Who can resist a rice fresh from the stove, well seasoned and smoking? As common as rice is a simple everyday dish, it is still hard not to put a few spoonfuls of this food on the plate.
Rice is practically sacred on the tables of Brazilian families, and a meal in which it is not present seems incomplete. As you might imagine, white rice is the most common variety, but it's not the only one.
In fact, you may have heard that white rice does not offer as many health benefits as other types of rice, and this is no lie.
If you can't resist good rice on your plate, it's important to know the differences between the main types to make the best decision based on what you're looking for in your diet. Let's check it out.
White rice
White, tasty, soft and quick to cook, white rice is the true king among the varieties of this grain, which still has a longer shelf life than other types.
Also read: 10 Healthy Foods That Make You Satisfied
Also known as polished rice, this variety goes through an extensive beneficiation process whereby the outer layers of the whole grain known as the pericarp, integument, aleurone layer and embryo are removed.
The purpose of this polishing is precisely to improve the taste, appearance and texture of the grain, making it more delicate and more pleasant to the taste of Brazilians, in order to meet market demand.
The problem is that white rice, while delicious, is very high in carbohydrates and poor in nutrients like vitamins and minerals, as they are lost during the polishing process. As a result, it offers many calories and few nutritional properties.
Just in case, 100 grams of cooked white rice offers 130 calories, but only 1.2 mg of iron (8% of daily needs) and few vitamins, although it provides 1.5 mg of vitamin B3 (9.2%). , 0.2 mg vitamin B1 (14.8%) and less than 0.1 mg vitamin B11 (14.5%).
Two highlights of white rice go to selenium and manganese: 100 grams provides 0.1 mg of selenium (25% of daily requirements) and 0.5 mg of manganese (23.6%).
Read also: Brown Rice: 5 Reasons to Include It in the Diet
Parboiled Rice
Is parboiled rice a pre-cooked rice? including the word? parboiled? comes from the English phrase "partial boiled", which means "partially boiled". This means that before polishing, the grains boil so that some of the nutrients from the husk (which would otherwise be lost) are transferred to the inner layer.
This way, the parboiled rice grains are more yellowish in color, and they are considered a healthier alternative to white rice, which ends up losing all these nutrients.
During parboiling, the beans go through three steps. The first is soaking, when the grain, still with the husk, is soaked in hot water for a few hours. This step allows some of the vitamins and minerals in the shell to be absorbed into the grain.
The second step is gelatinization, when still moist rice is placed in an environment with high pressure and steam. In this process, vitamins and minerals are fixed in the grains. Then the rice goes through a drying step so that it can be peeled and polished afterwards, just as with white rice.
For comparison, 100 grams of this type of rice offers 123 calories, which is not unlike white rice. However, in terms of nutrition, parboiled rice is much more interesting because it offers 0.2 mg of vitamin B1 (19.3% of daily requirements) and 0.1 mg of vitamin B11 (20.3%)? White rice provides some of these vitamins as well, but the amounts represent less than 15% of the daily requirement.
Read also: 25 oven rice recipes for you to try
For vitamin B3, parboiled rice provides 2.3 mg, corresponding to 14.4% of daily requirements, while white provides only 1.5 mg (9.2%). It is also worth mentioning the vitamin B6 content of 0.2 mg, which corresponds to 11.1% of the needs.
Iron content, in turn, is 1.8 mg, equivalent to 12.1% of daily requirements. The amount of selenium supplied by parboiled rice is even higher than in white rice (31% of requirements), but manganese is slightly reduced: 100 grams gives 0.4 mg of this mineral (17.7%).
Parboiled rice is an intermediate type between white rice and brown rice and can be a good option for those who are not used to brown at all. Cooking requires a little more water, but it takes less oil and takes a few minutes less.
Brown Rice
Because it is the most nutrient-rich rice variety and offers the most benefits to the body, brown rice is the darling of nutrition professionals. It does not go through the polishing process and thus can keep all its vitamins and minerals.
Brown rice consists of the grain in its natural form, only undergoing a husking step. Therefore, it is a good source of B vitamins, proteins and minerals such as phosphorus, iron and potassium.
Read also: Types of Rice to Vary Your Diet
Also, like other whole grains, this type of rice is high in fiber, so it helps regulate bowel function and control blood sugar and cholesterol levels.
Also, because it contains complex carbohydrates that take longer to digest, brown rice is more efficient in giving satiety and does not form glycemic peak, the main responsible for that absurd form shortly after meals and also the accumulation of fat. in the abdominal region.
Brown rice is slightly less caloric than white and parboiled rice, offering 112 calories per 100 grams. This same amount also provides 45.3% of the daily requirements for manganese (0.9 mg) and 32.7% for selenium (less than 0.1 mg). Copper (10% of daily requirements), magnesium (14.3%), phosphorus (12%) and zinc (9%) also stand out in brown rice.
Tips for Preparing Brown Rice
One of the disadvantages of brown rice that turns many people away from this food is that it is a little more complex at the time of preparation, but just follow some tips to facilitate the process.
The first step is to use more water than you would use to cook white rice: add 2 ½ cups of water to each cup of whole grains. The second tip is to be prepared to wait longer for cooking, which lasts from 30 to 40 minutes.
If you are not used to eating brown rice, it may be a good idea to replace it first with parboiled rice, which is more akin to white, and then move on to brown rice. You can also mix the varieties in the beginning as long as you cook them separately so that all the beans are in the right spot.
If you just can't eat brown rice, at least try to replace white rice with parboiled rice, which gets in the way and offers more health benefits.
ALL ABOUT RICE: Parboiled vs Brown vs White (April 2024)
- food
- 1,230
