white rice vs. brown rice

[67firecracker]

I've eaten brown rice for years believing I was making a superior health choice. Last night I had both bags on the counter because I had company for supper and I started comparing: For 48 grams brown (1 cup cooked) and 50 grams white dry (3/4c. cooked):

White - 172 cal; protein 3.6g; fat .5g; dietary fibre 1.2g; sodium 3g
Brown - 179 cal; protein 3.6g; fat 1.2g; dietary fibre 1g; sodium 12g

I was shocked to see that white had more dietary fibre and less sodium AND less calories! Is there a difference between brands?

What is the great benefit of brown rice? I've always thought chosing brown rice was a colossally better choice but now the numbers have me wondering. It seems like only a mildly better choice - perhaps not worth the extra cooking time.

Trish

 

[materialsgirl]

I guess my understanding is that brown rice is better because it's a whole grain, and therefore has more nutrients in it than white rice, which has been stripped of a lot of its nutritional value due to processing. However, I do find it surprising that your brown rice has less fiber than your white rice. It's not a huge difference, but still...

 

[desertbriez]

it's along the same lines as oatmeal.... you can buy the 1 minute cook or the 5 minute cook, or the steel cut... the steel cut ones are the best for you cuz they aren't processed... whereas the 1 minute ones have been processed more... thus your body isn't doing the work to break it down (and stay away from the preflavored/prepackaged stuff!)

i eat brown ride.... but haven't checked the labels (well.. i don't have any white to compare it to) but will check it out in the store next time!

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cute work out clothes are good for AT LEAST an additional 10-15 calories burned!

 

[DebbieH]

That being said, is it okay to eat white rice? I LOVE white rice and try to eat the brown but always come back to what I like. I tell myself it is better then other choices. That's my excuse. Any real reason why I shouldn't eat it?

Your-Friend-In-Fitness, DebbieH (AKA "Den Mother Debbie")http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/wavey.gif[/img] If You Get The Choice To Sit It Out Or Dance...I Hope You DANCE!!!

 

[nancy324]

Trish-
There are lots of rices that call themselves "brown" that are not whole grain. You need to look for whole grain brown rice. If your supermarket doesn't have it, try a health food store. Real whole grain rice has 4x the fiber of refined rice, and a lot more protein and other nutrients. Here's a lot more about it:

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=128

I can tell I'm really dilly-dallying at work today because I actually got in here before the vegetarians!

 

[Amazon]

Okay, there's some kind of error there.

White rice is nothing but processed brown rice. The processing removes the bran, the husk, and the germ, leaving the rice totally nutritionless (and practically fiberless). To make up for this, they "enrich" it, just like they "enrich" white flour. ("Enriched" means the vitamins are added back into the rice--and in the case of rice, they add more than what is naturally found in brown rice.)

Now I'm looking at my packages of white rice and brown rice and here is what the labels say:

Mahatma Jasmine Enriched Thai Fragrant Long Grain Rice
1/4 cup uncooked makes 3/4 cups prepared
Calories 150, Calories from fat 0
Total fat: 0g
Saturated fat: 0g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 0mg
Totall Carbohydrate 36g
Dietary Fiber 0g
Sugars: 0g
Protein 3g
Iron 8%, Thiamine 15%, Niacin 8%, Folic Acid 15%
(Please note that this balance of viatmins was decided in some executive's office somewhere and then artificially inserted into the rice.)


Now here's the Diamond brand California Brown Rice
1/4 cup uncooked
Calories 140, Calories from Fat 10
Total fat 1g
Saturated fat 0g
Sodium 0mg
Total Carbohydrate 29g
Dietary fiber 1g
Protein 3g
Iron 2% Thiamine 10%, Niacin 15%
(Note the natural balance of nutrients found in unprocessed brown rice.)

If you want to eat food with as little processing as possible, brown rice is better.

Edited to add: the 10 calories from fat is from natural, healthy oils found in whole grains. Whole wheat also has a natural fat in it, which means it can go rancid quickly, unlike white flour which can last forever. That's why they recommend that you refrigerate whole wheat flour.

Brown rice doesn't need refrigeration because he hasn't been ground and the oils exposed to the air.

 

[Elaine Keller]

The brown rice I eat has 5 grams of fiber per serving compared to 0 grams of fiber in the white Jasmine rice I like.

There's no fat in the white rice while there is 1.5 grams in the brown.

For me the benefit of brown over white rice has been the amount of fiber I get from the brown.

 

[cjbate]

Someone could probably explain it better than me, but my understanding is that it requires more "work" from your body to process the brown rice itself over white rice, rather than the processing being done by the manufacturer, per se. Metabolically brown rice is better. I don't think it is reflected in the few nutritional bits of information manufacturers are required to put on the label.

I used to do WW which takes into account the things the posters were comparing above: calories, fiber g, and fat g for their "point" calculations. And I can tell you there was a definite difference in foods that were clean (unprocessed) over foods that were not so clean, even if they were EQUAL POINTS (equal calories, fat and fiber). You could eat the same points in foods like pop tarts, or in foods like brown rice....technically you would still lose weight (part of the program's appeal is the flexibility of it) but I'd have to say that fitness performance wise, workout wise, health wise, skin wise, and ultimate well being-wise....you'd (obviously) be better off with the brown rice (....this is just one example). I noticed a difference.....

Average person just getting going losing weight or whatever could probably eat the portion controlled poptarts (just trying to illustrate a point, I know the original post was about white rice....I am not comparing pop tarts with white rice) but I suspect that the average Cathe exerciser, trying to take it to the next level, the difference in ultra clean foods would be more noticeable.

I guess my point is that it is my understanding that the metabolic effect of food is not effectively described by the 3 parameters .... calories, fat and fiber.

Jen