You Should Eat More Brown Rice, Here's Why

Rice has always been a staple of the Filipino diet, with over a hundred million Filipinos eating a healthy serving of rice during every meal. Try to imagine eating Kare-Kare, Sisig, Bulalo, and other Filipino favorites minus the rice. Pretty hard to imagine, right?

We Filipinos normally consume white rice rather than it's less processed counterpart, but I'm here to convince you why you should consider eating rice that's more brown than white. 

1. Brown Rice Helps with Weight Loss

Brown rice is the 'unrefined' or 'less processed' version of white rice since the bran, or the outer coating, is left intact. If you take that away, then the result would yield white rice. Being 'unrefined' already gives brown rice a lot of advantages over white rice, one of which is that it contains more fiber than white rice, which means that it makes you feel more full and is digested more slowly. 

This translates to less portions, and keeps you feeling full longer which can help you lose weight. 

2. Rich in Nutrients

A serving of brown rice is loaded with more nutrients than white rice. 

Here's a quote from The World's Healthiest Foods: 

The complete milling and polishing that converts brown rice into white rice destroys 67% of the vitamin B3, 80% of the vitamin B1, 90% of the vitamin B6, half of the manganese, half of the phosphorus, 60% of the iron, and all of the dietary fiber and essential fatty acids.

A serving of brown rice also has more calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc, and protein when compared to white rice. It's also very rich in selenium and manganese. Selenium helps prevent diseases such as cancer and heart disease while manganese helps the body synthesize fats. 

If combined with the first point, you get more nutrients with less calories, and for me that's a win-win scenario. 

3. Rich in Antioxidants 

While antioxidants are usually associated with berries and tea, brown rice is also secretly rich in antioxidants that help keep your cholesterol, stress, and depression levels in check! Now, I'm not going to go in detail on the antioxidants that brown rice contains because it's going to get more scientific. If you want, you can read more about it here.  

I also think the 'nutty' flavor of brown rice is a lot better than white rice. So, that's already a good enough reason to eat lots of it! 

PS: A lot of people has been asking me where I get my brown rice. I actually get the Vita-Rice brand from SM Hypermarket. It's very tasty and it's great that you don't have to clean it as much (I only wash them once or twice). I used to get the Harvester's brand, but it was less flavorful and it was more difficult to clean. So, it was an easy switch. 

How about you, do you eat brown or white rice? Let me know in the comments below! 

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Cheers, 
Chef Jay