I generally eat brown rice, as everyone says it's supposed to be better for us. Yesterday a show I listen to suggested it's actually less healthy than white rice, thanks to anti-nutrients and heavy arsenic.
Wha t do people here choose and why? Should I be swapping back?
Hi Cooper27 ,
For me, I eat brown rice more than the white because the brown rice is less carbs. and doesn’t raise my blood sugars as much or fast. For example, most of my quiches are cooked with brown rice.😀👍
This us good to hear Leah, definitely the maina reason they try to get us to swap
Thank you, Cooper27 . We learned that things like brown rice have less carbs. than their white versions. 😀👍
I try to avoid carbs too. I’m intrigued, I’ve never seen rice appear in a recipe for quiche, do you use it as an alternative base to pastry or in the flan content?
I assumed he meant brown rice flour to make the crust?
We use brown rice for the crust. You can cook everything in the microwave.😀👍
That’s right. We use the brown rice as a substitute for ‘normal’ crust when cooking the quiche.
Hellooo 😊
I read the same thing a long time ago and I eat either/or. Unless I’m mistaken, there’s no nutritional guidelines on how much brown rice it takes to become toxic when consumed. If we trust the powers that be, and if rice can have toxic levels,there would be warning labels on the packages. I’m referring to the arsenic. Nutrition wise….How much nutrition is actually left after the rice has been boiled or cooked compared to the rest of the food on our plates? To me, neither one makes that much of a difference in my health.
Well the part that made my ears perk, was when they mentioned the anti-nutrients (phytic acid?) in brown rice, that make us absorb less of the food we pair it with. Seemed potentially ironic, given we swapped to brown rice for the health benefits 🤔
I do have vague recollections that they were worried how much rice people who are gluten free consume (because it's in most of our substitute flours/breads/pasta), but nothing seemed to come of it. I suppose we can take comfort from the nation's where rice is an even greater staple though!
My recollection is that soaking brown rice may reduce phytic acid (and arsenic). I can't find any papers on it but a recipe was here.
alphafoodie.com/how-to-cook....
I recollect that germinating brown rice was better but too much of a faf
Some information here: kitchenstewardship.com/phyt...
😊 Yes, that’s what crossed my mind, too. We don’t hear anything negative from those nations. Your post helped me learn something about rice cuz I had to google to answer my question about the nutrition. Parboiled rice is the densest in nutrients. The hull keeps the nutrients in the rice. I can’t remember the info about the carbs, etc. , though. All in all, rice is a pretty interesting little tyke.
Decisions Decisions 😁
Hi @Cooper27,
I am not a medical practitioner but I think that if brown rice is cooked in an open container (instead of in a pressure cooker) and with enough water and after cooking,if water is removed then it will be better.Experts,pleasure correct me,if I am incorrect!
Oh no! I cook my rice in the exact volume of water it needs, so there's none left at the end. And we give I a lid to allow it to steam for a few minutes towards the end! Perhaps I should look into cooking differently.
Well the thing is, the health benefits of swapping do seem to be real. Higher fiber content, lower blood sugar spike. I guess this is more of a flaw of looking at a food in isolation rather than as part of a plate?
I don't think there is very much difference, just portion size is the importance
I switched to brown rice for the same reason. I have a gl/gi food reference book and from memory brown rice has amber rating and white rice has red rating.
It would depend on the meal I'd thing.
Hi Cooper27, l read some research, a few years ago, about arsenic in rice. Especially, high arsenic in brown rice. Like you, I also used to cook in just enough water to cook the rice, so no water was left and all the nutrients were kept in the grains, as far as possible.
However, this method also increases the amount of arsenic still in the rice. Maybe I was overcautious, but I now no longer use rice at all.
Oh interesting!
There was a passing suggestion that pte-soaking and rinsing might improve things, so I might investigate this again, as you're the second reply to mention it.
