The reasons white rice is healthier than brown rice as determined by research as well as which type traditional societies preferred consuming.
My article and video on healthy Chinese food drew some comments from readers who questioned my choice of rice.
Why was I using white rice vs brown? Isn’t brown rice the healthier choice, after all?
Ok, I’ll spill the beans, rice.  Here are my reasons …
The truth is, neither my husband nor myself have ever enjoyed brown rice (although we love the nutty flavor and digestibility of wild rice).
Every time we eat brown, it just seems to not sit very well in our stomachs.
Even when it is sprouted or soaked before cooking, it, well, uh, sits like a brick for lack of a better word.
Why Some People Should Eat White Rice
White rice just seems to digest a whole lot better for us. That to me was reason enough to choose it over the brown rice.
We were also advised by an Ayurvedic MD back in the 1990s to stick with white basmati rice. This recommendation clinched the decision.
You are what you digest, after all – not necessarily what you eat!
End of story? Well, not quite.
Rice Fiber in Brown Harms a Compromised Gut
A few years back at the annual Wise Traditions Conference, I became familiar with a compelling book called Fiber Menace.
The author writes extensively about the dangers of a high-fiber diet as it pertains to a menu loaded with whole grains as pushed by the misguided Food Pyramid.
In other words, folks who eat a bowl of All Bran every morning to keep the bathroom visits regular are unknowingly ripping their insides to shreds.
The basic premise of Fiber Menace is that grain fiber plays a leading role in many gut-related ailments including colon cancer.
When I first learned of this information, my preference for white rice over brown rice started to make more sense.
Perhaps the brown rice didn’t digest that well because of all that fiber?
Chalk one up for the white rice.
White Rice Far Lower in Phytic Acid
A second piece of information came from author Ramiel Nagel.
In his book, Cure Tooth Decay, he writes about the devastating effects of phytic acid in the diet. Phytic acid is a very powerful antinutrient and blocker of mineral absorption in the gut.
Mr. Nagel identifies brown rice as very high in phytic acid.
What’s more, soaking brown rice does not reduce phytic acid by much at all!
Polished Rice is the Ancestral Form
Ramiel also maintains that the traditional method for preparing brown rice is never to eat it whole (with only the husk removed).
Rather, ancestral societies pounded brown rice in a mortar and pestle to polish it by removing the outer bran layer. This is the primary source of the phytic acid.
Nagel goes on to point out that experiments have shown that the milled and polished rice that results from this pounding process, has the highest mineral absorption.
In short, mineral absorption from whole brown rice is much less than white polished rice. This is because the phytic acid in the bran which is not reduced much by soaking, greatly interferes with the absorption process.
What About Arsenic?
A big issue with arsenic contamination in rice has emerged in recent years. Some folks have responded by no longer eating rice at all.
This is an overreaction, in my view.
Clean rice is definitely available if you know what to look for.
This article on how to avoid arsenic in rice details what to do. While soaking brown rice barely moves the needle on phytic acid, soaking white rice before cooking removes nearly all the arsenic!
Another option is to parboil white rice before using fresh water for a full cook if you don’t have time to soak.
Is White Rice Better Than Brown?
So it seems that brown rice is not necessarily a healthier choice than milled white rice. Â Â
Black or red rice would fall into the same category.
Obviously, whether you choose one or the other is a personal preference, but I hope this information helps you sort through the decision with a bit more clarity.
As for me and my family, we will be sticking with white basmati and jasmine rice (white basmati rice is more nutritious than plain white rice). Â
I currently buy this brand of rice in 25-pound bags as the most economical and high-quality choice.
Observation clued me in many years ago that brown rice was not something that was sitting well in my stomach or my husband’s.
As the years go by, more research is coming forth to indicate that this decision was the right way to go after all.
Do you eat white rice or brown rice in your home? Why or why not?
References
(1) Fiber Menace
(2) Living with Phytic Acid
More Information
Macrobiotic Diet and Extreme Vitamin D Deficiency
Tiny Teff Grains Deliver Big on Nutrition
How to Make Perfect Yellow Rice (Arroz Amarillo)
Millet: Healthy or Not?
