White Rice
A subscriber recently commented asking what my opinion is on white rice in regards to my healthy carb heirchy system. They mentioned Asian countries as an example of why white rice can be considered a healthy carb.
So overall my opinion is:
White Rice is extremely easy to digest and well tolerated by most people due to the hard to digest parts of the plant being removed. The refining process also removes almost all of its anti nutrient content so soaking is no longer necessary, compared to its whole grain counterpart brown rice which should always be soaked for 24 hour or more before cooking.
Along with the removal of the harmful compounds, the refining process also removes almost all of the grains nutrition except for tiny trace amounts. The government now requires conventional white rice to be fortified with b vitamins and iron to prevent deficiencies that eating large amounts of unfortified refined grains commonly cause. This fortification process while necessary to prevent deficiencies in malnourished individuals, also creates an entirely new set of problems. In particular, the fortification of supplemental iron in foods puts all consumers at extreme risk for iron overload. A very common issues with fortified foods that is almost always overlooked by doctors, due to complete lack of nutritional understanding or awareness. Iron overload can cause permanent damage to the heart, and all organs, and can cause symptoms rapidly in a dose dependant fashion depending on the frequency, volume and duration of fortified food consumption. However to my knowledge, white jasmine rice is not fortified with iron. As a side note, jasmine rice from Thailand is much lower in arsenic than American grown white rice, and hence is a better choice.
So white rice is devoid of nutrition, easy to digest and well tolerated. The carbohydrates in white rice are entirely used by the body to create glucose and refill glycogen. Essentially, white rice is simply a pure source of glucose. Very close to consuming dextrose powder, only difference being it requires chewing, a bit more digestive work and contains a small amount of incomplete protein and 1g of fiber per 36g of carbohydrates.
Since carbohydrates in general are not even an essential nutrient and consuming them in the diet are not at all essential for survival or health, consuming even nutrient dense carbohydrates are not necessary. Which means, any carbs you are eating to serve any benefit at all, should be as nutrient dense as possible. Otherwise it makes zero sense to eat them if your goal is to be healthy.
For the average person wanting to be healthy, there is zero benefit to consuming white rice. For someone who desires fatloss, now white rice not only serves zero benefit but is actually serving a net negative as its just serving as a source of glucose with no nutrients. Someone just doing bodybuilding or weightlifting might benefit from 1 cup of cooked white rice 1 to 3 time per week, although factually gluconeogenesis can provide enough glycogen refill from conversion of fatty acids to fuel both hypertrophy and strength workouts.
If you really want to eat carbohydrates, jasmine white rice is a great easily digestable well tolerated source for athletes who do frequent high volume high intensity sport type training. If you're sedentary or only do bodybuilding or powerlifting, the more nutrient dense carb sources are the healthy option and white rice is likely not contributing any benefit what so ever.
--a note on healthy Asian populations who eat white rice as a staple. Generally the healthiest Asian cultures who eat white rice are either in poverty regions of Asia and dont suffer from diabetes or obesity due to caloric restriction as a direct result of poverty, or these people live in populations such as Japan who also have very high consumption of whole foods of both plant and animal sources. These populations tend to eat fish including raw fish, organ meats, fermented soy products and a wide variety of healthy whole foods as the biggest percentage of their diet. White rice is a very small side dish on the side of mostly whole foods in these people and some of these cultures such as Japanese people actually have portion control embedded in their eating rituals.
It is also true that green and black tea have powerful blood sugar lowering compounds which ive actually found to cause low blood sugar for myself, which may also play a role in negating the effects of the white rice. These populations also tend to live in areas where walking is the main means of transportation further lowering glycemic negatives of carbohydrates. The vending machines and gas stations also tend to sell healthier whole food choices mostly, such as fish and natto, green tea and other healthy whole foods that wpuld be replaced by sugary sodas and candy bars in western convenience stores.
Furthermore, these populations have seen a sharp increase in diabetes and obesity over the last 20 years as fast foods and western culture has slowly been making its way across Asia. Creating the same problems of excess refined foods and high caloric low nutrient intake as seen in western populations.
My belief is that the overall diet and lifestyle of the healthy Asian populations negate the effects of the white rice.
So in conclusion, I do not consider white rice a healthy or nourishing food. It should be seen as a quick easy digested source of glucose that does not contain the same compounds that contribute to auto immune or digestive problems that whole grains do. And unless you're an athlete, you have no reason to eat it for health purposes and should stick to more nourishing carb sources such as tier 1 and 2 fruits and tubers. As they provide an abundance of vitamins and minerals that many are deficient in and are well tolerated as well. If you do choose to eat white rice see it as a pleasure full food that you enjoy but do not fool yourself into believing its serving any nourishing purpose other than contributing towards energy requirements or fat gain.
Thank you for reading, I appreciate your focus
-Wolfgang Lizana
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