Nutrition facts of White rice vs. Brown rice

Rice is a staple food for more than half of the world’s population. It is grown in more than 100 countries around the world with 90% of the total production from Asia.

White rice is consumed more widely across the world compared to the brown rice. These days consumption of brown rice is being recommended by some experts in the nutrition & medical field.

So, in this post & video let’s compare & analyse the nutrition facts of white rice with brown rice and find out whether brown rice is really superior in nutrition compared to the white rice.

Contents

Nutritional profile | Water | Carbohydrates | Fat & Protein | Vitamins & minerals | Conclusion |

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Prashanth Reddy Cheruku

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Nutritional profile of White rice vs. Brown rice

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Water

As you can see in the table the water content of both the white rice & brown rice is quite close. White rice has slightly more water content at 12.9% compared to the brown rice at 12.4%.

Carbohydrates

Like the other cereals such as wheat and corn, rice is also a carbohydrate rich food. Close to 80% of the total weight of the white rice is carbohydrate whereas the brown rice has slightly lesser amount at around 76%. Majority of this carbohydrate content is starch. This is one of the reasons why the white rice is not an ideal food for diabetics.

The dietary fibre content of the white rice was not mentioned in the USDA database. Typically, it is around 1%. Brown rice has 3.4% dietary fibre content. This is definitely much higher than white rice and the brown rice is a good source of fibre.

Thanks to its dietary fibre content and the low amount of total carbohydrate content the brown rice is more suitable for the people with diabetes and prediabetes.

Fat & Protein

There is a considerable amount of difference in the fat content of white rice & brown rice. White rice contains just 0.58% fat whereas brown rice contains 2.68% fat. That’s more than 4.5 times higher.

Even the protein content of brown rice is slightly higher when compared to the white rice. White rice contains 6.61% protein and brown rice contains 7.5% protein. The energy provided by both the brown & white rice varieties is almost the same.

Vitamins & minerals

Each & every mineral present in rice grains is higher in brown rice compared to the white rice.

For example, white rice provides 48% daily value of manganese per 100 g. whereas brown rice provides a whopping 163% of daily value. That’s 63% more than what you need in a day. Manganese plays a vital role as a cofactor for many enzymes.

Other minerals such as iron, phosphorus, copper, magnesium & zinc are all present in higher quantities in brown rice compared to the white rice. All these minerals are essential to humans and are responsible for many important functions in our body.

Now let’s look at the presence of vitamins in these rice varieties. Rice is a very poor source of vitamins and it just contains a few B vitamins.

In the same way as minerals even the vitamins such as B1, B3 and B6 are also present in higher quantities in brown rice compared to the white rice.

Brown rice contains antinutrients such as phytic acid. It reduces our body’s ability to absorb minerals such as zinc & iron. Soaking brown rice before cooking can help their absorption.

White rice vs. Brown rice

The major drawbacks of the brown rice are its colour, flavour, texture & shelf life.

For people who are habituated to eating white rice from their childhood it can be quite difficult to shift entirely to the brown rice.

In the picture you can see the colour of the cooked white and brown rice varieties. Over a period of time, you can get habituated to it relatively easily but the flavour of the brown rice is quite difficult to adjust to. The texture of the brown rice is also quite different and cooking the brown rice also takes more time.

One of the other drawbacks of brown rice is its shelf life. White rice can be safe to eat even up to 2 years if stored properly whereas brown rice has just 3-6 months shelf life.

Occasionally you can try to consume brown rice if you can accept its sensory properties. If you are completely fine you can totally replace white rice.

It is better to add legumes & pulses to the white/brown rice so that the overall nutrition improves dramatically.

Instead of relying on rice only diet if you can also consume other cereals such as corn, wheat, oats and barely your overall nutrition status will be much better. 

For example, white rice is a poor source of fibre. If you also consume oats or whole wheat flour-based products your chance of getting deficient in fibre reduces.

Consuming different types of food groups such as fruits, vegetables, cereals, nuts, legumes, eggs and even meat on a regular basis is the key to good health.

Conclusion

• Brown rice contains almost all the essential nutrients in higher quantities compared to the white rice.
• If you can accept the colour, flavour & texture of the brown rice you can definitely replace white rice with it. 
• It would be better if you soak brown rice before cooking to better absorb the nutrients.
• Though brown rice is better in its nutritional profile compared to the white rice, rice in general is not a perfect cereal. 
• It is always recommended to consume different types of foods so that we don’t miss out some vital nutrients that are naturally deficient in any one or two particular food groups that we consume daily.

I hope the information presented in this post & video is useful to you. Let us know if you have any questions.