White Rice and Asians

I don't know about the other 48 countries, but the size of traditional dinner plates in mine is tiny compared to US ones. US-sized plates were used for serving food, not to personally eat from. In short, we eat less.

While on average Asians are still lighter, and healthier than Americans, it's changing. A classmate of mine died of heart attack at the ripe age of 35...

And the casually racist thread award goes to...


(Not blaming the OP or saying she intended for it to go that way, but it certainly did.)

BING BING BING!! Not metabolism, it's the portions sizes. Asian portions are just smaller in general.

SPECIAL ENZYME ... and as another poster mentioned, it's also the one that gives many the red face when alcohol touches our lips.

Bro tell the truth.........................it's the fish sauce. Man I love fish sauce.

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

Most Asians are thin yet they incorporate a lot of white rice in their diet. How does that work? Is it metabolism? Are they more active? Is it the type of white rice they eat? Maybe they do not incorporate things in their rice like other people do (Oils, salt, etc.)

I'm a Spanish girl who loves her white rice. I haven't been eating a lot of it ever since I started this new lifestyle change and weight loss goal (Started back in May, lost 4 lbs so far.) I'm trying to lose another 5-7 lbs and get leaner. My longterm goal is to be as healthy as possible in the long run, but my main goal is to get a flatter stomach and it looks like I'm almost there. I'd like to eat more rice but I don't want to compromise what I have so far. Is it possible to eat more rice ans still lose weight?

I know a lot of you are going to suggest eating brown rice. I would in a heartbeat (I love brown rice too, I don't discriminate :P) but I'm on a tight budget and I have these large bags of white rice and it would be a shame to throw/give/waste it all away. Suggestions would be helpful. Even if it means telling me something I don't want to hear.

BTW, I'm 5'4 and currently 113 lbs if anyone is wondering.

I'm Asian-American & I rarely eat white rice - or any rice! I think I'm way too Americanized, since I was born & raised here, but I actually don't eat rice as much as I did growing up because I hate the rice most Americans eat (if you must eat white rice, at least eat calrose or jasmine - they also come in brown rice versions too - or Thai sticky rice - it also comes in a black variety if you want color lol. Unlike the plain, long grain rice you find in the stores, at least these varieties have some flavor and isn't so bland).

I think most people assume Asians eat as much as Americans do with regards to rice as previously stated (we don't). You gotta realize that, although white rice is a basic diet staple of almost any Asian culture, it seems to accompany a meal more so than actually be a focal point of the meal per se (unless it's a rice dish, but I digress). Also, Asians tend to eat a lot more vegetables than your typical American diet, and as far as I can tell, not as much protein or fat either. I've noticed that Asians are also more physically active in their daily lives than most of us Americans are. My mom said that you can tell who follows a Western diet in Asia because they're the fat chunky Asian kids playing video games all day (my mom can be mean lol - but I do think it's kinda true too).

Growing up, there was always a small bowl of rice for each of us but the meal always centered on a main dish or two (it always had a protein in it) and a bunch of vegetable side dishes. I've seen people at a Chinese restaurant recently order a single entree dish for themselves without realizing that each dish is actually meant to be SHARED by everyone (I'm not Chinese btw). I normally just share a small bowl of rice with one of the kids, mainly because I don't like plain white rice, but that's just how I learned to eat it - my rice bowl was my plate and the rice was just the stuff to soak up the yummy sauce for me to eat, and now my kids eat rice only when they want the sauce (it's weird, they don't eat it plain at all and will leave the rest if there's no more "food"). If you look at Asian cuisine vs. an American diet, you'll notice the absence of processed foods & not a lot of oil or fat used in cooking (1-2TBS oil is all I ever needed to make 8-12 cups of fried rice). It's mainly lots of veggies, some protein & carbs, & not a lot of cooking fats. Overall, Asians don't subsist on crap processed fatty foods. It's fresh, seasonal, and even if it's occasionally fried or fattening or carb heavy not a lot of it is used to make a dish or eaten.

Edit: eat your leftover white rice. The argument that brown is better than white is moot, as noted by Alan Aragon (he is a popular nutritionist/trainer in the fitness world & he wrote about this somewhere). Just don't eat too much of it, like with anything else moderation is key.

Oh, and not sure if you strength train but if you don't you should really start. Why? Because you will build a better physique for one, and for two (my favorite part) is that having greater muscle mass (lbm) increases your bmr so you will eventually burn more calories at rest doing nothing all because of working out (and you need to lift heavy to increase muscle mass because neon colored barbie weights won't suffice - lifting heavy won't turn you into She-Man, just look at Jamie Eason or any other bikini competitor)

THIS WHOLE THREAD.

I love this meme!!!

white rice, brown rice, wild rice. Eat which ever kind u want. It's the amount of it that u eat that may be the issue.

^this

a lot of people assume since asians eat rice with almost every meal that they consume a large portion of it, when in reality the rice is small in size and the vegetables / protein are the main percentage of the meal.

I was planning on moving to Japan to study as a chef before changing my mind and meeting my girlfriend, and I predominantly set myself up for it (for fun) by eating the way japanese did. I would actually read up and go out and watch families eat in japanese
neighborhoods, and order what they would (found a lot of really cool ideas, just from talking to them after they noticed me staring lol)

usually a meal consists of maybe a full cup of cooked rice, and 70-120 gms of protein / 120+ gms of vegetables. Usually followed with or consumed with green tea / room temperature water.

