Eating Rice is bad, Myth or Truth?

Rice is a fundamental food in many cultural cuisines around the world, and it is an important cereal crop that feeds more than half of the world’s population since ages.

If it never had any nutrition value, it would have been discarded from human diet since long or at least when medical science developed.

Now when we hear about some bits and pieces like “avoiding rice is better when you want to watch your waste line or be sure of not to get close to diabetic arena…” we show pure blind faith in such conclusive statements and follow fad “free from rice diet”,ignoring real facts and figures in this fast pace world, where a line of tweet or couple of lines highlight on facebook or whatsapp become our “guru’s”.

Few facts about why one should eat rice?

The health benefits of rice include its ability to provide fast and instant energy, regulate and improve bowel movements, stabilize blood sugar levels, and slow down the aging process, while also providing an essential source of vitamin B1 to the human body. Other benefits include its ability to boost skin health, increase the metabolism, aid in digestion, reduce high blood pressure, help weight loss efforts, improve the immune system and provide protection against dysentery, cancer, and heart disease.

However, besides fiber, rice also has natural antioxidants like vitamin C, vitamin-A, phenolic and flavonoid compounds, which also act as or stimulate antioxidants to scour the body for free radicals. Free radicals are byproducts of cellular metabolism that can do serious damage to your organ systems and cause the mutation of healthy cells into cancerous ones. Boosting your antioxidant levels is a great idea, and eating more rice is a wonderful way to do that.

Rice can also prevent chronic constipation. The insoluble fiber from rice acts like a soft sponge that may be pushed through the intestinal tract quickly and easily. Brown rice and whole grains are known to be rich in insoluble fiber. However, it is advisable to drink lots of water for relieving your constipation condition, in addition to eating fibrous foods.

Which type of rice to choose upon?

The two main categories are whole grain rice and white rice. Whole grain rice is not processed very much, so it is high in nutritional value, whereas white rice is processed so that the bran or outer covering is removed, leaving it with less nutritional value. It means brown rice or whole grain rice is good choice to get more benefits!

It is essential to understand that white rice does have its own set of benefits and eating it or not depends on one’s body. Highly overweight people should avoid it or keep it the portion size to a minimum. Always remember the golden rule to eating healthy is to have a balanced meal at the right time.

How to buy Brown rice?

Depending on number of heads in home, one should decide if brown rice needs to be brought in bulk. With Bulk buy and save money & time campaign, one may tend to buy bulky brown rice bag, however Brown rice actually has a much shorter shelf life than white rice because it contains more oil; it only lasts 6 months. And even then, you should keep it in the refrigerator, is what expert says.

How to eat Rice :

Generally Rice is combined with proteins and fibers. Indian staple diet is rice with dal or veggie curries or chicken curry. This is one of the best combinations one can easily think about. Complementing rice with other sorts of proteins and veggies, helps in rice digestion. Otherwise eaten alone, rice is slower in digestion.

If possible, keep rice as an option for lunch as your metabolism is higher during lunch than dinner helping you use up the carbohydrates from rice for energy which might not be the case during dinner as it may get stored as fats.

one can eat rice every day depending on one’s weight and weight loss goals. In case you are on a weight loss diet, you can have rice two times a week making sure you have a plate of salad along with it to make up for the lack of fibre in white rice. If you are on a weight gain diet, you can have rice daily clubbed with veggies and proteins necessary for your diet.

Tip for Diabetic patient : Diabetic patients should include brown rice rather than white rice, which contains low levels of glycemic index. As little as one cup of brown rice on a daily basis provides a person with almost 100% of their daily manganese requirement, which helps to produce energy from carbohydrates and protein. Brown rice is also extremely beneficial for normal functioning of the nervous system and the production of sex hormones, says nutrition experts.

Skin care tip: Medical experts say that powdered rice can be applied topically to cure certain skin ailments. On the Indian subcontinent, rice water is readily prescribed by ayurvedic practitioners as an effective ointment to cool off inflamed skin surfaces. The phenolic compounds that are found in rice, particularly in brown or wild rice, have anti-inflammatory properties, so they are also good for soothing irritation and redness. Whether consumed or topically applied, substance derived from rice tend to relieve a number of skin conditions. The antioxidant capacity also helps delay the appearance of wrinkles and other premature signs of aging that can affect the skin.

Why Rice bran oil over other oils for daily cooking?

The most balanced and versatile oil in the market and closest to the American Heart Association (AHA) recommendations is Rice bran oil which is proven a superior salad, cooking, and frying oil which leaves no lingering aftertaste. The high smoke point prevents fatty acid breakdown at high temperatures. Its light viscosity, allows less oil to be absorbed in cooking, reducing overall calories. It mixes better in salad dressings and improves the taste of baked goods, providing cholesterol reduction, nutritional and anti-oxidant value. As compared to other oils Rice bran oil has better shelf life.

Comparison of smoke point and balance of fats in some commonly used oils:

Oil Name	Smoke Point	Mono Unsaturated Fat	Poly Unsaturated Fat	Saturated Fat
Rice Bran Oil	490º	47%	33%	20%
Olive	360º	77%	9%	14%
Canola	450º	61%	33%	7%
Peanut	460º	48%	34%	18%
Soybean	440º	24%	61%	15%
Grape seed	485º	14%	77%	9%