OT: Rice Wars

Hey,

This is fascinating. Just look at all those nasty fats we get from brown rice -- between three and four times as much as from white rice. And five times as much sodium. Wow. You get some nice benefit in the mineral and metal department, but not across the board. Thanks, Crymad. I'm off to share this information with those who would have me eat this chewy muck. (For chewing practice, I can eat raw carrots and apples, which I actually like.)

Michael I'm drinking Drunken Concubine and listening to Janet Baker sing Schubert.

snipped-for-privacy@xprt.net/20/04 22: snipped-for-privacy@xprt.net

All I know is stay away from refined and bleached rice which automatically eliminates Uncle Ben. The Asian markets have the bags which looks like they came directly from the rice patties side by side with the rice cookers so it doesn't turn out as porridge. I grew up on red beans and rice usually with rice pudding as desert. Making good rice is like making good fudge.

Jim

snipped with a weed wacker

Michael Plant, crymad:

Hey - those are GOOD fats.

Think of it as the textural equivalent of a single-tree Phoenix oolong as compared with the insipid shallowness of stale Twinings that white-rice mastication offers. Is it OK to discuss mastication here?

I live on brown rice, mostly, but that's because I like it. It's that chewy, mucky texture - actually, it's mostly the rich flavor. I usually blend two or three rices, often a basmati or other aromatic rice with some mochi or short-grain to make it chopstickable and add sweetness. Most US "brown" rice is really white rice that's slightly less polsihed: looks brownish, but all the good stuff's gone - that nutrient chart wouldn't apply. I recommend Lundberg if it's available there.

Real brown rice is pretty chewy, as Michael says, especially if incorrectly prepared - which is common. (Following package directions for amount of water and cooking time makes a product I wouldn't eat.) It's far more nutritious, too. But for most first-worlders other than vegans, that's irrelevant. Like the alleged health benefits of tea: who cares, if it tastes good? It's a tiny factor compared with eating MacPoison, smoking cheap cigars, or conceiving that commercial chocolate deserved the heavenly appellation Theobroma.

-DM

Be careful about the comparison when the facts might not be entirely accurate. Especially when the fats listed aren't that nasty.

There are no such beasts as "Monosaturated" and "polysaturated" fats, except in typographic errors (and there are, actually, a lot of them on the web). There are saturated fats, mono-UN-saturated fats, and poly-UN-saturated fats.

(BTW: The software referenced actually lets you list "monounsaturated" and "polyunsaturated" fatty acids - at least in the most recent demo version).

MonoUNsaturated fat lowers LDL and raises HDL It comes from olives, nuts, and avocados.

PolyUNsaturated fat Lowers LDL and raises HDL. It comes from corn, soybeans, some vegetable oils and fish.

Now, Saturated fats raise both LDL and HDL, so it's a mixed bag if you're eating a lot of red meat and dairy.

In case you've forgotten, low-density lipoproteins (LDL) carry cholesterol from the liver to the rest of the body. High-density lipoproteins (HDL) carry cholesterol from the blood back to the liver, which processes the cholesterol for elimination from the body.

So take another look at the comparison and notice that while brown rice gives the consumer 2.25 times as much saturated (bad) fat, it also gives the consumer 3.67 times as much monounsaturated fat and 4 times as much polyunsaturated fat.

Much better than the reverse, I'm sure.

/Lew

Looks as if the white stuff in this comparison was doped with folate, which raises questions about the other nutrients as well.

/Lew

Perhaps it is the "enriched" variety.

Reminds me of a favorite Dorothy Parker retort. When asked why she hadn't attended a production of one of her own works: Because I'm too f****** busy - and vice versa.

do tell, dog.....how best does one prepare it?

wizard of ahhs/

Obviously a matter of taste, and I wouldn't presume to arbitrate same. I guess I'm saying that something as versatile as rice can be made to suit almost any taste, so "correctly" means "as you best like it." For white-rice eaters, that could mean using at least 50% more water than is usually recommended, and to "overcook" it slightly - both to soften the rice and make it slightly more self-adhesive.

Here's what I do: wash the rice, place in a cooker with water, and heat just to simmer. Then turn off, and wait an hour or more for the water to be absorbed and distributed. Then add more water and cook. What's happening is that the rice is then fully hydrated before cooking, which I think makes a much better product with distinct, soft grains and little surface breakdown.

This is not actually entirely OT, as the detailed solution mechanics of tea brewing, especially for the first few steeps of gong-fu, have several processes in common.

-DM

"But how can you trust one who trifurcates bananas?"

Just realized this topic was even here. It appears I have initiated some controversy in that earlier thread.

I'm just in some ways an unreconstructed hippie with food preferences formed in the 70s, and I absorbed the food propaganda too. The cooking was too heavy and bland, but it seems like most of the propaganda turned out to be right. I've since abandoned meat, and dairy is very much an occasional thing.

I like brown rice and whole grains, but I do eat the white stuff when that's all the restaurant offers.

I do think the chart reflects the properties of enriched rice.

Joe

Ah, so we can blame you for all of this, right? ;)

Healthful eating has never gone away. Bleached and processed flours aren't as good as whole grain flour. That's why General Mill's recently announced that they are going to us whole grains in *ALL* of their breakfast cerials.

I discovered brown rice in college. I never make the white stuff at home anymore.

't would make sense.

Does everything we eat have to be bursting with flavor? The reason white rice works so well with Asian food is that serves as a foil for the more strongly flavored main dishes that accompany it. We all know people who eat fried rice with their Chinese meal, or who pour soy on white rice because it "has no taste". Show some refinement -- eat plain white rice.

"Insipid shallowness"? I once saw a Japanese TV show that sent a famous chef into the wilds of Africa to cook for one of those isolated tribes whose menfolk wear the legendary long "penis sheaths". He cooked up a pot of plain white rice and gave a taste to the village chief. This old guy actually broke down in tears, blubbering that he had never tasted anything so beautiful and delicious.

Only in the context of penis sheaths.

I'd be eager to see the nutritional analysis of some fine Lundberg, or anything comparable. Then we can see if healthfulness of brown rice is just pure myth. Any numbers, anyone?

--crymad

From the Lundberg website:

Long Grain Brown Rice, 1/2 cup (98g) serving

Calories: 340 From fat: 28 Total Fat: 3 g (6% daily value) Saturated: 0 g Trans fat: 0 g Cholesterol: 0 mg Sodium: 0 mg Total Carbs: 76 g (26% daily value) Dietary Fiber: 6 g (26% daily value) Sugars: 0 g Protein: 8 g Vitamin A: 0% Vitamin C: 0% Calcium: 0% Iron: 4% daily value.

Here's a website that compares different types of rice. The Lundberg facts seem to be comparable to the brown rice listed.

White rice isn't bad for you, brown rice simply has more of what's good for you.

Thanks for the link. Looking at the phosphorus and potassium numbers, it appears they are analyzing the nutrition of _raw_ rice. Check out the differences between raw and cooked brown rice at the site I mentioned earlier, and you'll see that phosphorus, magnesium, and potassium drop to about one-fourth in cooked:

And what is this, exactly? Fiber, I'll grant you. But everything else looks like just quibbling over trace nothings.

--crymad

Did anyone actually say brown rice is a nutritional powerhouse?

It's better for you than white rice, but it's no "cure all."

Well, the unsaturated fats (which are comparable in quantity to oatmeal) are good for lowering cholesterol.

Since minerals like that are non-volatile, cannot be decomposed and are unlikely to be irreversibly chelated, and assuming that the rice isn't boiled and drained, they must be comparing equal weights of raw and cooked rice w/o compensating for water.

-DM