I was wondering whether brown rice is better than white rice just for the fiber even though the carbs are the same or because the carbohydrates in brown rice are much healthier than the carbohydrates in white rice?
Brown rice is healther as it still has the nutrients that had not been taken out by "polishing" it to become "white". Also it is considered a more complex carb for the same reason.
Brown Rice has a small amount of B-Vitamins absent from white rice (but all white rice sold in the USA must be "enriched" to replace some of them.
There is a small amount of fiber in the brown coating...but not enough to be of much significance dietarily...
The net carb content of this very carby food is about 3% higher for white than brown.
My feeling is that since rice is pretty dull, it's best to make it in a way that is most pleasing to one's taste buds. Personally I don't have the patience for the long cooking and vaguely dirty taste of brown rice and the occasional "green" taste...presumably unripe coatings.
If it weren't for "polishing" I'd never eat the stuff....although I resent the fact that I must eat extra iron because some dimwits at the FDA dreamed up the need for "enrichment."
Ok thanks for the input. I was thinking of switching to brown rice because people said it was healthier. I thought it was mostly for the fiber, but if it has complex carbs then that will be my best choice.
I don't know if would go so far to call white rice a "simple carb" just because its white. Its certainly not refined to the extent of white flour and sugar.
If you look at the Glycemic Index of white and brown rice they are relatively the same - ranging from 50-75. That range is more greatly effected by method of preparation than by whether its brown or white.
Rice, brown OR white, is considered a medium glycemic index food, which means it is not going to cause any drastic spikes in your blood glucose. Brown is probably slightly better for you because it has not been polished, and many nutrients are maintained, but its hardly significant.
Regardless, any type of rice is probably better in the long run than white flour products, especially the ones with ingredients you can't pronounce.
I'm not so sure about that - even refined flour has more protein and fiber than rice does, and they usually fortify flour with nutrients.
This might be true if you eat it out of the bag with a spoon But show me a white flour product that is JUST white flour and nothing else. With rice, you get just that - rice. No chemicals, sweeteners, yeast, preservatives, etc. And again, the glycemic index of rice, is lower than white flour, so its easier to digest, and converts into blood glucose more slowly, helping to stabilize blood sugar.
According to the nutritional information on the packages, neither one of them has any nutritional value.
According to my package of brown rice, a serving contains 4 grams of protein, and 3 of fiber.
According to the USDA nutrient list database, Brown rice has about 25% more Protein per serving, about three or four times the fiber, and six times as much essential fatty acids (although rice is not a rich source of any fat or oil, the good fats in rice oil are lost in the milling).
The bran and germ in brown rice also contain trace minerals and other nutrients lost in milling.
Both foods are chiefly starches, not extra terrific sources of any mutrients other than the fiber in brown rice, but of the two, brown is clearly more nutritious on everything we can measure.
does wild rice have more complex carbs than white rice? is it better-tasting cause brown rice is grosssssssssss, but i still have to eat it. but so you're saying brown rice isn't better for weight loss? sigh i feel like i've been eating dirt for nothing these past weeks. how about whole grain spaghetti tho, is it better for weight loss than white? or like is whole grain bread better than brown rice?
Whole grains are typically going to better for you - more fiber, nutrients, etc. But you have to be a wise consumer - lots of products tout being whole grains but when you read the ingredients there is way too much garbage added. This is especially true for many wild rice packages out there. Lots of them have seasonings, sodium, MSG, etc added to improve the flavor. If you go down that road, you have the weigh the benefits of "whole grain+garbage" against "white rice+nothing else." Personally, I like to avoid preservatives and sodium, so if I cannot find a plain whole grain rice, I choose white - at least I know what it is.
Oh I forgot to mention - the whole grain pastas are better for you than white, but they do not have fewer carbs. Again, you have to read the package - many of them say they are "whole wheat" and appear to be darker in color, but they still contain white flour as the main ingredient (again, to improve flavor).
Hello, Yep, I looked it up out of curiousity and brown rice does have more nutrients in it. (It's not stripped like white rice is, so that accounts for the difference.) White rice has the same nutrients, but not as much. I looked it up on the USDA's searchable food nutrtient online database. It's really cool, because any food you can think of is on there....Then again...maybe not...I never tried looking up jelly fish.
But show me a white flour product that is JUST white flour and nothing else. With rice, you get just that - rice. No chemicals, sweeteners, yeast, preservatives, etc. And again, the glycemic index of rice, is lower than white flour, so its easier to digest, and converts into blood glucose more slowly, helping to stabilize blood sugar.
