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?
I think you need to be a bit more skeptical about the things you hear and consider the sources before you pass judgement and share your beliefs with a wide audience, many of whom are also nonskeptics. You have presented no credible body of research that backs up the claims that brown rice is unhealthy — or that grain fiber plays a leading role in many gut related ailments including colon cancer.
I have a feeling you also believe innoculations cause autism….. yes?
I’ve eaten brown rice maybe twice and it was the kind that was pre-cooked. It tasted pretty good, but it wasn’t my favorite rice. I find that the enriched long-grain rice isn’t that tasty and it gets mushy very easily. I love Jasmine rice because it has a nice flavor to it and the smell of it is wonderful. I’ve never tried Basmati rice because it is much more expensive than the Jasmine, but I want to try it one day. Great post. See, I knew I didn’t want to eat brown rice for a reason.
Hi Sarah,
This is a great post. We NEVER eat brown rice. It’s almost always rancid. My MIL, who is Chinese, also advised me against brown rice. She is the one who told me it is rancid. The only time she recommends it is when you are sick. Make a porridge with it and eat it. It will strip the sickness out of you. But it should not be eaten otherwise as it also strips all the good things out of your body as well…vitamins, minerals, etc.
Love,
Mary
Finally! I’m so excited to learn that there is real research that backs me up… I’m a real-food person who loathes the heaviness and taste of brown rice. It has always been organic, white basmati or jasmine rice in our home. I feel like I”ve just come ‘out of the closet…or um pantry’!
Phytic acid is a combination of phosphours compounds found in large amounts in whole grains, beans and peas which can negatively affect the absorption of minerals in the body. I am not sure if you include these food groups as well in the phytic acid theory. I think the real concern is in the processing of any food and how that processing destroys or breaks down any essential nutrients and also the preservatives or additives. I would have to disagree that white rice is better than brown from a nutritional standpoint. If this is based on taste over nutrients perhaps in some opinions, but not so sure if you are basing on nutritional fact. The bulk of rice eating in the world is polished. Unfortunately, polishing removes a large proportion of many minerals and vitamins, especially the B vitamins. Only about 60% of the riboflavin remains in the polished rice, one -third of the niacin and less than one half of the pyridoxine. I suppose it’s a matter of what you want to get out of your food.
Do you have any studies showing that grains are unhealthy? And show it to be a link to colon cancer? Evidence that dietary fiber reduces colorectal cancer is mixed. Im just trying to understand this better.So unless they are sprouted or soaked grains shouldnt be consumed? Ive read a lot on phytic acid & dont find it to be an issue for EVERY BODY. Im not for the paleo diet its all based on theory.I like the basis of it but not the whole grains arent meant to be eaten.In the book “Healthy at 100” for John Robbins describing the eating habbits of several communities in the past century around the world with the longest living healthy documented records ( In Peru,In Caucasus , In Japan ….) He describes Whole grain as one of the daily main foods with almost zero incidence of autoimmune,cardiac disease, diabetes or cancer and almost all of those long living people are astute at their later years with good vision and healthy teeth . Now if Whole grain itself is the problem, those people will not be so healthy. I eat sprouted bread on occasion, but half to say its like eating cardboard! Not sure how u can say that her colon cancer was caused by grains.Maybe it was hereditary we just dont know. I think its refined grains,junk food, processed foods like lunch meats,nitrates, and chemicals that are in our food today that are causing theys health problems, not healthy 100% whole organic grains. Like i said i follow wapf we eat whole fat butter,milk,cream ect…organic meats but i just havent seen enough proof that soaking grains before eating is really going to make a difference for me.
I find I do best with whole grains(whether flour as with wheat, or whole brown rice), generally, as long as they’re not rancid. My body indicates by response. White starches I find are best eaten with substantial ‘other foods/ingredients’.
I follow Weston A Price.Besides the soaking of the grains.I wanted to show u this by Sue Becker and get your thoughts on it. Their is benefits to phytic acid.
I saw this by Sue Becker a number of years ago. This article has many flaws and I might add that Sue Becker herself has suffered from colon cancer in recent years … one risk of eating too many improperly prepared grains for a long period of time. Perhaps phytic acid can have a short term benefit as Sue points out .. but eating it day in and day out for years is a terrible and constant irritation to the colon with many risks for colon disease of all kinds. In addition, there are other reasons for preparing grains traditionally .. phytic acid is but one reason.
Hello-
I am new to this post, even though I realize its very old. I have a question: if this is true of brown rice, why isn’t it also true with other grains such as wheat? Wouldn’t that same reasoning make white flour better than wheat?
Thanks so much for posting on this!!
Please read my post on “Whole Grains Cause Cavities?” which explores this and why sifting flour to remove a portion of the bran is a good idea.
https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/2010/11/whole-grains-cause-cavities/
Is the bran not good for anything? Just throw it away?
This subject really interests me. My grandfather lived to be 103 years old. He cooked white rice (steamed) every day of his life and ate it at least once a day, he loaded his bowl with white rice, lots of butter and milk. That is how we children ate it too. So yummy!!!
On a forum, I stated the following…
“I believe that white rice is naturally grown as white rice in SE Asia. They don’t remove anything from it. I could be wrong, but all they do (when I have seen it in SE Asia) is pick the mature rice stalks and hit it hard to separate the rice “kernals” from the stalk. And then it’s rice white. They also grow red rice there, but I believe it is done the same way. I could be mistaken though. ”
And this in the response that I received…
“But wouldn’t this mean that white rice has the same anti-nutrients in it as brown rice? Same for white wheat flour. The fact that it’s white doesn’t reduce the phytic acid. So it would have to be treated like brown rice anyway? ”
Please give feedback on this, as my husband is Indonesian and eats white rice everyday.