BROWN RICE!!!!!

White rice is totally devoid of any nutrients except for starch which rapidly breaks down into sugar in the bloodstream. Brown rice has vitamins, protein, minerals and fiber. Both are fairly high in natural arsenic, brown having more than white. Brown basmati rice may be more appealing in flavor, but it's tough to find.

(I am a real MD, preventive medicine certified)

HEY MFP!!! Please give me some tips on making my brown rice tasty! its so nasty to me! Someone told me to add vegetable broth and I did, it was ok but still not that tasty.. and ideas!!???

White rice is high GI. Brown rice & basmati rice are medium GI. If you don't like the brown, you could try the lower GI basmati white

GI doesn't matter much when it comes to rice. Studies show that eating one or the other doesn't change any risks.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

The only study you have shown in your previous post is http://jn.nutrition.org/content/141/9/1685.full where they state "Substituting white rice with brown rice for 16 weeks did not SUBSTANTIALLY affect metabolic risk factors in middle-aged CHINESE men and women with diabetes or a high risk for diabetes."

First, this randomized trial was conducted in China to test the feasibility of changing the standard Chinese diet from white rice to brown rice since many long running prospective cohort studies have shown that individuals with increased white rice intake are associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes and other heart and blood diseases. For example see...
(Villegas R, Liu S, Gao YT, Yang G, Li H, Zheng W, Shu XO. Prospective study of dietary carbohydrates, glycemic index, glycemic load, and incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus in middle-aged Chinese women. Arch Intern Med. 2007;167:2310–6. )

And "the dramatic rise in the prevalence of diabetes is expected to result in a serious economic burden for China."
http://jn.nutrition.org/content/141/9/1685.full

So the intent of this article was to test the feasibility of the switch to avert a potential unwanted economic burden rather than prove one rice was healthier than the other.

Second, the article states that the GI for the rice used in the trial were nearly equivalent.
(The GI values of WR and BR were 63 and 59, respectively, which were comparable to those previously reported (64 ± 7 vs. 55 ± 5; P = 0.53, with glucose as reference). If one of the major benefits from brown rice results from its much lower GI and GL, then using the rice samples with nearly equivalent GI will likely produce nearly equivalent results, ie no substantial improvement.

However, the GI of rice and other foods can vary based upon geography for botanical reasons.
>>>
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/76/1/5.full.pdf

Although it is clear that GI values are generally reproducible
from place to place, there are some instances of wide variation
for the same food. Rice, for example, shows a large range of GI
values, but this variation is due to inherent botanical differences
in rice from country to country rather than to methodologic dif-
ferences. Differences in the amylose content could explain much
of the variation in the GI values of rice (and other foods) because
amylose is digested more slowly than is amylopectin starch (32).
GI values for rice cannot be reliably predicted on the basis of the
size of the grain (short or long grain) or the type of cooking
method. Rice is obviously one type of food that needs to be
tested brand by brand locally.
<<<<

>>>
While brown rice and white rice do not have much difference with respect to GI in China, there is a marked difference in the United States.

http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/suppl/2008/09/18/dc08-1239.DC1/TableA1_1.pdf
(The legend goes from left to right: item number - Description of product - GI value or range ) , NS= not specified

white rice
511 Type NS (Canada) 72±9
512 Type NS, boiled in salted water (India) 72
513 Type NS (China) 83±1

brown rice
534 Brown Rice, Uncle Ben's® Ready Whole Grain (pouch) (Effem Foods, USA) 48±5
535 Brown & Wild, Uncle Ben's® Ready Whole Grain Medley (pouch) (Effem Foods, USA) 45±5
536 Chicken Flavored Brown Rice, Uncle Ben's® Ready Whole Grain (pouch) (Effem Foods, USA) 46±4

588 Brown, steamed(USA) 50
590 Brown rice (China) 87±2

The above information is from the 2002 landmark study upon which the article you cite draws much of its information.

