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Rice

– Rice has been an important human dietary staple for over 10,000 years. Today, it encompasses about 20% of the world’s caloric intake, with over 3.5 billion people relying on it every day.

While there are many rice varieties, we can focus on two categories: white and brown rice. Just as with other grains, brown rice is the whole food which includes its bran and germ, while white rice has those removed leaving only the endosperm and losing most of rice’s natural nutrients.

Brown rice is particularly rich in manganese, with one cup giving us close to 120% of our Daily Value. It’s also rich in other nutrients like niacin or vitamin b3, pantothenic acid or vitamin b5, copper, magnesium, phosphorus, selenium, and zinc. Most of the white rice we find in the store is enriched, but it still falls behind in nutritional content, except for thiamin and folate, which has been added in the form of folic acid.

Today, there is a lot of debate on whether brown rice is better for us than white rice, or not. While brown rice is the whole grain and should in theory be better for us, it also has a high amount of arsenic which is classified as a category one carcinogenic. This is because rice absorbs arsenic from soil and water. Some of this arsenic is organic, it would be in the soil and water naturally. But, a lot of this arsenic is derived from extensive use of pesticides in our crops. Even organic rice is grown in the same ground where pesticides were used at some point, so the soil still has arsenic residues.

On the other hand, white rice has less arsenic because most of the arsenic absorbed in rice is concentrated in the bran and germ. However, white rice is mostly sold enriched with nutrients that include folic acid, the synthetic form of folate that may also be linked to the growth of cancer cells. This is why the recommendation is to eat natural sources of folate or to take folate derived supplements, instead of folic acid. Learn more.

So, should we avoid rice altogether? Not at all, we can still eat white or brown rice occasionally. When buying brown rice, buy rice grown in California or in Asia, since these have the lowest arsenic content. Always rinse and pre-soak your rice to remove some of its arsenic, and when cooking it, double the amount of water that you normally use. If we add 2 cups of water to 1 cup of rice, approx, all the arsenic released into the water while cooking will get reabsorbed. If we use 4+ cups of water instead, then the arsenic released will mostly remain in the water, which you can dispose of. 

If you eat rice regularly, consider replacing it with other great foods like quinoa, millet, and farro to reduce your rice intake.

Nutrition Calculator: Rice

Use our personalized nutrition calculator to discover the percentage of daily nutrition needs you and your family can get from eating brown or white rice.

Nutrition needs vary according to age, sex, and whether women of reproductive age are pregnant or breastfeeding. Fill out the form below for yourself and for your family members to get personalized results.*

* Calculated as a percentage of the Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs) as established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Based on nutritional information provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as an average of multiple cooked rice samples.

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