Weekend Edition Hot off the Press #7: Health Benefits of Rice - Part 2

Why the World Loves Rice
By: Julia L.

Rice: it's what for dinner, right? There's a good chance you've eaten rice today. It's a main staple in over half the world's diet, and possibly yours. It's also the second-most produced grain in the world (corn's the first). But not only is it plentiful in places like Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, rice also has many health benefits.

The nutritional value of rice depends on how it's processed. Two very popular styles of rice are brown and white rice. Do you know the difference between the two? Shockingly, they're actually the same rice from the same plant! White rice is polished, which removes certain parts called the germ and bran from the grain. But are these parts important? Yes, very. The germ is a component of rice that contains the most vitamins and healthy oils (it nourishes the seed for the rice plant, too, not just you!). It's called the "germ" because it's the part of the seed that germinates, or sprouts, into a plant. Interesting, right? The germ contains oil, Vitamin E, and B vitamins. The bran is full of dietary fiber (think bran muffins) and oils.

In the past, in parts of the world where nutritionally dense food wasn't as available and rice was a majority of the population's diet, removing the bran and germ from rice was possibly life-threatening due to vitamin deficiencies. In fact, beriberi, which is the deficiency of thiamine (vitamin B1), was discovered in Japan among people eating only polished white rice. Doctors discovered that people were missing out on the vitamin B1 from the missing rice germ. Luckily, white rice is now often enriched with vitamins to prevent deficiencies like this one.

It's clear that brown rice is a better overall choice, but can you still eat white rice and be healthy? Of course! Even though white rice has been polished and processed, it still provides many of the health benefits that rice has to offer. Rice is mostly made of carbohydrates and is more calorie-dense than wheat. It provides a fifth of the world's calories, if you can believe it. It also contains about 5 grams of protein for every cup of cooked rice. This is great news for those of us trying to avoid gluten, one of the proteins in wheat. Want some more good news? Rice's protein is actually more digestible than wheat's, which means you can absorb more. Rice also contains something called "resistant starch," which stops your blood sugar from spiking (unlike white bread), keeps you fuller longer, nourishes healthy colon cells, and may help you maintain your weight.

So, don't take it from me, listen to the three billion people around the world who eat rice every day. And right now, the price of rice is only $500 per ton—that's only about 25 cents a pound! Come on; get it while it's hot!