Brown Rice and Bran

This month an Article was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine that showed that people that eat brown rice are less likely to get diabetes than people who eat white rice.  So in theory diabetes can be prevented by eating brown rice.  One of the problems with these kinds of studies is that people don’t substitute one food for another.  Instead they tend to eat a lot of the food that has health benefits.  However that won’t work.  The study only looked at the benefits of switching from white rice to brown rice.  It didn’t look at what happened if you eat lots and lots of brown rice.  The study cites many other articles that show that a high carbohydrate intake is associated with more diabetes.  Brown rice despite its benefits is still a carbohydrate.  Better than white rice, but still a carbohydrate. You can’t eat lots and lots. Swap a 1/2 cup serving of white rice for brown rice to get the benefits.

What makes brown and white rice different?  Brown rice becomes white rice when the outer brown husk is removed.  In many cultures white rice is called “polished” rice, because that is what happens.  A traveling polisher once came to my Aunt’s house in the Philippines to polish her rice.   That was quite a sight, belts polishing the brown husks off, spitting brown chaff one way and white rice the other.  When the brown bits are removed, the rice is easier to cook and lasts longer.  However it also removes the fiber and many nutrients.  Scientists aren’t sure if the benefits from brown rice come from the fiber or the nutrients or both. 

Another study recently published looked at the benefits of bran.  Nurses that eat bran and that have diabetes reduce their risk of death by 28% and their risk of dying from heart disease by 35%.  Impressive results.   Bran basically is the outer husk of wheat.  Once again no one knows if it is the fiber or the nutrients that help people.  Clearly it works.  Brown rice seemed to reduce the risk of diabetes by 16%.  The study about bran did not address the question if bran reduces the risk of diabetes.

So yes once again, whole grains are better than highly refined grains.  Whole wheat flour is better than white flour.  Brown rice is better than white rice.  But the only food category that you can eat as much as you want is still vegetables.

Archives of Internal Medicine. Vol. 170 (No. 11), June 14, 2010 pp. 961-969

Circulation 2010 May 25 [doi:10.1161/circulationaha.109.907360]