Healthy Eating Plate from Harvard

cjdecz wrote: »

queenliz99 wrote: »

Why do you think brown rice is healthier than white?

Science is why I believe brown rice trumps white rice: Journal of American Medical Associates - Brown Rice reduces risk of type 2 diabetes.

Francl27 wrote: »

http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/brown-rice-vs-white-rice/

To sum up - it really doesn't make any difference if you're eating brown or white rice.

While that was a well thought out article I question the source material. I've read the studies cited and they never mention long term benefits of brown rice vs white rice.

Unlikely there are any. Your cite is to the Nurses Study, which is about correlations.

So what can we say? People who eat lots of white rice (more than 5 servings per week) are more likely to get T2D than people who eat a smaller amount of brown rice (more than 2 servings per week -- I assume this distinction is because brown rice eating is relatively rare in the relevant populations) and low amounts of white rice.

Does this mean that brown rice CAUSES this difference or that white rice does? Maybe, but it seems unlikely to me. Does it suggest instead that there are some differences between the population that eats rice white (a common food that is frequently part of the SAD?) and those who eat brown rice (a food that tends to be mainly consumed by health conscious folks)? Yes, and I suspect that this is our explanation. There certainly aren't any meaningful differences between the foods if consumed along with other foods that are otherwise equal to explain it.

Of course, they probably aren't, again -- I suspect that a much higher percentage of white rice is consumed with sweet and sour beef or General Tso's chicken than, say, brown rice, and that the average serving of brown rice is served with a lot more vegetables and is more likely to be homemade.

But sure, it's all in the rice.