Is rice really bad for your diet?

Guest blog from Sam Li on her road to getting fit:

Hello fellow CARB-lovers! I am with everyone who cannot resist stuffing their beautiful faces with great starchy goodness. But here’s the real question that may have haunted some of us: is RICE good or bad for you?? Here are some answers that you may or may not already know. Rice is actually considered one of the most important foods in the whole world. It provides over half the daily caloric intake of over half the planet’s population. If it feeds so many people, it can’t possibly be a bad thing right?  

Well, there are different types of rice that are available to us, mainly categorized under the familiar terms: brown and white. Asides from its obvious difference in color, it also wildly differs in the eyes of the true health seeker. A whole kernel of rice in its rawest form has several layers. Brown rice is produced by simply removing the outer layer, therefore conserving most of its natural essence. To produce the beautiful white rice we all know and love, many more layers of the brown rice is stripped away revealing a white polished appearance. This refining process not only removes layers from the whole kernel but takes away important B vitamins as well as all dietary fibre and essential fats from white rice, thus making it less desirable and brown rice the more healthy option.

There are a plethora of studies that have observed the health benefits of ingesting whole grains on a regular basis. Brown rice is an excellent source of dietary fibre, in which one cup provides 14% of the daily value. Results of these studies demonstrated that consuming brown rice protects against a variety of health issues:

•     Reduction of high cholesterol
•     Prevention of visceral obesity (the “apple shape” body)
  
•     Protection against type 2 diabetes, as fibre keeps blood sugar levels at low
  
•     Protection against colon cancer, as fibre fights cancer calling chemicals
  
•     Promotes normal bowel movements
  
•     Effective against constipation
•  

Furthermore, there are also “female-specific” benefits that us ladies could reap:

•     Weight loss – A massive study conducted at Harvard Med followed and observed, over a 12-year period, 74 000 females between the ages of 38-63. Their data suggested that weight was directly associated with the consumption of refined grains, such as white rice. Moreover, the women who had brown rice in their diets were not only slimmer, but were 49% less likely to gain weight.
•     Breast cancer – A major finding from the UK Women’s Cohort Study observing 35 972 pre-menopausal women demonstrated that those who ingested fibre (>30g/day) were significantly protected against breast cancer.

In conclusion, rice is NOT bad for you. And brown rice, with all of its full of fibre healthy goodness, is even better. However, white rice is not the culprit of problems either. What seems like a paradox is the fact that Thailand, Vietnam and China are the largest exports of rice in the world… and Asian cooking has a tendency to make white rice an essential part of every meal. So, what accounts for such a healthy Asian population? The answer is simply the high consumption of leafy green vegetables to make up for the lost source of dietary fibre, which may solve the weight gain and digestion issue. However, to have all health benefits, whole grains should be added to the diet.  

All in all fellow food lovers, we must keep in mind that moderation is the key. Don’t you just hate it when something is good and it’s just so good it turns bad? Therefore, eating the healthiest foods from all food groups in proportion makes for a well balance diet. Happy eating!  

Got any input on your bowl of rice? Share it with us! :)