This is from Food Revolution Network
HOW TO COOK RICE GETTING RID OF ARSENIC
The Parboiling Method
From “Improved rice cooking approach to maximize arsenic removal while preserving nutrient elements,” by Manoj Menon, Wanrong Dong, Xumin Chen, Joseph Hufton, Edward J. Rhodes, 2020, Science of the Total Environment, 143341. CC By 4.0.
Then, in 2020, a University of Sheffield study came out with perhaps the most effective and time-saving way to reduce arsenic in rice at home. Researchers compared four different cooking methods: unwashed rice and absorbed water, washed rice and absorbed water, pre-soaked rice and absorbed water, and parboiled rice and absorbed water.
The last cooking method, parboiling the rice and letting it absorb the water, was the most efficient, removing 50% of the arsenic found in brown rice and 74% of the arsenic found in white rice while still preserving nutrients. This “parboiling with absorption” method involves pre-boiling the water and then cooking the rice in it for five minutes (sort of like you might cook pasta!). The rice is then drained, added back to the pot, and refreshed with new filtered water, ideally boiling water (and two cups of water for every cup of rice). Bring to a boil once again (if it wasn’t already boiling) then reduce heat to a simmer and cover until all the water is absorbed.
How to Reduce Arsenic in Rice
If you decide to eat rice, you may want to take these steps:
⦁ Choose organic basmati rice from California (or India and Pakistan) if possible.
⦁ Rinse rice thoroughly or even better soak it for 48 hours before cooking it, pouring off the water and rinsing it every 8 to 12 hours (like soaking beans).
⦁ Cook rice in 6 to 10 parts water to one part rice, draining off the extra water after cooking.
⦁ Or try the parboiling with absorption method.
Water is often contaminated with arsenic as well, so using filtered water is best. (Learn more about the importance of clean drinking water.)
And think about adding variety to your diet and trying more alternatives to rice.
I believe that these scare stories about rice are far less important than avoiding white flour and other processed foods. China and other far Eastern nations would have chronically sick populations (which they don't eg Okinawans who eat a lot of rice and fish) if there was anything to worry about.
I don't often eat rice, but when I do, I usually have wild rice, simply because I really like the texture.
What about plain white or brown pre-cooked microwave rice?
I only use it occasionally for a quick meal and I don’t heat it up in the pouch, I put it in a glass dish instead. I always buy the brown rice but now I’m not sure. Still, I don’t eat it regularly so I don’t suppose it can do much harm.
try quinoa?
Hi Cooper,
I've recently switched to brown rice rather than white because as others have said it's supposed to be better carb-wise, since being more of a wholegrain version it should keep you fuller for longer and the carbs aren't simple carbs.
Saying that, reading advice about any food online or in the news can always go too far. You could compare white and brown rice, but which one is better will always depend on what factor you're comparing them on. This can be said for all sorts of things, and it will entirely depend on what you want from your diet. And of course, some of these articles saying things are bad for you only speak in the context of if you eat too much of them - take bananas for example. Fruit is generally good for you, including bananas. But bananas have potassium in them and if you eat too much it can kill you. Tomatoes have things in them that are carcinogenic. But they're harmless in the proportions we eat them in. And as for the suspicion of brown rice reducing what you absorb from other food; maybe it does but only by a small proportion, which could be balanced out by whatever else you have on your plate.
People say alcohol is bad for you, but I personally suffer from low iron and have been recommended to drink red wine to help with that, as well as eating red meat (which others may be told is fatty and to avoid). It's all perspective of what you need from your diet and what you actually want to get out of that bit of food. Personally I'd say some of this stuff should come with a pinch of salt, since all sorts of fruit and veg will have elements in them that we generally recognise as bad for us to ingest, but in such minute quantities that in the end it really makes no difference.
If you're using brown rice for less carbs and in better format, then you're on the right track I believe.
No more shop bought cauliflower rice or broccoli rice
Veggie curry with black rice, (vegan) 
Black Rice Health Benefits 