Further, the table was updated in 2008 with similar results.
http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/Glycemic_index_and_glycemic_load_for_100_foods.htm

GI serving (g) GL
White rice, average 89 150 43
Brown rice, average 50 150 16

excerpted from the updated 2008 table to the original 2002 table

(
The complete list of the glycemic index and glycemic load for more than 1,000 foods can be found in the article "International

tables of glycemic index and glycemic load values: 2008" by Fiona S. Atkinson, Kaye Foster-Powell, and Jennie C.

Brand-Miller in the December 2008 issue of Diabetes Care, Vol. 31, number 12, pages 2281-2283.


An earlier version of this table appeared here: "International tables of glycemic index and glycemic load values: 2002," by Kaye

Foster-Powell, Susanna H.A. Holt, and Janette C. Brand-Miller in the July 2002 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 62,

pages 5–56.
)


Brown rice grown and consumed in the United States will very likely have a significantly lower GI than white rice grown and consumed in the United States. Not only will persons who eat white rice lose the all the "dietary fiber, magnesium, and phytochemicals" (http://jn.nutrition.org/content/141/9/1685.full) contained within brown rice, but they will also suffer from a higher GI and GL and all the challenges associated with that syndrome.

And for those who do not like the glycemic index please note the following passage again showing the benefits of brown rice when compared to white rice.
(http://arp.optimalhealthsystems.com/showeduc.asp?id=7)
"While the GI of the white and brown rice were similar the insulin response for brown rice was significantly lower than for white rice. These findings in this study also raise questions about the value of the GI alone without knowledge of the insulin response to foods. (1)"

Therefore, I agree, if you don't like something, such as brown rice, don't eat it. However, don't substitute something that is deleterious to your health, such as white rice, and think that it is okay because there was one article that said that in China there was no substantial improvement.


Below is a link to another article by many of the same authors which studies a US population instead of a Chinese population.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3024208/

So is white rice good or bad?!

I wouldn't advise eating white rice.

White rice is totally devoid of any nutrients except for starch which rapidly breaks down into sugar in the bloodstream.

White rice is high GI. Brown rice & basmati rice are medium GI. If you don't like the brown, you could try the lower GI basmati white

GI doesn't matter much when it comes to rice. Studies show that eating one or the other doesn't change any risks.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

The only study you have shown in your previous post is http://jn.nutrition.org/content/141/9/1685.full where they state "Substituting white rice with brown rice for 16 weeks did not SUBSTANTIALLY affect metabolic risk factors in middle-aged CHINESE men and women with diabetes or a high risk for diabetes."

First, this randomized trial was conducted in China to test the feasibility of changing the standard Chinese diet from white rice to brown rice since many long running prospective cohort studies have shown that individuals with increased white rice intake are associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes and other heart and blood diseases. For example see...
(Villegas R, Liu S, Gao YT, Yang G, Li H, Zheng W, Shu XO. Prospective study of dietary carbohydrates, glycemic index, glycemic load, and incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus in middle-aged Chinese women. Arch Intern Med. 2007;167:2310–6. )

And "the dramatic rise in the prevalence of diabetes is expected to result in a serious economic burden for China."
http://jn.nutrition.org/content/141/9/1685.full

So the intent of this article was to test the feasibility of the switch to avert a potential unwanted economic burden rather than prove one rice was healthier than the other.

Second, the article states that the GI for the rice used in the trial were nearly equivalent.
(The GI values of WR and BR were 63 and 59, respectively, which were comparable to those previously reported (64 ± 7 vs. 55 ± 5; P = 0.53, with glucose as reference). If one of the major benefits from brown rice results from its much lower GI and GL, then using the rice samples with nearly equivalent GI will likely produce nearly equivalent results, ie no substantial improvement.

