in white rice are readily available. The white rice is easier for your body to breakdown, causing a spike in blood sugar. Your body has to work at getting to the carbs of the brown rice. The brown rice takes longer to breakdown causing the sugars to enter the blood stream more slowly.

If you want to get super anal about calorie consumption, the brown rice ends up being less calories overall because your body expended more calories to get at it. But the big benefit is to avoid spiking your blood sugar.

In the context that the rice is the only thing consumed. Dosage is more about glycemic load and in that respect has much more meaning.....unfortunately it's not taken as seriously as GI.

Amazon_Who

FYI: Remember the big rice story of 2012? Arsenic in rice, in fact brown rice had higher levels. Probably not a big deal but you can reduce the risk.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-10-03/features/ct-food-1003-rice-arsenic-cooking-tips-20121003_1_inorganic-arsenic-rice-consumption-brown-rice

MoreBean13

Technically that is not true. There is a big difference between simple carbs like white bread and complex carbs like vegetables. I think one of the big nutritional misconceptions is that only starchy foods contain carbs, only meats have proteins, or only animal product contain fat. The truth is these things are the building blocks of life and are found in all living things in various forms, and it really does come down to form. While the macronutrients in two things could be the same the way your body can use then will be different depending on the shape of the molecule. Digestion occurs at a molecular level, so it's all about the molecular biology.

Actually one of the biggest misconceptions is that white flour is simple, you are applying the classification system incorrectly. Simple = sugars complex = starches, regardless if they are whole or refined, fast or slow digested/ absorbed. Not sure you really understand what is studied in the field of molecular biology either.

This.

I read at least once a day in the forums that some white starch is a simple carb, and I wish I knew where this particular gem of misinformation was coming from so I could nuke it.

ALL starches, regardless of color, or how processed they are, are complex carbs. "Simple" carbohydrates are molecules of one or two sugars linked together- sucrose, fructose, glucose, galactose, maltose, etc are simple carbs.

Starches are chains of more than two sugars, white potatoes, white sugar, ultra super processed white flour, brown rice, whole grains, and everything in between qualifies. When you see the nutritional differences between simple and complex carbs described, white bread is still a complex carb. Your body breaks complex carbs down in to simple carbs to use.

I feel like somehow Dr. Oz must be to blame here.
*steps off soapbox*

msmil

I feel like somehow Dr. Oz must be to blame here.
*steps off soapbox*

HA! right?!

rshields9093

I'm from a long line of diabetics. So my doctor many moons ago sent me off to a nutritionist and I asked her this same question. She told me, that in calorie content there is no difference. The difference comes in the ease of access to those calories. The carbs (sugars) in white rice are readily available. The white rice is easier for your body to breakdown, causing a spike in blood sugar. Your body has to work at getting to the carbs of the brown rice. The brown rice takes longer to breakdown causing the sugars to enter the blood stream more slowly.

If you want to get super anal about calorie consumption, the brown rice ends up being less calories overall because your body expended more calories to get at it. But the big benefit is to avoid spiking your blood sugar.

This was one of my reasons for posting the question originally. I was diagnosed with diabetes some months ago (which led to the lifestyle changes that led to this site in the first place) and I had also been told essentially the same thing about spiking blood sugar.

But then I look at the GI of the two (again using the 100g of each comparison at the website linked in my OP) and white rice has a GI of 10 and brown has a GI of 11. Now perhaps I don't properly understand the GI as a concept or perhaps that website just has plain wrong information, but I am pretty sure that the difference between a 10 and a 11 GI is trivial. This is yet another reason for my confusion.

But I certainly like the idea that Dr. Oz is to blame.

rshields9093

You are comparing a glutinous rice to a long grain rice! Those are different strains which behave differently during cooking and in the body due to the amylose/ amylopectin content. And you've chosen to compare cooked rice with cooked rice.One tends to be cooked until the starches start breaking down (potentially absorbs more water) the other is normally only boiled or steamed until the grains remain separate and fluffy so of course the calories will be different, there is more water in one than the other. You may as well compare apples to oranges.

Well, I see your point, and thank you for pointing out the differences in rice type and possible water weight affecting the numbers. I had not considered that.

So I went back to the same site and compared raw long grain white rice to raw long grain brown rice (100g each). Still nothing to get too excited about, though I see that the fiber differences are a little more pronounced now. The white has 1g fiber while the brown has 4g fiber. But on calories, glycemic index, protein, nutrients, etc. there is still only trivial differences. And since I, at least, eat rice along with other stuff that brings lots more fiber to the table, even the 3g fiber difference here seems to not matter too much.

Of course I understand that some people prefer the taste/texture of brown rice, but my search is for a compelling reason that one should always choose brown rice based on health considerations. (I prefer the taste/texture of white rice and I think it is better at absorbing all the tasty juices from the stir fry stuff that I am eating on top of it).