Thanks for sharing. And I think "they" aren't nearly as sedentary as most people in the US are.
I knew I was doing something right with the green tea! It puts me in a much better mood than coffee.

Portion sizes of rice are small, about enough to cup in your hand. The other foods would usually be vegetables, tofu (oh Japan was tofu heaven for me), and fish. All of this was served with green tea.

Then the other part of the equation--I walked everywhere. It's not uncommon to not own a car and to walk, bike, and take mass transit. I walked up and down the tiny little staircases everywhere. Hell, at Fushimi Inari I walked up and down 4 miles of stairs. My *kitten* looked awesome by the time the trip was done.

So yes, definitely calories in calories out. Eat less, move more.

QFT, being half Koeran, the food served was a cup of cooked rice at most surounded by a lot of freh vegetable dishes and meats. And to put things into more perspective, a large portion of food in Korea is pan friend since a lot of houses don't have ovens. Most just use burner plates and cook everything on a stove. But the vegetable dishes on the side called "ban chan" take up a lot of room and digest really slow.

One of the other main things; we don't snack between every meal.

I went to Japan for a month on my honeymoon. I dropped 20 lbs while I was there.

Portion sizes of rice are small, about enough to cup in your hand. The other foods would usually be vegetables, tofu (oh Japan was tofu heaven for me), and fish. All of this was served with green tea.

Then the other part of the equation--I walked everywhere. It's not uncommon to not own a car and to walk, bike, and take mass transit. I walked up and down the tiny little staircases everywhere. Hell, at Fushimi Inari I walked up and down 4 miles of stairs. My *kitten* looked awesome by the time the trip was done.

So yes, definitely calories in calories out. Eat less, move more.

My experience has been different-Growing up in an asian family in the US I ate plenty of rice, but when I stayed in Japan and Korea it took it to a whole new level. The tiny asian ladies can pack down jumbo sized bowls of udon noodles too.

They seemed to eat more rice, but it was always accompanied by healthy sides-mainly produce and fish. Also, the general activity level is higher there, which explains the discrepancy.

In asia I've seen a lot of more healthy white rice, that has a purple color to it because there is some black rice in there that makes it all look purply. It's less processed then the super white stuff I guess. But while brown rice has more nutrients, it often has more calories, so from a caloric point of view, plain steamed white rice is fine, just not really "good for you" cause it's just carbs with few nutrients, but its fine. If you add lots of oil and stuff it's not great. eat small amounts

Living and growing up in Asia, I had rice 3x a day. Every meal had white rice. I never had any weight problems then. I started my weigt gain since I moved to the US. The main difference I see is the meal portion size and lots of added fats, salt and sugar in the food. Veggies are incorporated in a lot of dishes and meat is used sparingly, e.g. 1 oz of chicken breast mixed with veggies in soup and a cup of rice for a meal. Soda was a treat 1 glass in a day at the most.

Now when I want to lose weight I ty to eat like I did in Asia as much as possible. When I eat rice, I don't get as hungry as if I eat bread, for the same amount of calories. Breakfast for example is rice porridge with broccoli, carrots, and a hard boiled egg about 300 calories and that lasts me til lunch time, or a cup of white rice, hard boiled egg and some chili sauce. Lunch is rice with soup xonsisting of garlic, onion, lots ofcabbage ,very little lean pork or beef maybe an ounce..supper is m8re rice and leftover cabbage soup wih added spinach, broccoli or whateer veggies you like....I hope that helped a bit ::)

White Rice, Brown Rice, Green Rice, doesn't matter

Calories in, Calories out.

Eats rice everyday crew.

Carbs don't make you fat. That's why. They don't have a special asian gene or something and they don't run marathons everyday. Pretty easy logic.

BING BING BING!! Not metabolism, it's the portions sizes. Asian portions are just smaller in general.

SPECIAL ENZYME ... and as another poster mentioned, it's also the one that gives many the red face when alcohol touches our lips.

Have you not yet discovered Pecid AC?

I can confirm...Pepcid is magic for me.

Seriously? How is it that I've never heard of this?! I'm trying it immediately. (well, when I get off work)

Does this work? Cause I turn like purple after a wine cooler, I gave up on trying to drink a long time ago. I don't even know what being drunk feels like I go from sober to passed out. :noway:

Hahah this basically sums the drinking experience for most of my asian friends. It's all about proper Pepcid prepping and pacing yourself. Tequila also seems to be more forgiving in terms of the purple, seriously.

I have to disagree with all of you. They don't ALL move ALL day long. Like, really? I personally think it's that damn green tea they ALL drink ALL day long.

Google green tea. It has major health/weight loss benefits.

Broscience. And this is coming from someone who is both part Japanese and lived in Japan.
They move around a lot. They tend to commute by trains and bicycle rather than ride in cars. There are overweight people in Japan. They aren't ALL thin. And aside from rice, they do love huge bowls of ramen. But in the end, it is calories in, calories out.

I have to disagree with all of you. They don't ALL move ALL day long. Like, really? I personally think it's that damn green tea they ALL drink ALL day long.

Google green tea. It has major health/weight loss benefits.

Bahahaha ^^^^THIS! but seriously, my step mom is Korean and yes steamed white rice every day...but its eaten just like that with the kim-chee and other good things. I LOVE to make steamed rice in my steamer - 6 cups at a time...I tried to change to brown cuz it's "more healthy" but ya, not the same. I agree that you can have it in moderation, like anything else!!!! Keep up the good work