Is red rice nutritionally better than brown rice?

I made red rice tonight in my rice cooker. It's so good! Nutty, not at all sticky, with a good bite to it. Served it alongside Helen's Spicy Shrimp, in which I put way too much sriracha, so the rice was a nice buffer for the heat. That, a dollop of creme fraiche, and a big glass of milk! The shrimp were great, by the way, but next time I make them, I won't be so....eager with the sriracha.

So, is red rice healthier than brown rice??

mrslarkin
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3 Comments

susan G.
susan G. April 8, 2011
The original work that led to the discovery of some of the B vitamins started with the the hypothesis that certain conditions, like pellegra, are caused by an absence of a nutritional element. It was a time when rice was passing from being milled at home or village, to a whiter rice coming from big mechanical mills -- late 1800's, early 1900's. Researchers fed white rice to chickens, which developed symptoms of pellegra; fed them rice bran and they recovered. The critical factor was isolated as Vitamin B2. These are fascinating stories, early research that developed information that we now take for granted -- and it demonstrated that whole grains provide valuable nutrition missing in their processed white derivatives. So, to your question, I would say that overall, any whole rice of any color would have so much to contribute that the differences are small. Eating widely among the grains is probably the best plan -- and as our recent grain/bean/seed exercise showed, rewardingly delicious.
 
healthierkitchen
healthierkitchen April 8, 2011
maybe one of our dietician food52ers could weigh in?
 
healthierkitchen
healthierkitchen April 8, 2011
I really like red rice, too! I was curious so did a survey of the very many different, half used rice packages I have in my pantry and they were all over the place. The main difference from white rices seems to be that whole rices have fiber, but my different brown rices did not have the same amount of fiber. So some were the same as the red and some were more. All in all, I think any of the whole grain brown, red or black rices are healthier than white and the difference between them is not significant. That is not to say that there isn't a time and place for some nice white jasmine or basmati rice...
 
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