Brown Rice vs. White Rice

So someone was making a joke the other day about a Mexican restaurant that specializes in extra large burritos offering the choice between brown or white rice - "WOW! Those 15 calories I'll save by choosing the brown rice will really make a difference in losing weight!! Ha ha ha ha..." (BTW, he was wrong about the calorie difference - just saying :-D )

The truth is that the difference in calories is negligible in these choices - brown or white.  What IS important is another couple of things (I think they're more important than the actual calories): Glycemic Load and Nutrient Density!  


Some definitions first:
1) Glycemic load (in conjunction with the glycemic index) is basically the effect of the carbohydrate on blood glucose or blood sugar (how fast and how much it gets raised) and has been used for a number of years to help diabetics control their blood sugar.  The higher the number, the higher the effect=spike in blood glucose which would trigger insulin release, etc.  The best idea is to maintain a fairly leveled blood glucose amount to prevent problems.  Anything higher than say 20 is considered HIGH and anything with a 10 or less is considered LOW.

2) Nutrient density is pretty self-explanatory but just in case... it's the most nutrients you can get for the least amount of calories.  Comparing a Hershey chocolate bar to an apple - the apple is more nutrient dense because it has more vitamins and fiber than the Hershey bar per calorie.

Now back to the brown rice vs. white rice...

In case you don't know, it's all rice, right?  The difference is the brown rice still has its bran and germ (the nutritious and fibrous parts).  The white rice has been processed and the bran & germ has been removed to make it faster to cook.  Yeah, that's the thing - it's faster to cook, meaning it's also faster to digest and you'll be hungry sooner.

A side by side comparison shows us the following (per the USDA Nutrition website):
1 cup of brown rice = 218 kCalories; 4.52g of protein; 3.5g of fiber; 20mg Calcium; 1.03mg Iron
1 cup of white rice =   169 kCalories; 3.51g of protein; 1.7g of fiber;   3mg Calcium;  .24mg Iron
        White rice has 49 kCalories less than brown rice but look at how much less of the nutrients too!

And what's the glycemic load on them? According to the "Death to Diabetes" website:

1 cup white rice (boiled): Glycemic index of 64, with a glycemic load of 23

1 cup Brown rice (boiled): Glycemic index of 55, with a glycemic load of 18

So, while calories (intake and usage) are important, it's also important to not overlook the nutrients and the effect certain things might have on our bodies' glucose levels.  Too many glucose blood level spikes aren't good, so choose smarter.

(For more information on white rice vs. brown rice, read the article on Livestrong.com!)



All information on this blog is my own pursuit of information on the road to getting my BS in Nutrition Science and as a mode of studying. 

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