Is it healthy to eat rice?
Since I began working with Jing, and learning to cook Chinese food, I’ve been eating more rice. Given my family history of type 2 diabetes, I am concerned about high glycemic index, high carbohydrate, starchy foods in my diet. White rice is notoriously high in carbohydrates and low in fiber. However, the Chinese, especially in southern China, have considered rice a staple in their diet for thousands of years. As a child, Jing worked with her mother in the rice paddies in their village. There was a time, not so long ago, when the wealth of a household was measured in how much rice they stored.
For those many thousands of years that the Chinese have eaten rice as a diet staple, it was healthier than the modern, “polished” white rice that emerged in the 1800s with modern processing methods. While rice remains a staple of the southern Chinese diet, one cannot survive on rice alone, especially in its modern, nutrient-depleted, processed form. So what role does rice play in healthy eating?
Rice in a balanced, healthy diet
When a Chinese family eats, they fill their bowls with rice, and sample a bit from each main dish on the table to “send the rice”. Since modernization in the past few decades this has begun to change, but traditionally a Chinese family meal consisted of rice, three to four dishes to serve with the rice, and soup. Americans, conversely, tend to treat the rice as a side dish, or even toss it in the trash. Chinese home cooking emphasizes foods that add flavor to the rice, such as Jing’s Tomato, Beef, and Potato Soup. Even vegetable dishes, such as Chinese Hot and Sour Shredded Potatoes are served with rice.
Chinese people, generally, look like Americans used to, circa 1975. That is to say they are slender. I recently watched the old movie, Jaws, and the beach scene with all the local politicians trying encourage vacationers to forget about a shark and just get in the water came on–everybody was skinny! Americans started getting obese in the late 1980s early 1990s, when the food pyramid was changed to push manufactured, processed foods full of empty calories, seed oils, emulsifiers, and sugar. Now, over 40% of the population is obese. Type 2 diabetes, or what was once called “adult onset” diabetes, is now a chronic issue in American children.
Modern diets based on manufactured foods are unhealthy
Before the 1980s, Americans ate meat and vegetables at meals, cooked on a stove instead of nuked in a microwave. The cooking method is not the culprit, so much as the nature of the food. Food cooked on a stove took time to peel, slice, and prepare, but it tended to be fresh. Often the vegetables came from a home garden or farm stand. With the rising popularity of microwave and toaster ovens in the mid-80s, meals began to change to the instant variety: that is, manufactured food especially engineered for microwaving. This food was high in sugar, high in carbohydrates, high in trans fats, high in seed oils, and low in nutritional quality: empty calories that made you crave more.
But wait a moment: white rice is a staple in the Chinese diet, and white rice is all carbs and starch just like processed food. So, is it healthy to eat rice as a major part of a meal? Is it any better than the nutritionally void prepared food Americans eat?
Well, like a meal comprised mostly of fresh vegetables with a small portion of meat or fish as Americans used to eat, a Chinese home-style meal with a small amount of protein and healthy-cooked vegetables (steamed, or stir-fried with minimal oil) served with rice offers a balance of protein, fat, complex carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and fiber. What’s more, rice in any form tends to make a person feel full despite eating less food, though for this aspect whole grain (brown) rice is far superior to white rice. So, your hunger is satisfied with less food, in part because of the nutrients in the meat and vegetables and in part because of the fiber content of the rice. Finally, fiber is not just about intestinal regularity. Dietary fiber also plays a probiotic role, helping to foster a healthy microbe population in the gut, which benefits immune system health and reduces auto-immune diseases.
Cooking with rice
For dishes like fried rice, made with leftover, refrigerated rice, or Fujian Salty Rice, white or parboiled rice are your best options. Parboiled rice is less sticky, and thus easier to fry, but if white rice is cooked properly, it works equally well.
All rice should be rinsed thoroughly, until the water is clear. This removes excess starch and dust, and it helps remove inorganic arsenic which is innate to the rice.
