Rice Is Nice...for Your Waistline and It’s Cholesterol-Free

Rice is the world’s third-most-produced cereal crop following corn and wheat, and with all its health benefits, there is little doubt why rice consumption is growing rapidly in the US.

And like broccoli, another healthy food, about 90 percent of the rice we consume is homegrown.

The latest Rice Outlook report puts worldwide consumption at more than 527 million tons a year. Here at home, the USA Rice Foundation says the average American diner will consume about 25 pounds this year, perhaps 90 percent of it grown in the US, mostly in the leading rice-producing states of California and Florida.

Rice is nice. It’s cholesterol-free, low in fat and sodium, with moderate amounts of dietary fiber plus proteins, carbs, iron, and plenty of the B vitamins folate, thiamine, riboflavin, and niacin. True, rice’s proteins are incomplete, high in tryptophan, methionine, and cystine—three of the building blocks for amino acids—and limited in two others, lysine and isoleucine. Luckily, legumes, i.e. beans, are the opposite, so combining rice with beans as in the Italian risi e bisi or your own choice dish, makes a yummy protein-rich serving popular in warm places because so little cooking is required.

Rice is also just swell—literally. Its carbs are packed into starch granules that absorb water when the grain is cooked. As the heat rises, the carbs unfold and form new bonds between their atoms, creating a network that traps water molecules to enlarge and soften the rice.

Brown rice, a star in veggie cooking, gets its color and nutty flavor from the germ (the fatty inner part of the seed) and the nutrient-rich hull, i.e. the bran, a food worthy of respect in its own right. Many years ago, USDA ran a study showing that feeding rice bran to hamsters reduced their cholesterol level as effectively as oat bran.

White rice, on the other hand, is milled grain without the hull and germ. It has virtually no flavor of its own and nutritionally speaking is a pale imitation of the real thing. But not to worry. Most white rice, like most white breads, is fortified with B vitamins and minerals. What is called wild rice, which has more protein and dietary fiber than either brown or white rice, isn’t rice at all. It’s the seed of a native American grass plant.

Perhaps the most vexing kitchen rice question is whether to wash the rice before cooking. The answer is yes for wild rice and rice bought in bulk, no for pre-packed white rice. Washing the wild and bulk rice flushes away dirt and debris (i.e. bugs), but washing white rice dissolves the starch and nutrients on the surface. Brown rice, protected by its bran, is waterproof. Wash if you must, but the water won’t affect either starches or nutrients.