The most important difference is the fiber in brown rice, which makes it the healthiest rice.
For about 3.5 billion people in 20 countries, rice is the main part of their diet. There are thousands of varieties of rice around the world. Some that you may be familiar with are arborio, basmati, and jasmine. There are also long-grain, medium-grain, and short-grain types. What determines which type is healthier is whether the rice is processed or whole grain. White rice is processed. Brown rice is whole grain, and that makes brown rice a healthier choice.
All types of rice are healthy, but when it comes to brown rice vs. white rice, whole grain (brown) rice has more nutrients and fiber. All grains, including rice, have three parts:
The germ and the bran are the parts of the grain that make it heart healthy. Rice is also a low-salt and gluten-free food, making it especially healthy for people with high blood pressure and celiac disease or gluten intolerance.
Brown rice is a whole-grain rice. Whole grain rice can also be black, purple, or red depending on the variety. The whole grain is healthy, but the most important part, the part that makes it different than white rice, is the bran. That’s because it is an excellent source of fiber. A cup of brown rice has about 3.5 grams of fiber, compared with about one gram in a cup of white rice.
Because brown rice has bran, it has a crunchier texture, a nuttier flavor, and it takes longer to cook. It also takes longer to digest, which is a good thing. Carbohydrate foods that take longer to digest do not cause a sudden spike in blood sugar, which puts stress on your pancreas. Your pancreas is the organ that produces and releases insulin, which you need to use sugar for energy. Those blood sugar spikes put a lot of pressure on your pancreas, and over time that can increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
How much a food causes blood sugar to go up is called the food’s glycemic index. The glycemic index goes from one to 100, depending on how much a food increases blood sugar. The higher the number, the higher the blood sugar. So, brown rice is heathier because it has more nutrients and fiber and a lower glycemic index than white rice. Diets high in fiber have been linked to a lower risk for diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. That’s why the guidelines suggest 25 to 35 grams of daily fiber. Most Americans only get about 15 grams. Beside whole grains, other good sources of fiber include fruits, vegetables, beans, and nuts.
White rice is healthy, just not as healthy as brown rice. White rice is processed, or milled, to strip away the bran and the germ, leaving only the pulpy endosperm. This makes white rice faster to cook and faster to digest, and gives it a milder flavor and longer shelf life. The endosperm has mostly carbohydrates, but it still has some protein, vitamins, and minerals, but not as much as the whole grain. To compensate for the loss of nutrients, iron, and B vitamins, including folic acid, are added back into white rice, and packaged as fortified rice. White rice has a higher glycemic index than brown rice, but only by about five points. It is still a healthy food.
For most people, most of the time, brown rice is the healthiest rice. It has more fiber and more nutrients. It makes you feel full faster and its digested more slowly, which might help you lose some weight. A cup of cooked white rice has about 242 calories compared to 218 in a cup of brown rice.
There are a few exceptions. For people with irritable bowel syndrome or inflammatory bowel disease, brown rice may be hard to digest, so white rice may be a healthier choice. White rice is fortified with folic acid, which is not naturally occurring in brown rice. Folic acid is a B vitamin that is very important vitamin for a developing baby in the womb, so for pregnant women, white rice may be a heathier choice. Other than that, the healthiest rice is brown.