Nutritional comparison of long grain rice
For this article, we consider the common varieties of long grain rice available in most grocery stores: white, parboiled, and brown. For white rice and parboiled white rice, there are enriched and non-enriched versions. Enriched rice is simply rice with certain nutrients added: iron, niacin, folic acid, fluoride, and thiamin. These are the types of rice typically served with meals. Other types, like glutinous rice, are used for certain desserts or special celebrations, so we did not include them here.
White rice
White rice is a “polished” rice, like white bread made from processed flour. During the 1800s, techniques were developed to polish rice. According to Eugene Anderson, in The Food of China, this is a processing method that strips away the outer layers of the rice kernel, leaving the inner core. The outer layers are where the fiber and nutrients like niacin and thiamin are found, and the inner core of the rice grain is mostly starch. This is similar to the difference between white flour and whole grain flour. In fact, brown rice can be considered whole grain rice.
Just like with white bread and whole grain bread, the texture of polished or white rice is more pleasing than whole grain (brown) rice. White rice is preferred to the whole grain version, despite its lower nutritional value.
Parboiled rice
Parboiled rice is partially pre-cooked while still in the outer seed husk. This changes the rice, making it easier to husk, but also preserving more of the nutrients. The texture is also fluffier and less sticky. Parboiled rice is more nutritious than white rice, lower in carbohydrates, and higher in fiber, protein, niacin, thiamin, riboflavin, iron, potassium, calcium, and B-6 than white rice.
According to WebMD, research suggests that parboiled rice is a healthier choice than white or brown rice for diabetics, because it has lower impact on blood sugar levels. Parboiled rice is a healthy eating choice for gut health, too:
The starch in parboiled rice acts as a prebiotic, meaning that it acts as a sort of fertilizer and encourages the growth of healthy bacteria, or probiotics, in your gut. Having the right balance of microorganisms in your gut can impact everything from your health to your mood, so eating foods containing prebiotics can be extremely beneficial to your overall health.
https://www.webmd.com/diet/parboiled-rice-health-benefits
Brown rice
Brown rice is the least palatable (in terms of texture) but the best rice for healthy eating. Brown rice is the whole grain version of rice, with the bran and outer layers of the kernel intact, and this is where the nutrients and fiber are located. You can serve food over brown rice, and you can include it in a dish that calls for rice as one of the ingredients.
Brown rice can reduce risk of diabetes by 32% and has many heart health benefits:
Brown rice has a low glycemic index (GI), meaning it doesn’t cause your blood sugar to spike after you eat. Studies show that by eating three servings per day of whole grains like brown rice, you can reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by up to 32%. White rice, on the other hand, can increase your risk of diabetes….Many of the nutrients in brown rice help keep your heart healthy. It’s a rich source of dietary fiber, which can reduce your risk of death from heart disease. Brown rice also contains high levels of magnesium, which can help make you less vulnerable to heart disease and stroke….Brown rice also contains more dietary fiber than white rice. Higher-fiber foods cause you to feel fuller longer while taking in fewer calories.
https://www.webmd.com/diet/health-benefits-brown-rice
Brown rice is not a good choice if you like to make fried rice with the leftover rice. It is sticker and clumps together, making a stir-fry more mushy. However, substituting brown rice for white or parboiled rice with recipes that are used to “send” the rice is a good way to add brown rice to your diet.
