The Best Type of Rice to Promote Heart Health
Rice is frequently consumed in combination with other foods, such as vegetables, beans, and meat. It is a low cost food, so it allows you to stretch your food budget.
There are many varieties of rice, many of which you are probably not familiar with, such as Arborio, black, red, jasmine, basmati, and then the more common wild, brown, and white.
All rice provides a variety of nutrients, including carbohydrates and protein. Plus, rice is gluten free. A one cup serving of wild rice even contains 156 mg of omega 3 fatty acids to help promote heart health and lower cholesterol.
The two most common include white rice and brown rice, so let’s by compare these two options.
White Rice vs. Brown Rice
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Which is better for your health? Wild, Brown, or White Rice?
There are several different varieties of rice. Most people were raised eating white rice and continue to do so. However, the different types of rice provide different nutritional benefits. Let’s look specifically at white rice, brown rice, and wild rice.
White Rice
White rice has been milled so that the husk, bran, and germ are removed leaving you with a refined product. During this process, the rice is polished giving it the bright, white, shiny appearance we expect.
By removing these layers the flavor, texture, and appearance of the rice is changed and the shelf life is extended as it is now less likely to spoil.
Nutrients are removed during the processing, such as the B vitamin thiamine. Due to this depletion of nutrients, white rice is usually enriched. This means some the nutrients removed during processing are added back in, such as thiamine, niacin, and iron.
Brown Rice
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Brown rice – New whole grain health claim.
I’ve always recommended clients make a switch from white rice to brown rice as a way to boost dietary fiber intake. A diet high in dietary fiber (ideally 25-35 grams/day) is linked with reduced heart disease risk by lowering LDL and total cholesterol levels.
The FDA just approved a new ruling that will allow brown rice to use a health claim on its label. So, when you’re shopping for groceries, be on the look out for the new whole-grain logo added to the brown rice packaging and don’t forget to reach for the brown rice over the white! A 1/2 cup of cooked brown rice contains two grams of fiber.
Brown rice takes extra time to prepare (~45 minutes). I checked out the nutrition label on brown “minute” rice recently and it’s another option, still providing 2 grams of dietary fiber per 1/2 cup serving. Best of all, only takes ~10 minutes to prepare. Haven’t tried it yet, so can’t vouch for its flavor, but I have added it to my shopping list.
All the best,
Lisa Nelson, RD, LN
The Heart of Health