However, the GI of rice and other foods can vary based upon geography for botanical reasons.
>>>
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/76/1/5.full.pdf

Although it is clear that GI values are generally reproducible
from place to place, there are some instances of wide variation
for the same food. Rice, for example, shows a large range of GI
values, but this variation is due to inherent botanical differences
in rice from country to country rather than to methodologic dif-
ferences. Differences in the amylose content could explain much
of the variation in the GI values of rice (and other foods) because
amylose is digested more slowly than is amylopectin starch (32).
GI values for rice cannot be reliably predicted on the basis of the
size of the grain (short or long grain) or the type of cooking
method. Rice is obviously one type of food that needs to be
tested brand by brand locally.
<<<<

>>>
While brown rice and white rice do not have much difference with respect to GI in China, there is a marked difference in the United States.

http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/suppl/2008/09/18/dc08-1239.DC1/TableA1_1.pdf
(The legend goes from left to right: item number - Description of product - GI value or range ) , NS= not specified

white rice
511 Type NS (Canada) 72±9
512 Type NS, boiled in salted water (India) 72
513 Type NS (China) 83±1

brown rice
534 Brown Rice, Uncle Ben's® Ready Whole Grain (pouch) (Effem Foods, USA) 48±5
535 Brown & Wild, Uncle Ben's® Ready Whole Grain Medley (pouch) (Effem Foods, USA) 45±5
536 Chicken Flavored Brown Rice, Uncle Ben's® Ready Whole Grain (pouch) (Effem Foods, USA) 46±4

588 Brown, steamed(USA) 50
590 Brown rice (China) 87±2

The above information is from the 2002 landmark study upon which the article you cite draws much of its information.

Further, the table was updated in 2008 with similar results.
http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/Glycemic_index_and_glycemic_load_for_100_foods.htm

GI serving (g) GL
White rice, average 89 150 43
Brown rice, average 50 150 16

excerpted from the updated 2008 table to the original 2002 table

(
The complete list of the glycemic index and glycemic load for more than 1,000 foods can be found in the article "International

tables of glycemic index and glycemic load values: 2008" by Fiona S. Atkinson, Kaye Foster-Powell, and Jennie C.

Brand-Miller in the December 2008 issue of Diabetes Care, Vol. 31, number 12, pages 2281-2283.


An earlier version of this table appeared here: "International tables of glycemic index and glycemic load values: 2002," by Kaye

Foster-Powell, Susanna H.A. Holt, and Janette C. Brand-Miller in the July 2002 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 62,

pages 5–56.
)


Brown rice grown and consumed in the United States will very likely have a significantly lower GI than white rice grown and consumed in the United States. Not only will persons who eat white rice lose the all the "dietary fiber, magnesium, and phytochemicals" (http://jn.nutrition.org/content/141/9/1685.full) contained within brown rice, but they will also suffer from a higher GI and GL and all the challenges associated with that syndrome.

And for those who do not like the glycemic index please note the following passage again showing the benefits of brown rice when compared to white rice.
(http://arp.optimalhealthsystems.com/showeduc.asp?id=7)
"While the GI of the white and brown rice were similar the insulin response for brown rice was significantly lower than for white rice. These findings in this study also raise questions about the value of the GI alone without knowledge of the insulin response to foods. (1)"

Therefore, I agree, if you don't like something, such as brown rice, don't eat it. However, don't substitute something that is deleterious to your health, such as white rice, and think that it is okay because there was one article that said that in China there was no substantial improvement.


Below is a link to another article by many of the same authors which studies a US population instead of a Chinese population.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3024208/

I absolutely love brown rice (I guess it shows I've been living in Japan for too long). I prefer it to white rice because of the taste alone. Here it's usually served mixed with sesame seeds and sweet read beans...

Brown rice is better than white rice because it is not processed. White rice has zero nutritional value is and highly processed.

If you do not like it then do not force yourself to eat it, there are far too many healthy food options out there. But I would definitely stay away from anything processed such as white rice.