Nutrients in 100 gram samples of rice
NOTE: 100 grams of cooked rice is about 3/4 of a cup.
| White rice, long grain, enriched | White rice, long grain, unenriched | Parboiled white rice, long grain, enriched | Parboiled white rice, long grain, unenriched | Brown rice, long grain | |
| Water | 68.4 g | 68.4 g | 70.4 g | 70.4 g | 70.3 g |
| Energy | 130 kcal | 130 kcal | 123 kcal | 123 kcal | 123 kcal |
| Energy | 544 kJ | 544 kJ | 513 kJ | 513 kJ | 514 kJ |
| Protein | 2.69 g | 2.69 g | 2.91 g | 2.91 g | 2.74 g |
| Total lipid (fat) | 0.28 g | 0.28 g | 0.37 g | 0.37 g | 0.97 g |
| Ash | 0.41 g | 0.41 g | 0.3 g | 0.3 g | 0.44 g |
| Carbohydrate, by difference | 28.2 g | 28.2 g | 26 g | 26 g | 25.6 g |
| Fiber, total dietary | 0.4 g | 0.4 g | 0.9 g | 0.9 g | 1.6 g |
| Sugars, total including NLEA | 0.05 g | 0.05 g | 0.11 g | 0.11 g | 0.24 g |
| Calcium, Ca | 10 mg | 10 mg | 19 mg | 19 mg | 3 mg |
| Iron, Fe | 1.2 mg | 0.2 mg | 1.81 mg | 0.24 mg | 0.56 mg |
| Magnesium, Mg | 12 mg | 12 mg | 9 mg | 9 mg | 39 mg |
| Phosphorus, P | 43 mg | 43 mg | 55 mg | 55 mg | 103 mg |
| Potassium, K | 35 mg | 35 mg | 56 mg | 56 mg | 86 mg |
| Sodium, Na | 1 mg | 1 mg | 2 mg | 2 mg | 4 mg |
| Zinc, Zn | 0.49 mg | 0.49 mg | 0.37 mg | 0.37 mg | 0.71 mg |
| Copper, Cu | 0.069 mg | 0.069 mg | 0.07 mg | 0.07 mg | 0.106 mg |
| Manganese, Mn | 0.472 mg | 0.472 mg | 0.354 mg | 0.354 mg | 0.974 mg |
| Selenium, Se | 7.5 µg | 7.5 µg | 9.3 µg | 9.3 µg | 5.8 µg |
| Fluoride, F | 41.1 µg | ||||
| Thiamin | 0.163 mg | 0.02 mg | 0.212 mg | 0.074 mg | 0.178 mg |
| Riboflavin | 0.013 mg | 0.013 mg | 0.019 mg | 0.019 mg | 0.069 mg |
| Niacin | 1.48 mg | 0.4 mg | 2.31 mg | 2.31 mg | 2.56 mg |
| Pantothenic acid | 0.39 mg | 0.39 mg | 0.323 mg | 0.323 mg | 0.38 mg |
| Vitamin B-6 | 0.093 mg | 0.093 mg | 0.156 mg | 0.156 mg | 0.123 mg |
| Folate, total | 58 µg | 3 µg | 81 µg | 3 µg | 9 µg |
| Folic acid | 55 µg | 0 µg | 79 µg | 0 µg | 0 µg |
| Folate, food | 3 µg | 3 µg | 3 µg | 3 µg | 9 µg |
| Folate, DFE | 97 µg | 3 µg | 136 µg | 3 µg | 9 µg |
| Choline, total | 2.1 mg | 2.1 mg | 2.1 mg | 9.2 mg | |
| Betaine | 0.3 mg | 0.5 mg | |||
| Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) | 0.04 mg | 0.04 mg | 0.01 mg | 0.01 mg | 0.17 mg |
Rice nutrition data sources
The health opinions expressed in this article are based on those published on WebMD and other health information sites, and are shared here for informational purposes. Jing and I are not nutritionists or doctors, we are just ordinary people trying to eat smart and healthy. Please visit WebMD and other reputable sites for more information, or consult your personal physician for specific recommendations.
The nutrient data in this article come from the US Department of Agriculture, derived from 100 gram samples of cooked rice. To access the complete data, please visit the following links:
- Rice, white, long grain, enriched
- Rice, white, long grain, not enriched
- Rice, white, parboiled, long grain, enriched
- Rice, white, parboiled, long grain, not enriched
- Rice, brown, long grain
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