Do Whole Grains Cause Cavities?
Hi Kay, it is my understanding that jasmine rice is a long grain rice similar to basmati. Basmati rice originated in India, I think, whereas jasmine is from Thailand. But, since they are both long grain, they would compare favorably to the basic short grain white rice nutrition-wise.
While these two rices have similar aromas, they have many differences.
Jasmine rice:
– Originally from Thailand, featured in Southeast Asian cooking
– Moist and sticky texture
– Shorter grain
– More economical
– Glycemic index: 109
Basmati rice:
– Originally from India, featured in Indian, Middle Eastern, and Persian cooking
– Dry and fluffy texture, grains don’t stick together
– Longer grain
– More expensive
– Glycemic index: 58
http://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-difference-between-j-1-93814
Great point about the glycemic index. In China, rice was never eaten by itself, but always mixed with foods that had been fried in pork lard, which was the traditional fat used for cooking.
Sarah – how does jasmine rice compare with basmati, nutrition-wise? And thank you for helping me not feel guilty anymore about not eating nasty brown rice.
The glycemic index of the white rice becomes a nonissue as long as you eat it with a lot of wonderful, healthy fats. For example, the white basmati rice that I make into fried rice in my Healthy Chinese videoblog is cooked in copious amounts of coconut oil. Cutting up a few fried eggs into the fried rice to make egg fried rice would be even better.
I think this is a very interesting topic. I know my family prefers white basmati but I still can't help beleive that well soaked brown rice has more nutrtion. I also wonder about the high glycemic rating… We don't eat very many grains so I guess I might as well go with the white basmati.
The way soaking works is in many grains, it can activate production of phytase which is the grains natural way to break down phytic acid and release the nutrients for use. Some grains release a lot of phytic acid when soaked but others don’t, so soaking works well for some and not much for others. Traditionally, people used to mix grains so that grains that did not produce much phytase were soaked along with phytase producing grains so that phytase released into the entire slurry and the phytic acid was broken down in all the grain. That ancient knowledge is no longer common now though, but you can still find it on the internet. If you insist on eating grains, you should at least for health reasons understand how to soak them properly. Phytic acid is the seed’s way to store and protect nutrients and keep it away from predators. Humans have incomplete adaptation to breaking down phytic acid, unlike birds and some other creatures who are more specifically adapted over longer time frames. The way we got around the problem in the old days was through intelligence and knowledge of processes like soaking, something that these days seems often in short supply.
I ran into food sensitivities years back and found that the hulls on several items were causing me problems. One being grains and the other chickpeas/garbanzo beans. I had eaten brown rice for years and my doctor explained what you wrote about above. I was surprised as we hear so much about the benefits of whole grains. After finding this out, I remember reading Heidi to my daughter when she was little and it mentions how Heidi used to hide her white bread rolls to take to her grandmother as her stomach couldn't tolerate the whole grain anymore. Made me realize that perhaps this is how this whole white bread came about. Perhaps part was appearance but perhaps part was digestion. I think the trouble that we have run into in modern times is that the flour/grains are being enriched and it is these enriched ingredients like the iron and bromide that have wreaked havoc on our health. The iron being a bad form of iron for us to ingest and bromide (which is no longer used) falsely occupying the receptor sites of iodine in our thyroid. It was interesting to me that I could eat chickpeas but not garbanzo beans (or vise versa ~ can't remember). The difference I found out was that one has a hull and the other doesn't. Can't seem to find this in any research but somehow my doctor knew. So, when we eat rice, we too eat white rice just not enriched white rice. Every now and then we eat brown but very rarely. Great article. Thanks.
the reason that grandmother, actually peter’s grandmother, couldn’t eat the black bread was because it was too hard. the white rolls were softer and that is why heidi wanted to take them back for grandmother to eat.
I know this is an old post, but just an FYI chickpeas and garbanzo beans are exactly the same thing, just different names.
They both have hulls(as they are exactly the same thing), unless the hull is removed.
I noticed you said bromide is no longer used…but I don’t think that’s true. I’ve read about it in many places. Here are a couple of links:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/09/05/another-poison-hiding-in-your-environment.aspx
I try to stay away from grains as much as possible. However, it is hard and I find myself consuming at least some grains (usually wheat, which I think I have an allergy to – my skin seems to breakout every time I eat a lot of wheat). I am not a huge fan of brown rice, but I do like white rice, so this is good to know!
-Steph
maybe you need to man up and just eat what’s given to you. all this “gluten allergies” and “oh! I’m allergic to grain products!” are just hipster first world luxuries. Back in tougher times, if you complained about eating bread, you would starve to death.
bananarama, my grandfather starved to death eating gluten. His heart was strong and the doctors shook their heads not knowing what was causing his starvation……He was diagnosed celiac after his death. It was not pretty and I grieve to this day. My mother was close to death with a hemoglobin of 4, when she was diagnosed celiac after a biopsy. My sister became an invalid for ten years suffering with a host of illnesses, all of which disappeared in the weeks following adopting a gluten free diet.
My mother never complained about gluten; rather, she informed. There weren’t as many options as there are today, so she made her own food. My family is deeply grateful for the lifesaving knowledge and choices available today.
If I’d ‘man up and eat what’s given to me’, I’d die. In fact I nearly died nine years ago, until I stopped eating gluten.
And in ‘tougher’ times, people like me wouldn’t live long.
sorry, I beg to disagree. I am an Asian and I developed skin rashes after moving to UK. I was seen by 4 dermatologists and they could not agree on my condition. My blood tests are negative and my skin biopsy only showed inflammation. I chanced upon the WAPF conference in London, attended Dr. Natasha McBride’s talk on GAPS diet, followed the Intro diet and had 80% improvement on my condition after a month. Rest is history… I used to get rashes after eating gluten
Bananarama, your comment is amusing but very ill-informed. Hopefully you’ve gained more accurate knowledge in the six months since this was written. Gluten and grain problems may be typical of the first world (or more accurately, the modern world), but they are not luxuries. I wish they were.
I recently found out I have Hashimoto’s, and the first thing I had to do (to try to dampen the autoimmune response) was give up gluten. Research if you’re interested. I used to think my grandma might have celiac disease, when I looked up her symptoms (digestive problems, mainly), and I did a gluten-free diet with her for five months a few years ago as a test and found it’s not all that hard. Didn’t notice anything myself…and she wasn’t convinced, so she went back to gluten…then a few months later decided she did feel better without it, so went back to GF. She died a year ago (age 96), but in the last few months as I’ve read more about celiac disease, I’ve become convinced she was probably an undiagnosed celiac or at least gluten-intolerant. I keep reading about more and more symptoms, which she had, which I would not have associated with gluten intolerance–probably close to 10 in total. She was also hypothyroid for 40 years or so, and probably had Hashimoto’s, since 80-90% of the time that’s what causes a hypothyroid condition.
Anyway, what I really wanted to say was to please look up “Wheat Belly” by Dr. William Davis (cardiologist). You will find many interviews online in which he summarizes some of the most basic points of his book. Until I saw one of these videos, I never understood how wheat could be problematic. After all, hasn’t it been the “staff of life” for centuries? Well, here’s the spoiler: modern wheat ISN’T the same grain that people have eaten for centuries. It’s been hybridized and mutated in various questionable ways, into an unrecognizable, almost indigestible, and seemingly harmful “food” that could be one of the main causes of many of our modern ills. You’ll soon see why this book is a bestseller, and the knowledge it contains is exploding all over the world. I think it will be mainstream eventually…but a lot of people will suffer from their ignorance in the meantime. So sad.
You can easily find information of this “Dr. William Davis”‘ and the fallacies and lack of knowledge he has about human diets.
Why do people so readily absorb and promote this crap, just because it’s a best seller?
I didn’t take Davis’s or anyone else’s opinions blindly, not even his naysayers either. Instead I looked into myself. I did a trial of no wheat and magically, the asthma I had since birth went away. No more medicine for the first time in my life!!! 95% improvement in 2 days and the rest after a few weeks. I was actually quite surprised myself, I hadn’t really expected anything dramatic, but it’s been a year since I’ve touched the asthma meds I used to need daily. I also later did a trial of no dairy and got rid of all my acne I had for 20 years within a few days. I was fairly healthy before, besides moderate asthma and acne, but now I am much more healthy. I think it would be a good idea of people actually tried things out before trash talking. It didn’t even cost me anything to try it and wheat is overall rather nutrient poor compared to the amount of calories it packs.
Sarah, we only eat organic white basmati rice.
We tried the brown, and felt bloated and uncomfortable.
This was a surprise, since everyone said brown was much healthier. Since I always trust my personal experience first, we gave up brown rice, and quietly switched to white. I did some research, and was also surprised to see that white rice was preferred in the traditional diet of all of the great rice eating countries, such as China, Japan, India, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, almost everywhere.
Your article just explained the science behind that traditional wisdom.
We also avoid any grain with bran in it. Our current favorite is sprouted spelt flour which has been sifted to remove the bran. We get it from To Your Health Sprouted Flour.
I might add that we are devoted followers of Dr.Price and the Weston A Price foundation, eat a WAPF diet, organic or the equivalent, and eat the healthiest diet circumstances allow. As part of that diet, we avoid all bran.
You can’t seriously be going by what type of rice is more preferred in rice eating countries. The reason they choose white rice vary and they typically have nothing to do with nutrition. It’s more about shelf life and status symbols.
Absolutely. It has almost nothing to do with health and more to do with the fact That without rice these people will die. They eat white rice specifically because of how long it lasts.
you can’t seriously be so condescending???
Condescending how? Sorry but there is nothing condescending in either my reply or justin’s.
You can’t seriously not see that Rachel’s ‘you can’t seriously’ reply about your being condescending is referring to your ‘you can’t seriously’ message to Anonymous?
I would love to see you actually counter the points presented. What are these various reasons you speak of? How can white rice be a status symbol when everyone (dirt poor included) eat white rice? Don’t traditional people do other things to extend the shelf life of foods? What do you have to say about phytic acid?
White rice USED to be a status symbol. Now it’s mass produced and everywhere, but there used to be a time, not even that far long ago, where only prestigious people ate white rice. Brown rice was seen as “poor peoples” food.
All you have to do is a little bit of research to discover that information for yourself.
“Great rice eating countries”
The historic overconsumption of white rice in Thailand caused wide spread Beri Beri among the rich. Those countries don’t eat white rice because it’s “healthier.” It’s a privilege for rich people who believe that “white rice” is “cleaner.”
White rice has artificial vitamins, minerals, AND fiber added to make the nutritional content the same as brown rice. Also, white rice basically has NO nutrients because most people wash their rice and thus any vitamins and minerals that were added to make up for every thing lost during de-hulling is lost.
Hi Dorothea, you would probably very much enjoy reading Ramiel Nagel's article on phytic acid in Wise Traditions magazine. He talks not only about brown vs milled white rice but also about whole grain vs white bread. He doesn't advocate many grains much anyway – regardless of whether they are whole grain or not. But, one very interesting point he makes is that folks who eat refined grains sometimes can actually absorb more minerals in the long run from these foods than folks who eat only whole grain – due to the blocking action of phytic acid from the bran portion of the grain which is present in whole grains but not in refined grains.
Sarah, what about sprouted grains? – i had run into you you tube video on sprouted spelt a while ago- Does sprouting brown rice make it better, ie less phytic acid?
We eat both but I've been trying to switch to brown rice because I thought it was healthier. How often are we told not to eat white flour, white sugar, and white. . . .rice? This was very interesting information that you posted. I've been looking into the "grain issue" recently.